ASTANA, Kazakhstan, February 10. Switching to electric vehicles will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions per vehicle-kilometer by almost half in Kazakhstan, the World Bank says, Trend reports.
According to the World Bank's (WB) Greening the Economy of Europe and Central Asia report, given its greater energy efficiency, electric mobility is typically advantageous in carbon terms even before the power grid is fully decarbonized.
The World Bank explains that electric vehicles are the least carbon-intensive per vehicle-kilometer compared to traditional fuel-powered vehicles.
"In Kazakhstan and Poland, for instance, carbon emissions per vehicle-kilometer could be cut by as much as half by switching from gasoline to electric power, even with the current fossil fuel-intensive electricity supply," says the report.
The report also notes that electric vehicles reduce local air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and particulate matter with a diameter of 10 microns or less.
In WB's view, in Kazakhstan, Poland, Türkiye, and Ukraine, for instance, the environmental benefits associated with reducing local air pollution are even more significant than those associated with reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
As WB noted, transport is the source of about 17 percent of the region’s carbon emissions (the share exceeds 30 percent in the smaller economies of the region).
Meanwhile, the number of electric vehicles in Kazakhstan reached 7,680 units as of December 1, 2023. That is, this is 13.5 times more compared to data as of December 1, 2022 (570 units).
Concurrently, the number of passenger cars running on electricity increased by 16.7 times, from 443 to 7,383 units (December 2023 compared to December 2022).
The largest number of electric vehicles is in the city of Almaty (4,315 units), Astana (945 units), and the Almaty region (354 units). The least number of electric cars is in the Abay region (14).