Key findings of the report “CCFLA Central Asia Hub: Scaling up project preparation and finance for net zero carbon buildings in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan” by the Climate Policy Initiative are:
Buildings’ decarbonization is fundamental to achieving the Nationally Determined Contributions of Central Asian countries. This paper focuses on Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where about 50% of the final energy use is attributable to the buildings sector. Residential buildings are particularly relevant, as they account for 34% of final energy use in Kazakhstan and 39% in Uzbekistan.
Recently, both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have intensified their government policy focus on decarbonizing buildings. Uzbekistan’s government aims to improve the overall economy’s energy efficiency by 50% by 2030. It concurrently aims to outfit a substantial portion of the country’s building rooftops with both solar PV and solar water heaters. In Kazakhstan, the national government targets a 15% reduction in the economy’s energy intensity by 2029 through prioritising energy efficiency in buildings. However, there has been little progress on investment and project implementation to date.
To realise their ambitions to decarbonize buildings, these countries need to step up their preparation of investable projects. Project preparation stakeholders in Central Asia focus on four key stages: concept design, pre-feasibility, feasibility, and structuring and transactions. They also conduct enabling activities such as awareness raising and capacity building for institutions, data, policies, and financial frameworks. The viability of NZCB projects in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is impaired by large energy subsidies, which cover up to 50% of the energy costs of residential buildings.
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