Kazakhstan is planning to boost renewable energy sources threefold

Kazakhstan wants renewable energy sources’ share to grow from the current 4.5% to 15% by 2030, according to Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov, who took part in the 12th EU-Kazakhstan High-Level Business Platform.

«The environmental agenda is one of the key elements in Kazakhstan’s strategy for sustainable development. We are planning to increase the share of renewable energy sources in the country’s matrix of energy from 4.5% to 15% by 2030. Given that European countries have already achieved some progress in this field, we are interested in close cooperation with them to implement new joint projects,» Smailov said.

He noted that Kazakhstan is also interested in expanding cooperation with the EU in the spheres of trade, economic relations and investments. The government of Kazakhstan believes that green transition and transportation are key directions for such cooperation.

«Kazakhstan and the EU have a wide range of opportunities to further deepen bilateral partnerships in the spheres of green economy, transport and logistics,» Smailov underlined.

In turn, the EU Ambassador to Kazakhstan Kestutis Jankauskas said that the implementation of new projects in the field of renewable energy and the strengthening of transport connectivity are «the key areas for joint work for the future.» He also highlighted that the EU will support Kazakhstan in its green transition through specific projects by companies and banks like the transport company Globalia LTD, the railway company Deutsche Bahn and the Kazakhstan trading company Scania Central Asia, which also took part in the meeting. According to Jankauskas, Kazakhstan is doing quite well in terms of developing transport infrastructure and the optimization of logistic processes to increase the freight turnover on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR).

Last year, Kazakhstan and the EU signed an agreement on raw materials, batteries and renewable hydrogen. As part of these efforts, German-Swedish Svevind launched a green hydrogen project in the Mangistau region last week.

Concerning TITR, Kazakhstan is working with other participants of the project to get rid of bottlenecks on the transport route. Kazakhstan and the EU even want to connect the so-called Middle Corridor with the Trans-European Transport Network and the Global Gateway initiative.

Kazakhstan to reach zero emissions 10 years later than the EU

In October 2021, the government of Kazakhstan said that the country would achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. They even developed a doctrine based on two scenarios: baseline scenario and carbon neutrality.

The baseline scenario is a path without measures to decarbonize the economy. It won’t lead to predicted indicators of economic growth due to the influence of three external factors: the introduction of a carbon border tax by the EU and Kazakhstan’s other key trading partners; the expected decline in energy resource prices according to the forecast of the International Energy Agency, and the climate change impact on the agricultural sector.

On the other hand, the carbon neutrality scenario can cut in half the expected damage from the aforementioned factors. Carbon emissions in Kazakhstan are expected to be about 76 million tons of CO2 equivalent by 2060.

In December 2021, the government announced that carbon neutrality would require about $650 billion in investments over 40 years. The production of electricity and heat would require the largest share of these investments – $305 billion, followed by the transportation sector ($167 billion), the mining sector and processing industry ($65 billion), the utilities sector ($57 billion) and forestry ($49 billion). At the same time, investments in the oil and gas sector are expected to plunge as the demand for these resources will gradually decline.

The concept of Kazakhstan’s green transition says that the country should increase the share of renewable energy sources in the matrix of energy supply to 50% by 2050. As of January 2023, there were 130 renewable energy facilities in Kazakhstan with an installed capacity of 2,400 megawatts, including 46 wind power stations (958 megawatts), 44 solar stations (1148 megawatts), 37 hydro-electric power stations (280 megawatts) and three biopower plants (1.77 megawatts). In 2023, 15 facilities with a total capacity of 276 megawatts are expected to begin operations. In January, the Ministry of Energy reported that in 2022 Kazakhstan’s renewable energy sources generated a fifth more energy (5.1 billion kilowatt-hours) than in 2021. Wind power stations accounted for half of that energy (2.4 billion kilowatt-hours).