Kazakhstan emerging as ‘environmental diplomat’ in Central Asia - World Bank Regional Manager

Why was Kazakhstan a good venue for the Regional Environmental Summit? Can we say that Kazakhstan is becoming an "environmental diplomat" in the region?

Kazakhstan hosted the Regional Ecological Summit in Astana, and there is a strong rationale to it being here. The country has been building a genuine track record on the environmental agenda: it signed the Astana Resolution on landscape restoration in 2018, helped build Central Asia's first-ever joint climate position at COP26, hosts CAREC - the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia - and held the Central Asia Climate Change Conference in both 2018 and 2024. This year, it also holds the chairmanship of the International Fund for Aral Sea, one of the most important environmental mandates in the region.

Kazakhstan is increasingly becoming an environmental diplomat - and not just in the hosting sense. The real test of environmental diplomacy is driving durable regional cooperation on transboundary challenges: shared water resources, glacier retreat, dust and salinization from the Aral Sea basin, air pollution, and electricity interconnection. These do not respect national borders. Kazakhstan has the institutional presence, the policy ambition - anchored by its 2060 carbon neutrality strategy - and the convening credibility to lead on these issues. Central Asia needs a country willing to step into that space, and Kazakhstan is doing so.

Can environmental issues be considered a factor of political stability in Central Asia?

Absolutely - and this is not a rhetorical point. Central Asia experienced an extended drought in 2021 that suppressed household incomes, strained basic services, and drove displacement. Glacier surface area across the region has shrunk by 30% over the past 50 - 60 years, contributing to flooding, landslides, and water shortages that affect agriculture and energy simultaneously.

When water becomes scarce and food systems come under stress, social tensions rise - this is well-documented across the region. Climate change is therefore not just an environmental issue in Central Asia; it is a development issue, a food security issue, and, yes, a political stability issue. Countries that share river basins cannot manage these risks in isolation.

The summit's role in this context was to provide a structured platform for countries to move beyond bilateral tensions toward shared solutions - including water data sharing, climate adaptation frameworks, and regional electricity market integration aimed at reducing each country's dependence on fossil fuels.The World Bank has been supporting this agenda through the Central Asia Water and Energy Program. At least $20 billion in investment is needed to expand renewable energy and modernize grids across the region over the next decade. That scale of investment can only happen with regional cooperation, not despite the absence of it. 

How would you assess Kazakhstan's current international and environmental policy? What stands out the most to you?

Kazakhstan's ETS. Kazakhstan's overall environmental policy ambition is credible and in some respects ahead of where you might expect for a major fossil fuel economy. The 2060 carbon neutrality strategy, formalized in 2023 and submitted to the UNFCCC, is a serious commitment. The renewable energy auction program has been delivering results - MW contracted from independent power producers has grown from 440 MW to 1,380 MW. Energy intensity in the industrial sector is also improving meaningfully. These are real signs of policy momentum.

On the ETS specifically, which you rightly flag - this is where I want to be honest about both the achievement and the gap. Kazakhstan was one of the first developing countries in the world to establish an emissions trading scheme, launching in 2013. That was a genuinely pioneering step. The ETS now covers around 43% of national GHG emissions across oil and gas, power, mining, metallurgy, chemicals, and manufacturing.

But the ETS has not yet fulfilled its potential as a driver of decarbonization. The core problem has been the level of the cap - it has remained too close to business-as-usual levels to generate meaningful emissions reductions. The carbon price under the scheme has stayed extremely low, around $1 per ton, compared to the government's stated intention to raise it to around $50 per ton by 2026-2030. That gap between stated intention and current reality is significant.

The World Bank, through the Partnership for Market Implementation program, has committed $4.8 million to help Kazakhstan advance these reforms by 2028 - specifically to tighten the cap in line with the NDC, introduce allowance auctions, and strengthen the verification process. These reforms, if implemented, could allow the ETS to drive approximately half of the emissions reductions needed to meet Kazakhstan's 2030 NDC target. The direction is right. The pace and ambition of implementation need to accelerate.

Earlier, former advisor to the UN Secretary-General on climate change and a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rae Kwon Chung shared his views on global climate policy, green growth, and Kazakhstan’s potential.