Kazakhstan has significantly increased its environmental protection spending in the first half of 2025, investing 78.8 billion tenge (approximately $145 million).
The figure represents a 4.6-fold jump compared to the same period last year, marking a substantial policy reversal after a prolonged decline in environmental funding, The Caspian Post reports via Kazakh media.
The Bureau of National Statistics confirmed that in 2024, investments in environmental protection dropped to just 52.8 billion tenge ($97.3 million)-the lowest since 2017-following a 5.2-fold year-on-year decrease. This sharp decline had raised concerns about the country’s long-term sustainability goals.
Total environmental spending, including investment, resource efficiency measures, and operational costs, also fell in 2024. The government spent 456.1 billion tenge ($840.7 million) last year, down 25 per cent from 610.3 billion tenge ($1.12 billion) in 2023. That decline followed a 37.3 per cent increase the year before, highlighting volatility in state environmental commitments.
Despite the overall drop, 2024 saw strong funding in several key areas. Air quality protection and climate change mitigation topped the list with 153.6 billion tenge ($283 million)-a 25.8 per cent increase from 2023. Waste management received 146.9 billion tenge ($270.8 million), and wastewater treatment projects were allocated 83.3 billion tenge ($153.5 million).
Conversely, spending on renewable energy-related environmental protection plummeted-from 202.4 billion tenge ($373 million) in 2023 to just 27.8 billion tenge ($51.2 million) in 2024-raising questions about the country’s commitment to green energy transition.
The developments in Kazakhstan come amid a global rise in greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), global emissions reached 529.6 billion tons of CO₂ equivalent in 2023, a 1.9 per cent increase over the previous year. Since 1990, emissions have climbed by 62 per cent, largely driven by the energy sector, which nearly doubled its output. Emissions from industrial processes rose by 91 per cent, transportation by 78 per cent, and waste management by 56 per cent.
The world’s top three emitters in 2023 were China (15.9 billion tons), the US (6 billion tons), and India (4.1 billion tons), together accounting for nearly 50 per cent of global emissions. Russia and Brazil followed with 2.7 billion and 1.3 billion tons, respectively. Other major contributors included Indonesia, Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.
In the Central Asian region and within the Eurasian Economic Union, Kazakhstan ranked second behind Russia in total emissions, releasing 320.4 million tons of CO₂ equivalent in 2023. Uzbekistan was next at 214.5 million tons, while Armenia (10.8 million tons), Tajikistan (21.4 million), and the Kyrgyz Republic (21.7 million) reported the lowest levels in the region.
