The Government session of the Council on the transition to a green economy chaired by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov was held. Considered the implementation of the President's instructions to preserve ecological balance and ensure sustainable socio-economic progress of the country. Reports of Akims of Almaty, East Kazakhstan and Karaganda regions on the implementation of the Action Plan to achieve indicators of green economy were heard.

Key environmental challenges were considered, including air pollution, waste management and measures to reduce negative impact on the environment. According to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, 15 cities in Kazakhstan have high levels of air pollution, with Almaty and Karaganda characterised as suffering from very high levels.

Experts were also invited to the dialogue: Bakhyt Esekina, Director of the Scientific and Educational Center Green Academy, Aigul Solovieva, Chairman of the Board of the Association of Environmental Organizations of Kazakhstan, and Vera Mustafina, Executive Director of the Kazakhstan Waste Management Association KazWaste.

Almaty Environmental Programme

Akim of Almaty Yerbolat Dosaev reported to the Prime Minister on the implementation of the Action Plan on transition to green economy. Among the priorities are reduction of air pollution, development of forest fund, efficient use of water resources and waste management, introduction of ESG-principles and issue of ‘green’ bonds.

According to specialists' calculations, the volume of gross emissions of harmful substances in Almaty agglomeration reaches 225.2 thousand tonnes, where the metropolis itself accounts for about 84%. The largest share of emissions in the city is taken by motor transport - 60% and industrial enterprises - 27%. Akim emphasised that Almaty has developed new Rules for the protection of atmospheric air, which will be submitted to Maslikhat in the first quarter of 2025. They will introduce strict regulation of mobile and stationary sources. In addition, work continues on the modernisation of the CHPP, as a result of which emissions of harmful substances will be reduced by 93% - from 37.3 thousand tonnes to 2.7 thousand tonnes. The heat source is expected to switch from coal to gas in 2026. Particular attention is paid to gasification of the private sector; as of today, 99.4% of houses have access to the relevant infrastructure.

In order to reduce the negative impact of motor transport on the air basin of Almaty, a ban on the purchase of public transport running on diesel fuel has been introduced since 2024. According to the results of work for 2024, the trolleybus fleet was renewed by 100%, modernisation of the bus fleet will continue in 2025. At the same time, as of 1 December 2024, Almaty has the largest number of electric vehicles in the country - 7,875 units or 58% of the total number.

Yerbolat Dosayev also reported on the work being done to fulfil the Head of State's instruction to revive Almaty's status as a garden city. According to the Roadmap for planting 2.5 million green spaces until 2030, 643 thousand trees and shrubs have been planted in the metropolis for the period of 2023-2024. At the same time, the new Rules for the protection and care of green spaces introduced a norm on the mandatory installation of irrigation systems. As a result, 500 kilometres of auto irrigation and drip irrigation networks have been installed over 2 years.

To ensure quality water supply in 2024, new sources with a total capacity of 54.3 thousand m3/day were put into operation. Also reported on the progress of modernisation of MSW collection infrastructure, which is fully planned to be completed in 2025. Akim of Almaty Erbolat Dosaev stressed that together with the Chinese company Shanghai SUS Environment Co., Ltd it is planned to build a plant for energy recovery of waste with a capacity of up to 2 thousand tonnes per day.

East Kazakhstan Oblast: development of renewable energy and modernisation of waste management system

Yermek Kosherbayev, akim of East Kazakhstan region, reported on measures taken to transition to "green economy". Construction of 5 HPPs with total capacity of 74.3 MW is planned in the region till 2030. Today in the region there are 8 energy producing organisations with the capacity of 1.6 GW, renewable energy sources occupy 4% of the total volume. Regarding water resources management, today the area of fields under drip irrigation reaches 856 thousand hectares. To ensure stable water supply to the population, 11 out of 26 projects worth 15.4 billion tenge were commissioned in 2024, and work will continue on 15 projects in 2025. More than 220 kilometres of water supply networks have been built and modernised, and 98.3% of the rural population has access to clean drinking water.

Yermek Kosherbayev emphasised the work being done to improve the waste management system. The region annually generates 145 thousand tonnes of MSW, of which 22% is recycled. In 2025 it is planned to launch a new project, which will allow sorting 36 thousand tonnes of waste per year, producing 10 thousand tonnes of commercial bitumen and 10 thousand tonnes of biofuel per year.

A number of projects have been implemented to reduce air pollution. For example, as a result of the introduction of modern technologies, emissions from Kazzinc, a large enterprise, have been reduced more than four times in 25 years. Today, the mining and metallurgical enterprise has started construction of a unit for additional treatment of tailing gases of the sulphuric acid plant, which will also reduce the amount of sulphur dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by 1.6 thousand tonnes. In addition, production facilities in the region, including Kazzinc, UMP, Ust-Kamenogorsk TPP, Bukhtarma Cement Company, are equipped with automated emission monitoring systems. The Bureau of Ecological Protection "Oskemen tynysy" functions, which carries out public control over the environmental situation. In general, in recent years, the volume of harmful substances in the centre of the region has decreased by 9.5%, or 5.2 thousand tonnes.

Karaganda region: emissions reduction and forest reproduction

The Karaganda Region is systematically working to reduce emissions. Akim Yermaganbet Bulekpaev reported that by the end of 9 months of 2024. their amount decreased by 14.5 thousand tonnes compared to the same period of 2023. Gasification of the private sector continues. Gas distribution networks for 7,621 houses have been built, 3,573 houses have been connected. Automated emission monitoring systems have been installed at 10 major enterprises in the region.

Taking into account the set tasks on waste management in the three-year perspective it is planned to build 6 landfills with sorting line in the cities of Balkhash, Abay, Karkaralinsk and Bukhar-Zhyrau, Shet, Nurinsk districts. For 9 months of 2024 the volume of generated waste in the region was 258.8 thousand tonnes, the share of recycled waste of which reaches 55%.

Yermaganbet Bulekpaev reported on the implementation of the plan and achievement of targets for forest reproduction. Only within the framework of the action "Taza Kazakstan" 42 thousand trees have been planted in Karaganda today. The results of work in the sphere of water resources management were noted. Thus, capital repairs of 2 reservoirs have been completed, 4 projects on reconstruction of dams Togyzkudyk, Tikhonovka, Zhastlek and reservoir Tanatbai are being developed. The area of irrigated land using water-saving technologies in 2024 will be increased by 4.9 thousand hectares up to 35.2 thousand hectares. To improve energy efficiency, it is planned to commission new 3 boilers and 4 turbines at 4 power plants in the region.

Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Yerlan Nysanbayev reported that in order to control industrial emissions, work is underway to introduce an automated monitoring system with online data transfer to the information system ‘National Bank of data on the state of the environment and natural resources’. As of today, 68 out of 91 enterprises, which are obliged to use the system, have installed it. The monitoring will allow online tracking of emission indicators and timely response to deviations from the technological regime.

It is noted that within the framework of transition from 2025 of large enterprises to comprehensive environmental permits and implementation of the best available technologies it is expected to reduce emissions by more than 300 thousand tonnes by 2035. For example, in the next 10 years ERG group of companies plans to allocate 228 billion tenge to reduce emissions of particulate matter by 56%, discharges by 30%, water consumption by 33%, processing and sale of secondary materials derived from industrial waste up to 2 million tonnes.

Invited experts also made speeches during the meeting. Vera Mustafina, Executive Director of Kazakhstan Waste Management Association ‘KazWaste’, actualised the problem of carbon neutrality. Chairman of the Board of the Association of Environmental Organisations of Kazakhstan Aigul Solovieva raised the issue of development of micromobility in megacities, in particular the creation of infrastructure for cyclists.

Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov instructed to work on the proposals voiced by the expert community and strengthen joint work on the transition to a ‘green economy’. The importance of solving environmental problems to improve the quality of life of the population was noted.

"The Head of State has set a task for us to transition to a “green economy”. This is not only a question of environmental sustainability, but also of long-term economic development. We need to reduce the negative impact of production factors on the population of the country, thereby creating conditions for the introduction of innovative technologies, dynamic sectoral growth," Olzhas Bektenov emphasised.

Head of the Government instructed Akimats together with the interested central government agencies to ensure quality and timely implementation of the action plan to achieve the indicators of ‘green economy’.

The meeting also considered the prospects for the development of nuclear and hydrogen energy.

#Olzhas Bektenov #The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan #Green Economy