Page 12 - FSU OGM Week 26 2021

FSUOGM ENERGY TRANSITION FSUOGM

Kazakhstan unlikely to meet

Paris commitments

KAZAKHSTAN SIX years since the landmark Paris Agreement The problem instead is Kazakhstan’s car-
on climate change, Kazakhstan appears unlikely bon-heavy energy industry, which features a
The problem is to fulfil its promise. high rate of “fugitive emissions.” These leaks
Kazakhstan's carbon- The Paris Agreement requires its 196 sig- during oil and gas extraction, or from ageing
heavy energy industry. natories to limit global warming to less than 2 and shoddy pipes, account for about 15% of the
degrees Celsius by reducing their emissions of country’s total GHG emissions.
greenhouse gases. For its part, Kazakhstan – the A missed opportunity is Kazakhstan’s nation-
world’s 10th-largest source of such planet-warm- wide emissions trading scheme, the authors say:
ing gases per capita – pledged to reduce emis- “Even though the scheme was launched back in
sions by at least 15% by 2030 compared to 1990 2013, it is not fully functional yet to deliver tan-
That's not going to happen, says a forthcom- gible emissions reductions.”
ing paper in Environmental Science and Policy That is a reminder that Nur-Sultan often pri-
that examines nine mid-size economies strug- oritises gestures over substance.
gling to meet their targets. Just last week state media reported on another
Instead, current 2030 projections in Kazakh- government meeting to discuss green energy. Yet
stan are close to a “business as usual” scenario after hundreds of millions of dollars pledged and
with few effective mitigation policies in place, studies proving the potential of wind and solar,
report Takeshi Kuramochi of Utrecht University these sustainable sources provide only a tiny
and his co-authors. fraction of Kazakhstan’s energy output.
In the 1990s, greenhouse-gas (GHG) emis- Meanwhile, illustrations abound of pol-
sions nosedived throughout the former Soviet icies that undermine Kazakhstan’s green
Union as economic depression followed the assurances. The country’s largest coal mine,
collapse of Moscow’s rule. But in the 2000s and for example, is getting a $215mn upgrade to
2010s, Kazakhstan’s economy boomed, bringing expand production.
emissions back up to where they were at the twi- This month alone, Eurasianet has reported
light of the Soviet system. that building standards are not keeping up with
Kazakhstan wandered off track before climate goals; new houses burn more coal than
COVID struck, Kuramochi and his colleagues old. And a car recycling tax that appears to be
find, so the pandemic-induced economic con- enriching the strongman’s family is encouraging
traction cannot be blamed. people to drive older, dirtier vehicles. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 26 30•June•2021