QAZAQ GREEN. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke at the 25th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum about the country's plans for green investments, the presidential press service reports.

"We plan to consistently expand opportunities for the growth of green investments and implementation of the relevant projects," he said.

The President noted that environmental problems have a global nature and have affected almost every country in the world, including Kazakhstan. Kazakh farmers suffered from drought last year due to low rainfall and shallow rivers. Tokayev recalled the critical condition of the Ural (Zhaiyk) River basin ecosystem,  which traverses Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation.

"I believe that such long-term challenges to the sustainable development of our states should be addressed together. I think we should seriously consider the prospects of introducing the principles of a circular economy. We are working on reducing the energy intensity of GDP, expanding the renewable energy sector and reducing transit losses in this sector," he concluded.

On 2 August 2016, Kazakhstan decided to join the Paris Agreement, which was adopted on 12 December 2015. Last December, Kazakhstan pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

The agreement offers a set of measures and commitments that aim to adopt national projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change and generate financial flows in favour of developing appropriate technologies.

The central objective of the Paris Agreement is its long-term temperature goal to hold global average temperature increase to “well below 2°C above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”.