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ARTICLE · 11 AUGUST 2026

A “hot Season” For Kazakhstan Heating Sector

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Kazakhstan has made significant strides in sustainable development and carbon neutrality, yet faces critical challenges in implementing its climate strategies. The country's heating sector reforms, renewable energy targets, and decarbonization roadmap reveal tensions between ambitious environmental goals and structural dependence on coal and hydrocarbons, raising questions about the enforceability of climate commitments and the adequacy of investment frameworks.

KazakhstanEnvironment
Raushana Chaltabayeva
Raushana Chaltabayeva
Kurmet Zhumagaliyev
Kurmet Zhumagaliyev

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev repeatedly drew attention to systemic problems in the heat power sector 1. These include:

  • significant wear and emergency condition of a number of thermal power plants;
  • shortcomings in the existing tariff-setting system, which no longer fully meets the sector's current economic challenges;
  • a shortage of long-term private investment needed for its modernisation and development.

To address those issues, Kazakhstan has made significant progress in the area of sustainable development, both in fulfilment of its international commitments and through the adoption and implementation of domestic policies and strategies, including the Strategy for Achieving Carbon Neutrality of the Republic of Kazakhstan by 2060.

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