Kazakhstan partakes in int’l environmental conference in Tashkent
The conference is organized within the framework of the EU-Central Asia Water and Environment Cooperation Platform, the scope of which covers top-priority areas in environmental management, circular economy, sustainable consumption and production, as well as climate change and water management.
"As the largest regional country, Kazakhstan is involved in all environmental processes initiated by the EU. In addition, Kazakhstan separately initiated numerous environmental projects aimed at protecting the environment and mitigating the impact of environmental disasters. However, in Kazakhstan, there are a number of directions, the settlement of which should be done jointly with our regional neighbors. This includes the Aral Sea problem and the issue of transboundary rivers," said Gaukhar Beiseyeva, Deputy Chairperson of the Management Board at the Kazakhstan International Center for Green Technology and Investment Projects.
According to her, the transition to a green economy is vital not only from the perspective of environmental protection but also economically.
"As you already know, the EU announced the transition to renewable energy sources by 2050. For the producing countries, the transition means that their products will soon become uncompetitive. (...) The markets, in particular, for those products made in the conditions of carbon development, can merely be closed for them. Therefore, today Kazakhstan is targeted at the production of its commodities that meet the green-economy standards," added Gaukhar Beiseyeva.
Among other things, the international conference participants also touched upon the issue of cooperation in the field of transboundary rivers. Kazakhstan's stance was voiced during the discussion.
"Our stance is that it is necessary to pay attention to such issues as the assessment of the transboundary rivers' water resources. Because we need to know how much water is received by each country. We have agreed on water apportioning. This should be implemented, and, to this end, we need to assess water resources. We also have issues the Nexus program initiated by the EU. We hope that as part of this project we will manage to consider the issue of the creation of the Central Asian interstate water and energy consortium. We consider this direction to be very promising. It will make it possible not only to divide but also to benefit from water," said Igor Koval, Director of the Transboundary Rivers Department of the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture.