On 13 October 2021, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev officially presented the Doctrine for Carbon Neutrality of Kazakhstan by 2060 in a high-level event in Nur-Sultan, which also included speaking engagements from UNDP Regional Director for Europe and the CIS, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger and John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate in a video message. The development of this doctrine has been spearheaded by GIZ, with PAGE contributing in several important aspects, including emissions from waste and fiscal aspects of Low Carbon Development (LCD).
Kazakhstan’s long-term Doctrine of Carbon Neutral Development until 2060 sets a framework for a sustainable recovery, low-carbon development pathway, and energy sector transition. The Doctrine provides a set of key measures to reduce emissions and decarbonize the economy, such as the abandonment of new coal-fired generation projects and the phasing out of coal combustion (2021-2025), the implementation of a program to plant 2 billion trees (2025), a doubling of the share of renewable energy sources in electricity generation (2030), 100 percent sorting of municipal solid waste (2040), sustainable agriculture on 75 per cent of arable land (2045), 100 percent electrification of personal passenger transport (2045), the use of green hydrogen only and a complete refusal to use coal-fired production from 2050 onwards.
This doctrine stands as a crucial commitment for the country as globally, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions in recent years have reached the highest levels in the history of humanity, and the catastrophic impact of climate change is observed all over the planet. In 2019, greenhouse gas emissions in Kazakhstan amounted to 354 million tons of CO2 eq. and more than 80 percent of them were due to the combustion of fossil fuels – coal, oil, and natural gas. In relative terms, the country is also one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in Central Asia.
“Kazakhstan is consistent in its support to the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres’ call for achieving net-zero carbon dioxide emissions.”, President Tokayev stated.”