NUR-SULTAN – The Astana International Finance Centre (AIFC) is developing a framework to facilitate the growing green finance sector in Kazakhstan, AIFC Board Chairman Kairat Kelimbetov told the Sept. 9 Green Growth Forum in Nur-Sultan, reports KazInform news agency.
Green Growth Forum participants. Photo credit: inform.kz.
“Today, the AIFC, together with international experts, is working on creating a regulatory framework for green finance within the jurisdiction of our centre. We are also actively working with the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources to formulate new legislation regarding the development of green financing. We hope the preparation of the draft environmental code and its approval in the Parliament allow introducing many innovations related to the green finance industry,” said Kelimbetov.
The Green Growth Forum is an international dialogue platform for national governments, organisations, industrial enterprises, businesses and the public on waste processing and the transition to a green economy for countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Eurasian Economic Union.
Kelimbetov told the forum the AIFC’s draft regulatory framework for green finance will be submitted to the Kazakh Parliament by the end of 2019. The environmental code will discuss green finance and clean technologies, the concepts of green financing, green projects, green bonds, loans and other instruments of green finance and what they mean for Kazakhstan.
“As part of the development of the Islamic finance market, we are working on the issue of green Islamic papers or green sukuk. In addition, we are actively working with the Akimats (municipal administrations) of the city of Nur-Sultan and Almaty to form a pool of green projects for which new green financial instruments could be used. We believe in our ambitious goal to make the Astana International Financial Centre venue a leader in the field of green finance in the entire Central Asian region. For this, all conditions have been created on our site. You know that in 2017 legislative amendments were adopted at the highest level,” said Kelimbetov.
Among the attendees of this year’s forum were Climate Bonds Initiative CEO Sean Kidney, Senior Manager and Associate Director of the Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Department of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Vincent Duijnhouwer, Climate Change International at Environment and Climate Change Canada Chief Negotiator for Climate Change and Director General Catherine Stewart, Bank of England Senior Advisor Michael Sheren and Banque de France NGFS Secretariat Morgan Despres.
