Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan joined the CCAC in 2023.

Kazakhstan’s economy heavily relies on fossil fuels for energy, industry, exports, and revenue. As of 2015, its energy sector accounts for 82% of greenhouse gas emissions. More than 80% of electricity comes from coal-fired generation, producing significant amounts of black carbon. However, Kazakhstan’s vast renewable resources largely remain untapped and hold large potential to benefit the domestic population.

Policies such as the emissions trading system (ETS) and renewable energy auctions have contributed to a shift to renewable energy and the government has set a renewable energy target of at least 15% of all electricity generated to be provided by renewable energy sources by 2030, and at least 50% by 2050.

Kazakhstan ratified the Paris Agreement in November 2016 and committed itself to the fulfilment of a target of economy-wide reduction of GHG emissions of 15% from 1990 emissions levels by 2030 in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). Kazakhstan has also set a climate mitigation target of net zero by adopting The Strategy on Achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2060.

The Government of Kazakhstan has set out toward meeting these ambitious goals by holding Central Asia’s first ever competitive auctions for renewable energy projects, where private companies offer to build and operate plants and sell the electricity at low cost. Holding these auctions have proven to be critical in scaling up the use of renewable energy.

The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan has expressed interest a range of cooperation activities, including, but not limited to:
•⁠  ⁠Improving quality and coverage of data on SLCPs and understanding health impact due to SLCPs;
•⁠  ⁠Understanding technological, economic, societal aspects of reducing SLCPs, and synergies with NDC implementation;
•⁠  ⁠Streamlining reducing SLCPs into upcoming second NDC;
•⁠  ⁠Understanding options for carbon pricing for SLCPs;
•⁠  ⁠Developing national capacity and systems for measuring SLCPs with Earth Observations systems.