Welcome to the Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index, where Earth.Org examines the policies and actions regarding the environment of every nation on earth. Combining the most respected global indexes on pollution, climate change, policy, energy, oceans, biodiversity we have produced an overall Global Index, which will be updated annually. This is the Global Sustainability Index scorecard for Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan is deepening its dependence on fossil fuels and failing to take steps towards achieving a Paris Agreement-compatible pathway, with oil production having reached a record level in 2018 and further plans to expand coal and oil production.
Its renewable energy targets need to be significantly strengthened for the country to transition to a greener path.
However, the Kazakhstan ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) resumed operation in 2018 after a one-year hiatus and after tw successful renewable energy auctions in 2018, the third auction in September 2019 was awarded to a 48MW wind power plant project that is expected to be ready in 2022.
- Kazakhstan is pushing for a renewable energy share of 3% by 2020, 10% by 2030 and 50% by 2050.
- The original nationally determined contribution was to reduce emissions by 15% below 1990 levels by 2030, but Kazakhstan is on course to reach a 9% increase by them.
- Moreover, their oil and coal production has been and is expected to keep expanding. Some modernization of coal plants is planned but the overall efforts remain insufficient to keep warming to 1.5˚C.
* Kazakhstan has little naval activity.
You might also like: Global Emissions (2016)
References:
-
Biodiversity, Policy: Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G. (2019): Sustainable Development Report 2019. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
-
Oceans: Halpern, Benjamin S., et al. “An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean.” Nature 488.7413 (2012): 615-620.
-
Pollution: Wendling, Z. A., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., Levy, M. A., de Sherbinin, A., et al. (2018). 2018 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. https://epi.yale.edu/
-
Climate Change: Climate Change Performance Index; Jan Burck, Ursula Hagen, Niklas Höhne, Leonardo Nascimento, Christoph Bals, ISBN 978-3-943704-75-4, 2019
-
Energy: Enerdata –World Energy Statistics – Yearbook.
World Energy Statistics
