BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 17. Kazakhstan has achieved a reduction in GDP energy intensity, the Chairman of the Industrial Development Committee under the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development Ilyas Ospanov said, Trend reports on November 17 via the ministry.
Ospanov made the remark during the final consultation seminar organized as part of the ‘Identification and development of investment potential of energy-intensive industries in Kazakhstan in terms of energy efficiency, decarbonization and best available technologies’ project implemented with the World Bank.
According to him, Kazakhstan is pursuing a purposeful state policy in this direction, and one of the tools in achieving the goals set in the field of decarbonization is energy saving and energy efficiency.
"Our country is characterized by an energy-intensive economy, however, thanks to the active commitment to the energy saving policy, the energy intensity of GDP has been reduced by 38 percent since 2008,” the official noted. “The start of this activity was laid down in 2012 with the adoption of a fundamentally new law ‘On energy saving and increasing energy efficiency’, where a special role is assigned to the technological modernization of industry"
Thus, since 2012, 1,800 energy audits have been conducted, as a result of which energy efficiency measures in the amount of 323 billion tenge ($700 million) were implemented, which helped save 82 billion tenge ($180 million) per year. As a result of this policy, the energy intensity of the industrial sector was reduced by two times, he explained.
Ospanov also noted the active participation of international organizations in achieving the set goals, including the World Bank, the partnership with which began in 2014 under the Grant Agreement on the ‘Improving Energy Efficiency in Kazakhstan’ project.
"This project has an important economic and social effect for us, because within its framework 97 social facilities - schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and street lighting facilities were modernized, allowing to reduce energy consumption at facilities by 25 percent and ensure budgetary savings in the amount of $1.3 million per year," added the official.