On July 21, at the collegium of the Environmental Regulation and Supervision Committee of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan were considered issues on improving of the environment condition, lowering the emissions level, optimization and transparency of public services and control activities.

According to the results of the first half of 2017, the positive dynamics of lowering of emission limits in North Kazakhstan (25%), Kyzylorda (23%), West Kazakhstan and Zhambyl oblasts (17%), Kostanai (7% ), Mangistau oblast (5%), in the capital 19% and in Almaty 8% was noted in the course of the work of the collegium.

Also, the bill for optimizing public services in the sphere of issuing permits for emissions and environmental assessment certificate was discussed.

So, for the convenience of users, it is planned to reduce the steps of public services from 5 to 2 and to reduce the duration of their performance fourfold from 180 to 45 days.
By that, we unite the public services for issuing permits for emissions with project environmental impact assessment, which will positively affect on rankings indicators in “Doing Business», it is principle aimed at relieving business operations in the Republic of Kazakhstan.

In the past half-year, the Ministry of Energy initiated the development of environmental targets for each oblast. They will allow to determine admissible volume of contaminants emissions in the oblast and to develop a plan of environmental protection measures to solve environmental problems.

Scientific developments in this direction are already being conducted in all regions, except Akmola, Kyzylorda and South Kazakhstan oblasts, where the akimats not allocated the financial resources for these purposes. Definitely, the obtained results will be used for improving the ecological state of the country’s regions.

The reduction by 2/3 of the number of selective inspections of the state environmental control for the second half of the year is the important result of the department’s work.

Now, the implementation of control functions is aimed at reducing the number of inspections and transition to the address inspections of natural resource users, whose activities connected with the significant risk of environmental pollution.

The project environmental impact assessment of large-scale natural resource users will be conducted with the participation of Expert Councils, which will include representatives of public associations, non-governmental organizations, scientific institutions, independent experts and mass media. The public hearings will be an obligatory step, where the opinion of the citizens and the public will be taken into account when discussing these projects.

According to the result of the work of the collegium, the head of the department gave precise instructions to the heads of regional offices, directed to ensure the transparency of their activities, to get going the feedback with the citizens and maximum public involvement in public services performance and environmental control.

Also, the priorities of the department are the necessity of intensification of work to reduce the environmental burden on the environment, improving the effectiveness of environmental protection measures by natural resource users.

The necessity of focusing on environmental problems of the regions, detection and restrain of violations in the sphere of the environment protection, as well as the regular work on modernization and improvement of the environmental law is specified.

In general, the department’s activities will be aimed at the improving of the environment condition and effective solution of the environmental problems, as well as eliminating corruption risks by ensuring transparency of environmental control functions and simplifying the processes of providing public services.

The concept of “green” economy is being used in society more often. After the Summit “Rio + 20” President of our state gave a high priority to this direction as one of the key factors of the further development of the state. This article will reveal the meaning of this concept, it’s main directions and details.

What is green economy?

Nowadays the society differently understands the meaning to the phrase “green” economy. Some persons think that this relates to new directions in economy that improve the nature of the state. The other understand it as new technologies, ecosystems which will benefit environment and nature. And there are also people who think that it is a new stage of development with the aim to create ecological products.

All of these approaches are close to the meaning. So, “green” economy means economy directed to save prosperity of the society at the expense of effective use of natural resources as well as return of product of final use to the production cycle.

First of all “green” economy is targeted on scarce consumption of the limited resources (natural resources: gas, oil) and rational use of unlimited resources.The basis of the “green” economy establishes “green” technology. By the words of experts the development of “green” economy will allow to avoid ecological crisis which affected many postindustrial countries.

Source: www.iied.org

A family in Tarialan, Uvs Province, Mongolia, uses a solar panel to generate power for their ger, a traditional Mongolian tent (Photo: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe, Creative Commons, via Flickr)

Ordinary people in many parts of the developing world are feeling more and more left out. While hundreds of millions have been lifted out of extreme poverty since the 1990s, particularly in places like China and Latin America, many have stayed behind.

The gap between the rich and poor has grown, and is widening. About 20 per cent of developing country populations as a whole still live on less than US$1.25 per day – at least one billion people.

Lack of income translates directly to lack of access to basic services and resources. According to the United Nations, the poorest children in developing countries are still up to three times more likely to die before their fifth birthday than children of well-off families.

Confidence has been falling in the ability of governments to manage their economies in ways that provide for a prosperous, sustainable, and healthy society. In short, these economies – whether robust or not – are not doing much for ordinary people, and policy is failing to deliver sustainable, so-called “inclusive” prosperity.

Mainstreaming green growth

One of the positive things to result from the global economic crisis of 2008 was to make the concept of “green growth” a bit more mainstream. This was mostly evident in the numerous short-term “green stimulus” packages that governments adopted to shore up weakened industries, invest in green projects and sectors, such as renewable energy, and promote both long- and short-term boosts to jobs.

The inclusive, social side of economic stimulus played a key role in ensuring successful economic turnaround, and in many respects it worked.

Giving it a historical perspective, green growth takes the economic growth model that has endured since the start of the industrial age, and seeks to turn it inside out. This has meant taking a hard look at laissez faire economics and being much more deliberate in ensuring “external” costs are fully internalised in national economies by planning more strategically.

Success is measured not only by profits and economic gain, but also by overall advances in social and environmental value, including job creation, poverty reduction, and sustainable use of natural resources.

The global community has been making great strides in promoting green growth as a smarter, better, more successful model of economic growth. But implementing it has been easier said than done. In practice, many socially inclusive initiatives have been left on the sidelines, and overarching social crisis persists.

In OECD countries, income stagnation for most of the population runs in stark contrast to soaring incomes and wealth of the elite, creating challenging conditions for democratic governance. This has in turn led to an upsurge in populist political movements – on both the left and the right.

Focus on people

In middle and low-income countries, while growth rates held up better after 2008, extreme poverty has changed little and still remains unacceptably high worldwide. In Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, growth has not brought proportionate reductions in poverty, where 388 million people still lived in poverty as of 2012.

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), the Green Economy Coalition (GEC), and IIED have been working together to bring poverty, social development, and inclusive green growth to the forefront of economic debate.

Our joint report on pro-poor, inclusive green growth makes a simple argument. For green growth to really fulfil its promise, to improve on the economic growth model of the past, it needs to focus on people.

It needs to tackle the poverty, inequality, and exclusion that constrain both growth and environmental sustainability, to realise women’s and men’s aspirations, and to gain broad societal support. Without this integrated approach, stand-alone green growth projects and investments will not lead to real transformation.

Putting inclusive green growth into practice requires four basic things: inclusive governance that fosters communication between citizens and government; policies that strengthen the livelihoods of poor people, secure their rights, and ensures they benefit from green transformations; reforms to financial systems to drive investment; and tools to measure and track this progress.

Despite the odds, real successes are taking hold around the world. In South Africa, environmental job schemes provide social protection for poor people while helping to preserve wetlands and biodiversity. Indonesia has effectively slashed fossil fuel subsidies while moving the saving towards more publicly appealing health insurance and conditional cash payments for the poor.

Rwanda has piloted a model for ecotourism that shares revenues locally and improves conservation. And strong public consultation in Mexico ensured that the poorest communities benefited from new renewable energy investments.

Communities need leaders

Taking these successes much further, in 2015 the global community achieved two landmarks for sustainable development. The sustainable development goals (SDGs) provide a comprehensive framework for guiding development progress and recognise the simultaneous need for growth, prosperity, peace, environmental protection, and reducing inequality.

The Paris Agreement on climate change is the first legal instrument with global reach designed to halt planetary warming and protect the poorest people and countries from its negative impacts.

Practical strategies for promoting pro-poor socially inclusive green growth will be the subject of several major events taking place during the forthcoming Global Green Growth Week in Jeju, South Korea from September 5-9. This will bring together more than a thousand government ministers, United Nations officials, researchers, private sector leaders, and experts to move the inclusive green growth agenda forward, through new partnerships, initiatives, and commitments to action.

The progressive global agreements on the SDGs and climate change provide a strong global framework for sustainable development.

But ultimately they will not work unless national politics backs them up, and we need leaders to seize the opportunities now available at the international level to mobilise financing and make smarter, greener investments in their long-term development.

There is more need than ever to develop policies and commitments that can deliver inclusive green growth. Everyone will gain, and millions will finally escape extreme poverty – and finally feel included.