Serik Zhumangarin: Kazakhstani companies are not limited in offset payments for climate projects in Kazakhstan

The International Investor Week of AIFC 2022 started on October 3 with the theme of the development of carbon farming.

As Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration Serik Zhumangarin noted, speaking at the international conference "Combating Climate Change in Eurasia: carbon exchanges and prospects for carbon farming", today farmers are actually becoming producers of another type of product: carbon units for agricultural climate projects.

«The largest agricultural companies are forming their carbon farming programs, which involve the payment of remuneration to farmers for switching to carbon practices. International corporations actively declare their plans to achieve carbon neutrality and indicate in their reports the volumes of purchased carbon units, the so-called offsets. The largest buyers of offsets are digital giants (Google, Microsoft), airlines (Delta), investment banks (JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs). One of the factors of the effective operation of the market mechanism is the possibility of offset offsets by quota subjects, i.e. companies whose emissions are legally limited. In this sense, Kazakhstan has already followed the most inclusive model of organizing the carbon units market: Kazakhstani companies have the opportunity to count offsets purchased on the market for climate projects implemented in Kazakhstan without restrictions», — Serik Zhumangarin said.

As the Deputy Prime Minister noted, offset limits are limited in a number of other countries: for example, regulated organizations in China can compensate with offset no more than 5% of the excess of the established emission quota.

«However, both China and the European Union are already discussing the more active development of the carbon offset market – we hope that the experience of Kazakhstan will be taken into account by our partners», — he stressed.  

Thus, Kazakhstan has already made a big step towards stimulating the production of carbon units and the formation of the carbon offset market.. 

For reference: from October 3 to 7, 2022, the «Astana» International Financial Center (AIFC), with the support of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, is holding another International Investor Week in a hybrid format. The co-organizers and participants are the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IISASA), the BRICS International Center for Competition Law and Policy, the TALAP Center for Applied Research, the National ESG Club, and the GFC.