Editor's note: Abhishek G Bhaya is a senior Indian journalist and international affairs commentator for CGTN. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

When the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation designated 2025 as its Year of Sustainable Development, it sent a clear signal: development, like security, had become central to the organization's vision for Eurasia.

A year later, as SCO leaders gather in Bishkek under the theme "25 Years of the SCO: Together for Sustainable Peace, Development, and Prosperity," the important question is how far that vision has moved from political consensus to practical action.

The answer is beginning to take shape. The 2025 Tianjin Summit moved the agenda beyond broad commitments by establishing new cooperation platforms for energy, green industry and the digital economy, alongside centers for scientific and technological innovation, higher education, and vocational and technical education. Six action plans for high-quality development were formulated, covering sustainable energy, green industries, the digital economy, artificial intelligence, technological innovation, and economic and trade cooperation, adding a more practical framework for cooperation.

The trajectory is clear: from consensus to mechanisms, and increasingly from mechanisms to implementation. This evolution reflects the SCO's broader transformation. What began as a regional organization focused primarily on security and stability is increasingly developing into a platform for economic cooperation, connectivity and shared development across Eurasia.

That shift matters because sustainable development means different things across the vast SCO space. For some members, it means accelerating the transition to clean energy; for others, it means industrialization, employment, digital connectivity, food and energy security, or access to technologies that can raise productivity. The SCO's strength lies precisely in these differences and in the potential complementarity between them.

Turning energy potential into development

Energy provides perhaps the clearest example. Eurasia possesses enormous energy resources, both conventional and renewable. Central Asia, in particular, has significant potential for solar and wind power, while its rapidly growing economies need reliable and affordable electricity.

China, meanwhile, has developed extensive capabilities across the renewable-energy value chain, from manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines to building power infrastructure. Connecting these strengths can create a virtuous cycle: Renewable-energy investment can strengthen energy security, support industrialization, create jobs and reduce emissions simultaneously.

The Tianjin Summit gave this cooperation an institutional foundation with the establishment of the China-SCO Energy Cooperation Platform, alongside a roadmap for implementing the "SCO Energy Cooperation Development Strategy until 2030," formally adopted at the 2024 SCO Summit in Astana.

There are already projects illustrating the potential. Chinese companies have participated in major renewable-energy developments in Central Asia, including solar and wind power plant projects in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Such projects demonstrate that the green transition need not be viewed simply as a cost of development. With the right combination of technology, investment and local resources, it can become a source of economic growth.

From green energy to green industry

The next step is ensuring that the benefits of the green transition extend beyond electricity generation. That means developing green industries, manufacturing capacity, supply chains and technological capabilities within SCO countries.

The China-SCO Green Industry Cooperation Platform announced at Tianjin is designed to facilitate such cooperation, connecting investment, technology, production and markets. The objective should not simply be to export green technologies into Eurasia, but to develop regional green value chains.

A solar farm can provide clean electricity. A broader industrial ecosystem can also create manufacturing jobs, develop technical skills, stimulate research and generate new businesses. Sustainable development becomes far more powerful when it is linked to industrial upgrading.

Digitalization as a development multiplier

The same principle applies to the digital economy. For many developing countries, digitalization offers an opportunity to leapfrog stages of traditional development. Digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, smart manufacturing and data-driven services can raise productivity while helping economies manage energy, water, transport and other resources more efficiently.

The SCO has therefore placed digital cooperation alongside energy and green industry rather than treating it as a separate technological agenda. The China-SCO Digital Economy Cooperation Platform reflects this approach, while the SCO is also advancing cooperation on artificial intelligence and technological innovation.

The potential multiplier effect is considerable. Renewable energy can support expanding digital infrastructure; digital technologies can make energy systems more efficient; and universities and vocational institutions can train the workforce required by both. This is where the SCO's new platforms and centers become mutually reinforcing rather than isolated initiatives.

Innovation and the human dimension

No sustainable development strategy can succeed without people. The creation of SCO cooperation centers for scientific and technological innovation, higher education, and vocational and technical education is therefore particularly important.

The green transition requires engineers, researchers, technicians, entrepreneurs and skilled workers. Technology cannot simply be transferred; countries need the capacity to adapt, improve and eventually develop it themselves.

This is an area where SCO members can learn from one another. China's experience in large-scale industrialization and renewable-energy deployment, India's strengths in information technology and digital services, Russia's scientific and technological capabilities and Central Asia's growing pool of young workers can complement one another. Rather than requiring a uniform development model, the SCO can build cooperation around these different strengths.

The fact that sustainable development remained a priority after China's SCO chairmanship is significant. At the SCO Green and Sustainable Development Forum in Ningbo in April 2026, member states continued discussions on green development and issued the Ningbo Initiative on Sustainable Development Cooperation among SCO Countries, underlining the importance of turning shared principles into practical cooperation.

This creates a clear trajectory: 2025 established the political commitment; Tianjin built mechanisms for cooperation; Ningbo carried the agenda forward; and Bishkek now has an opportunity to consolidate implementation.

The next stage should be measured not merely by the number of declarations adopted, but by projects launched, investments mobilized, technologies shared, workers trained and communities benefiting.

Eurasia is undergoing profound economic transformation. New industrial centers are emerging, supply chains are being reorganized, digital technologies are changing production and energy systems are being reshaped. Sustainable development can provide a common platform around which these transformations converge.

For China, it means expanding cooperation in green technology, digitalization and high-quality development. For Central Asia, it can accelerate industrialization while addressing pressing energy, water and environmental challenges. For India and other SCO members, it can open new opportunities for technology, innovation and trade.

The opportunity is therefore larger than building a greener economy. It is about building a more connected, technologically capable and resilient Eurasian economy. The SCO has demonstrated that its members can build consensus around sustainable development. The more consequential task now is to convert that consensus into an ecosystem of cooperation – linking energy with industry, digitalization with innovation, education with employment, and investment with sustainable growth.

If that transition from declarations to delivery gathers momentum, sustainable development could become one of the principal engines powering Eurasia's next phase of growth.

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