Kazakhstan’s economy, based primarily on the export of fossil fuels, is the largest in Central Asia. Given its abundance of low-cost fossil fuels, Kazakhstan also leads Central Asia in terms of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Source: World Bank
The Kazakh government is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and has outlined a set of energy sector priorities to support its goal of reducing the economy's carbon intensity by 50% from 2015–2020. In line with this goal, Kazakhstan’s CTF investment plan focuses $200 million in concessional financing on efforts to modernize district heating systems in target cities.
This includes improving demand-side energy efficiency and catalyzing transformative investments in latent renewable energy potential. The plan will also support the legal and regulatory framework for renewable energy development, as well as the construction of Kazakhstan’s first large-scale wind and solar projects totaling 100 MW.
Over 87% of Kazakhstan’s primary energy supply comes from thermal sources compared to 1% derived from renewable sources, excluding large-scale hydropower
The CIF programmatic approach to investment planning and implementation brings strategic value to CIF recipient countries. Working through a transparent, country-led process, the CIF fosters trust and collaboration among government ministries, civil society, indigenous peoples, private sector, and the MDBs that implement CIF funding. Together they translate Nationally Determined Contributions and other national development and climate strategies into an actionable CIF investment plan. Rather than one-off projects, the plan comprises long-term, sequenced investments that mutually reinforce each other and link to other critical activities, such as policy and regulatory reform and capacity building. Under national government leadership, CIF stakeholders continue to work together to implement the plan, continually assessing progress and sharing lessons learned along the way.