Thursday, August 16, 2012 -
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev urged Environment Minister Nurlan Kapparov on Thursday to develop a transition strategy for the development of a ‘green economy’.
The directive comes after the minister participated in the Rio+20 summit held in the Brazilian capital in late June.
“Kazakhstan has made great strides to incorporate the initiatives of the head of state’s global energy and environmental strategy partnership program ‘Green Bridge,’” Kapparov said, as quoted in the state-sponsored news agency Kazinform.kz.
The directive comes one day after the Asian Development Bank (ADB) released its report detailing the necessity for Asian states to embrace green alternatives or risk disaster.
The development of Asian urban oases has been rapid, and populations have been rising in these urban centers faster than anywhere in the world, the bank notes.
“This breakneck expansion has been accompanied by a sharp rise in pollution, slums, and widening social and economic inequalities which are causing rapid environmental degradation,” the ADB said in a statement.
“Particularly disturbing are urban carbon dioxide emissions, which if left unchecked under a business-as-usual scenario, could reach 10.2 metric tons per capita by 2050, a level which would have disastrous consequences for both Asia and the rest of the world.”
Kazakhstan has grappled with a major natural disaster this year – a severe drought – which has decimated its grain production output and decreased its projected export levels of wheat.