The progress of the President’s instructions on maintaining ecological balance and ensuring sustainable socio-economic progress of the country was reviewed. Reports of the akims of Almaty, East Kazakhstan and Karaganda regions on the implementation of the Action Plan to achieve the indicators of the “green economy” were heard, Primeminister.kz reports.
Key environmental challenges are considered, including air pollution, waste management and measures to reduce negative environmental impacts. According to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, 15 cities in Kazakhstan have high levels of air pollution, with Almaty and Karaganda being rated as “very high”.
The following experts were also invited to the dialogue: Director of the Scientific and Educational Center “Green Academy” Bakhyt Yesekina, Chairperson of the Board of the Association of Legal Entities “Association of Environmental Organizations of Kazakhstan” Aigul Solovyova, Executive Director of the Kazakhstan Waste Management Association KazWaste Vera Mustafina.
Environmental program of Almaty
Akim of Almaty Yerbolat Dosayev reported to the Prime Minister on the implementation of the Action Plan for the transition to a “green economy”. Priority areas of work include reducing air pollution, developing forest resources, efficient use of water resources and waste management, implementing ESG principles and issuing “green” bonds.
According to experts, the volume of gross emissions of harmful substances in the Almaty agglomeration reaches 225.2 thousand tons, where the metropolis itself accounts for about 84%. The largest share of emissions in the city is occupied by motor transport – 60% and industrial enterprises – 27%. The Akim emphasized that new Rules for the Protection of Atmospheric Air have been developed in Almaty, which will be submitted to the Maslikhat in the first quarter of 2025. They will allow for the introduction of strict regulation of mobile and stationary sources. In addition, work is ongoing to modernize the thermal power plant, as a result of which emissions of harmful substances will decrease by 93% – from 37.3 thousand tons to 2.7 thousand tons. The transition of the heat source from coal to gas is expected in 2026. Particular attention is paid to the gasification of the private sector; today, the availability of the corresponding infrastructure is provided to 99.4% of houses.
In order to reduce the negative impact of motor transport on the air basin of Almaty, a ban on the purchase of public transport running on diesel fuel has been introduced since 2024. Based on the results of work for 2024, the trolleybus fleet has been 100% updated, and the modernization of the bus fleet will continue in 2025. At the same time, as of December 1, 2024, the largest number of electric vehicles in the country were registered in Almaty – 7,875 units or 58% of the total.
Yerbolat Dosayev also reported on the work being carried out within the framework of the execution of the order of the Head of State to revive the status of Almaty as a garden city. According to the Roadmap for planting 2.5 million green spaces by 2030, 643 thousand trees and shrubs were planted in the metropolis during the period 2023-2024. At the same time, the new Rules for the Protection and Care of Green Spaces introduced a standard for the mandatory connection of an irrigation system. As a result, 500 km of automatic irrigation and drip irrigation networks were installed in 2 years.
To ensure high-quality water supply, new sources with a total capacity of 54.3 thousand m3/day were put into operation in 2024. The progress of the modernization of the solid waste collection infrastructure was also reported, which is planned to be fully completed in 2025. Akim of Almaty Erbolat Dosayev emphasized that, together with the Chinese company Shanghai SUS Environment Co., Ltd, it is planned to build a waste energy recycling plant with a capacity of up to 2 thousand tons per day.
East Kazakhstan Region: Development of Renewable Energy and Modernization of Waste Management System
The Akim of the East Kazakhstan region, Ermek Kosherbayev, reported on the measures taken to transition to a “green economy”. The region plans to build 5 hydroelectric power plants with a total capacity of 74.3 MW by 2030. Today, there are 8 energy producing organizations with a capacity of 1.6 GW in the region, renewable energy sources account for 4% of the total volume. Regarding water resources management, today the area of fields under drip irrigation reaches 856 thousand hectares. To ensure a stable water supply to the population in 2024, 11 out of 26 projects worth 15.4 billion tenge were commissioned, and work on 15 projects will continue in 2025. More than 220 km of water supply networks have been built and modernized, access to clean drinking water is provided to 98.3% of the rural population.
Ermek Kosherbayev focused on the work being done to improve the waste management system. The region annually generates 145 thousand tons of solid waste, of which 22% is recycled. In 2025, it is planned to launch a new project that will allow sorting 36 thousand tons of waste per year, producing 10 thousand tons of commercial bitumen and 10 thousand tons of biofuel per year.
A number of projects have been implemented to reduce air pollution. For example, as a result of the introduction of modern technologies, emissions from the large enterprise Kazzinc have decreased by more than 4 times in 25 years. Today, the mining and metallurgical enterprise has begun construction of a final cleaning unit for tail gases from the sulfuric acid plant, which will also reduce the volume of sulfur dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by 1.6 thousand tons. In addition, the region’s production facilities, including Kazzinc, UMP, Ust-Kamenogorsk TPP, Bukhtarma Cement Company, are equipped with automated emission monitoring systems. The Environmental Protection Bureau Oskemen Tynysy operates, which carries out public monitoring of the environmental situation. In general, in recent years, the volume of harmful substances in the center of the region has decreased by 9.5%, or 5.2 thousand tons.
Karaganda region: reducing emissions and reforestation
In the Karaganda region, systematic work is being carried out to reduce emissions. Akim Ermaganbet Bulekpayev reported that according to the results of 9 months of 2024, their number decreased by 14.5 thousand tons compared to the same period in 2023. Gasification of the private sector continues. Gas distribution networks have been built for 7,621 houses, 3,573 houses have been connected. Automated emission monitoring systems have been installed at 10 large enterprises in the region.
Taking into account the waste management tasks set, it is planned to build 6 solid waste landfills with a sorting line in the cities of Balkhash, Abay, Karkaralinsk and Bukhar-Zhyrau, Shetsky, Nurinsky districts in the three-year perspective. For 9 months of 2024, the volume of waste generated in the region amounted to 258.8 thousand tons, the share of recycled waste of which reaches 55%.
Ermaganbet Bulekpayev reported on the implementation of the plan and the achievement of targets for forest reproduction. As part of the “Taza Kazakhstan” campaign alone, 42 thousand trees have been planted in Karaganda to date. The results of work in the field of water resources management were noted. Thus, major repairs of 2 reservoirs have been completed, 4 projects are being developed for the reconstruction of the Togyzkudyk, Tikhonovka, Zhastlek dams and the Tanatbay reservoir. The area of irrigated land using water-saving technologies in 2024 has been increased by 4.9 thousand hectares – up to 35.2 thousand hectares. To improve energy efficiency, it is planned to commission 3 new boilers and 4 turbines at 4 power plants in the region.
Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Erlan Nysanbayev reported that in order to control industrial emissions, work is underway to implement an automated monitoring system with online data transfer to the information system “National Database of Data on the State of the Environment and Natural Resources”. To date, 68 out of 91 enterprises that are required to use the system have installed it. Monitoring will allow online tracking of emission indicators and timely response to deviations from the technological mode.
It is noted that as part of the transition from 2025 of large enterprises to integrated environmental permits and the introduction of the best available technologies, a reduction in emissions by 2035 is expected by more than 300 thousand tons. For example, in the next 10 years, the ERG group of companies plans to allocate 228 billion tenge to reduce emissions of solid particles by 56%, discharges by 30%, water consumption by 33%, and the processing and sale of secondary materials obtained from production waste to 2 million tons.
Invited experts also spoke during the meeting. Vera Mustafina, Executive Director of the Kazakhstan Waste Management Association “KazWaste”, brought up the issue of carbon neutrality. Aigul Solovyova, Chairperson of the Board of the Association of Environmental Organizations of Kazakhstan, raised the issue of developing micromobility in megacities, in particular the creation of infrastructure for cyclists.
Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov instructed to work through the proposals voiced by the expert community and to strengthen joint work on the transition to a “green economy”. The importance of solving environmental problems for improving the quality of life of the population was noted.
“The head of state set before us the task of transitioning to a “green economy”. This is a question not only of environmental sustainability, but also of long-term economic development. We need to reduce the negative impact of production factors on the population of the country, thereby creating conditions for the introduction of innovative technologies, dynamic industry growth,” Olzhas Bektenov emphasized.
The Head of Government instructed akimats, together with interested central government bodies, to ensure high-quality and timely implementation of the action plan to achieve the “green economy” indicators.
During the meeting, the prospects for the development of nuclear and hydrogen energy were also considered.
https://ortcom.kz/ru/novosti/1735300554
