An updated system of trade in greenhouse gas emission quotas is one of the main mechanisms that stimulate emission reductions. This was announced at the fourth international forum Carbon-KZ by the director of the Climate Change Department of the Energy Ministry of Kazakhstan, Olzhas Agabekov.
"The problem of climate change in the country is considered a priority at the state level. Under the Paris Agreement, Kazakhstan has undertaken a voluntary commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent by 2030 against 1990 level. One of the mechanisms for achieving this end is the trade in quotas on greenhouse gas emissions. The system was launched in 2013 and suspended in 2016 with the aim of improving it. We made adjustments to re-launch it in 2018,"- said Agabeyov.
According to him, in two years the list of specific coefficients of greenhouse emissions for various sectors of industry was approved.
"The list includes 52 specific factors for the electricity, oil and gas, mining, metallurgical, chemical and processing sectors. The national plan for 2018-2020 includes 225 facilities, the volume of distributed quotas has reached the level of 485 million for three years," he said, noting that there is also a certain reserve for quotas.
"This reserve is intended for issuing additional quotas in case of capacity increase, introduction of new installations, as well as for sale of quotas on the terms of the auction. As regards trading quota, direct sales mechanism is introduced. Thus, enterprises will no longer have to enter the commodity exchange for bidding ", Agabekov added.
He also talked on legislative changes on greenhouse gas emissions that are to be adopted in the future. "The Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan will continue work on improving the legislation in the greenhouse gas emissions. A new Draft Environmental Code is to be developed soon, which entails extensive work on revision of the legislation for 2018 - 2019, "Agabekov added.
By Zhanat Tukpiev for the Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.
