Kazakhstan to promote global energy and environmental strategy

    Kazakhstan will promote its initiative called -- Global Energy and Environmental Strategy and the Green Bridge Partnership Program at the RIO+20 World Summit on Sustainable Development and will establish legal quotas for domestically trading in gas emissions in 2012.
    This announcement was made at a Ministry of Environmental Protection board meeting with the participation of First Deputy Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov on January 30.
    As part of the national strategic plan to 2020, the Ministry of Environmental Protection engaged in concrete steps to stabilize and improve the quality of the environment, and move the country toward a low carbon development in 2011.
    Newly appointed Minister of Environmental Protection Nurlan Kapparov presented the results of the ministry’s efforts during 2011.
    For instance, last year, new amendments to several pieces of legislation on environmental issues were adopted.
    The new legislation seeks to reduce waste accumulation and greenhouse gas emissions through the introduction of market mechanisms and strengthening administrative and criminal penalties for environmental violations. It is planned to adopt about 50 new administrative measures in 2012.
    In 2011, 12,000 inspections were held with over 9,000 violations detected. The level of permitted emissions in 2011 reached 3.35 million tons and pollutants discharged totaled 2.8 million tons -- remaining at the same level of 2010.
    Moreover, the Zhasyl Damu industrial program (Green Development in Kazakh) for 2010-2014, which was approved by the government in 2010 -- is being effectively implemented.
    The program mainly focuses on the application of the principle of a progressive “green economy,” which includes the elimination of the country’s dependence on mineral resources, and seeks to minimize the negative environmental effect of economic growth.
    Under the National Program for Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development (PAIID) for 2010 - 2014, a total of 366 out of 371 project documents submitted for consideration were approved by state environmental commission, and five more remain under consideration.
    A greenhouse gas inventory is held each year in Kazakhstan. According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, in 2011 all major enterprises in the country that emit more than 90% of the total gas were registered.
    In 2012, legal quotas for these enterprises will be established, and a platform for quota trading will opened based on the European market.
    “As the president said in his address to the nation, socio-economic modernization is the key priority for Kazakhstan’s development. The Ministry of Environmental Protection has been tasked to ensure the promotion of the president’s Global Energy and Environmental Strategy and Green Bridge Partnership Program at the RIO+20World Summit on Sustainable Development,” First Deputy Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov said while concluding the session.
    President Nursultan Nazarbayev, speaking at the 66^th Session of the UN General Assembly in September 2011, suggested Global Energy and Environment Strategy and Inter-Regional Green BridgePartnership Program as Kazakhstan’s proposal for the Rio +20 conference.
    As a practical mechanism for the transition to a green economy, the Green Bridge Program is aimed at implementing green investment projects in countries with various political systems and differing levels of economic development.
    The program prioritizes the preservation and restoration of trans-boundary ecosystems. In Kazakhstan, these are the basin ecosystems of the Aral and Caspian Seas, and of Balkhash Lake.
    Akhmetov also charged ministry affiliates to get hazardous waste management under control, while urging officials together with the Finance Ministry and other state bodies, to submit specific proposals to the government within one month, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs states.