UN Resident Coordinator on Kazakhstan’s green transition, climate action, and SDG progress

What does your appointment as UN Resident Coordinator in Kazakhstan mean? What do you consider your top priorities in the early stages of your mandate?

As you know, I started quite recently — I just completed my first two months. And it's really a great honor to serve as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kazakhstan. Recently, I presented my credentials to His Excellency, Mr. President.

In the past two months, I have really experienced a very vibrant and active time here in Kazakhstan. From day one, I would say, as you have seen, the United Nations Secretary-General visited Kazakhstan and Almaty. Also, during these two months, I’ve already had the chance to visit two regions.

The first one was Kyzylorda, where I joined the first-ever National Urban Forum, organized by the Akimat of Kyzylorda together with UN Habitat colleagues. And then in Aktau, I joined the meeting of the Ministers of Environment of Central Asia to prepare for next year’s important event — the Regional Ecological Summit. Actually, next week I’m going again to Kyzylorda with WHO colleagues to visit the Aral Sea region, to look into the impact of climate change and the Aral Sea crisis on the health of the local population.

As you can see, we are a very dynamic team here in Kazakhstan. There are a lot of programs, a lot of events happening, and this is why the last two months have been very busy for me. In terms of priorities, I would say there are three top priorities.

The first one is continuing to strengthen our excellent partnership and cooperation with the government, building on the great examples of previous years.

The second is promoting and strengthening inclusiveness — following the principle of leaving no one behind, including women, girls, young people, and persons with disabilities, so that no one is left behind when we talk about economic development or social protection programs.

And third, I would say, priorities on environment and climate change. As I mentioned, Kazakhstan will host the Regional Ecological Summit next year in April, which is very important as we witness the impact of climate change and environmental issues in the region.

Kazakhstan is facing serious environmental issues, from the Aral Sea crisis to the disposal of industrial waste. What priority do you see for UN–Kazakhstan cooperation in this environmental sphere?

We have several agencies working closely with the government, and also with regions, and also with stakeholder groups, with people, local people on the environmental domain.

I would say that the priority is really water management, because due to climate change and also the unsustainable use of water resources, Kazakhstan is facing, and will face even more in the future, water stress, water scarcity, and water supply issues.

And also, as you mentioned, industrial waste and waste management. I would say that everybody agrees this is also one of the priorities where UN agencies are working through many different programs.

You have specialized in transboundary cooperation. In your opinion, what environmental issues in Central Asia need coordination with neighboring countries?

Indeed, environmental issues are not stopped by borders, by country borders. Let’s take water, right? Because water is traveling across all borders, all countries, so this is a transboundary resource. Air pollution also doesn’t stop at the border, so if you pollute in one country, it immediately affects the neighboring country.

The same thing, there are many issues, for example, biodiversity conservation, especially for migratory species. You cannot stop the migration of wildlife species, right, so it really requires a lot of cooperation and coordination between countries, neighboring countries, when it comes to transboundary natural resource management.

I spoke before about water. Water has been a top priority for Central Asian countries for many years because countries are interconnected through shared water resources. Let’s take it from the top. The water is coming, as we know, from the glaciers. Then rivers, and it goes down to the downstream countries. Recently, I also moderated a panel discussion in the context of the SDG Forum. We gathered different stakeholders, government, research institutions, NGOs, and international development partners like us, the UN.

And then one researcher said that glaciers are melting, of course due to rising temperatures and the impact of climate change, but this is also accelerated by the salt dust coming from the dried Aral Sea bed. It’s really the whole cycle of impact. This means that the countries need to cooperate because there are common problems, but there are also common solutions.

Another priority is air pollution, because dust and sandstorms travel from one source to other destinations and affect the health of the local population in other countries.

So it really requires knowing where these emissions are coming from, how we analyze them, how we put forward scenarios and modeling, and also what we can do collectively. This really requires a lot of cooperative efforts, and in that sense, Kazakhstan is also leading on many fronts.

How will the UN help Kazakhstan to support its transition to a green economy and address climate change?

The first area where many UN agencies in Kazakhstan are working is supporting the country in the development of policies, strategies, and long-term programs. As you know, the UN country team is very big, 27 agencies, and each of them has technical expertise according to its mandate. This technical expertise is very useful in helping and supporting the government in developing policies.

For example, Kazakhstan has the carbon neutrality policy until 2060, and the UN has contributed to this with its expertise and input. There is also the green economy strategy, and a water strategy. For each of these areas, we are providing technical support to policies and strategies.

But it is not only limited to policy. Of course, the UN also implements pilot initiatives in the regions, in particular areas, which later can be scaled up into nationwide projects.

These are the two things, and thirdly, the UN is supporting the introduction and application of international norms and standards. This is also an important area because many UN agencies and secretariats are hosting international multilateral conventions. Through these multilateral agreements, the UN is also helping the country to apply those norms and standards.

Kazakhstan cooperates with numerous UN agencies. In your opinion, which of these partnerships would you like to strengthen or maybe relaunch?

I wouldn’t say there is a need to relaunch something, but of course, building on many years of experience and good practices that we have developed, we need to continue working on the comparative advantages of each agency and strengthen partnerships where we can complement each other.

Of course, some agencies are very strong on the ground with field presence, capacity, capability, and expertise, while some agencies, as I said, support from a distance, from the regional level, but also possess unique expertise, especially when it comes to international norms and standards.

I would like to see these agencies working more closely together to complement each other, seek synergies, and avoid duplication. This could really be our strategy for the next few years.

Kazakhstan is working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. In your opinion, which of the SDGs require more attention in the coming years?

So, SDGs are until 2030, right? That means we have only five years left, so there is a real need to accelerate the process to achieve as many SDGs and targets as possible. Let me share one statistic: Kazakhstan is actually performing very well. Compared to the global average of 17 percent, Kazakhstan is almost 40 percent on track or has already achieved.

This is a very good achievement, a very good performance result. But still, it means there is more work to do. And if you compare across the 17 SDGs, certainly there is a need to accelerate on SDG 7, which is about green transition — increasing the share of renewable energy and also improving energy efficiency.

SDG 7, I would say, and SDG 13, certainly CO₂ emissions need to be further decreased. This is about climate action. And then SDG 15 is also very important. This is about life on land and biodiversity conservation. Of course, Kazakhstan is achieving a lot of good results, but there should be further strengthening and more efforts to achieve SDG 15.

What approaches do you consider most effective in engaging local communities for natural resource management projects?

This is my favorite topic because in my previous assignments I worked a lot at the local level, implementing several natural resource management projects and always involving local communities. There is a saying: When I see it, I will forget. When you show me, I might remember. But when you involve me, I will understand.

This means you really need to engage local communities at the outset of your activities, projects, and programs, so that they feel ownership over the results. This approach should always be taken into account when designing projects and programs, really listening to local people and their needs.

Recently, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, addressed the nation on another topic that is still connected to climate change. He said that Kazakhstan will focus on implementing artificial intelligence and digitalization. AI will be introduced across different sectors, and I would like to hear your opinion on that, because AI is a very broad term that will touch almost every sphere, including ecology.

AI tools and digitalization have also been priorities for the UN, especially over the past five years. The Secretary-General has been promoting the UN 2.0 policy, which is not only about digitalization but also about data—collecting quality data, interpreting it, managing it, and applying digital tools.

In our work, some UN agencies already use AI. For example, FAO applies AI tools in agriculture to predict water supply, monitor salinity, etc. There are already many advanced tools available that can accelerate the process of sustainable natural resource management.

But on the other hand, as the President also mentioned in his speech, we need to consider cybersecurity. There are always two sides: on one hand, AI is an important tool to advance economic development and even link to education; on the other hand, we must carefully look at the security aspects. Both sides need to be taken into account very carefully.

I’d like to ask if you have anything to add, maybe something we haven’t covered yet.

Yes, I would also like to mention that we have only five years left until 2030, and we recently signed our United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. This is a five-year program between the government and the entire UN country team here in Kazakhstan.

It coincides very well with the timeline to 2030, which means we need to put all our efforts into accelerating the achievement of the SDGs. We will be launching it very soon, most probably in October. This also coincides with the commemoration of the UN, which was founded in 1945. This year we are marking the 80th anniversary of the United Nations, and in that context, we will also be organizing several dedicated events.

For this anniversary, of course, we would like to celebrate it together with everyone, with all stakeholders: the government, the people, international development partners, and stakeholder groups. This is what I would like to emphasize at the end, and we are very much looking forward to contributing to the prosperity of the country. Thank you.

Earlier, Kazinform News Agency reported that General Assembly adopted resolution on UN-SCO cooperation.