ASTANA – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed the law “On introducing amendments and addenda to some legislative acts of Kazakhstan on the transition to green economy,” reported the Akorda on April 28.
The amendments seek to improve legislation related to ecology and renewable energy. Changes were made to articles of the Land, Water, Environment, Tax, Enterprise codes and the law “On Administrative Offences.”
The environmental code updated environmental and natural resources protections and was complemented by the principles of extended producer responsibility. The changes also increased environmental monitoring of mineral resource activity in the state protection area in the northern part of the Caspian Sea in the winter.
Changes to the water code expanded standards for water consumption and wastewater and refined procedures for establishing norms for water consumption and wastewater.
The changes remove restrictions on investment preferences in regard to methane extraction projects, coal seams, while implementation within the framework of the priority investment project was added to the entrepreneurial code.
The law “On supporting the use of renewable energy sources” was supplemented by amendments on the development of renewable electricity, the creation of a reserve fund in the field of renewable energy and improvement of the mechanism of their connection to the networks of the unified electricity system of the country.
Kazakhstan’s transition to a green economy involves multiple sectors, such as the sustainable use of water resources, the development of a sustainable and highly productive agriculture, energy saving and energy efficiency, electric power development, waste management system, reduction of air pollution, conservation and efficient management of ecosystems.
