Needed to increase use of cleaner energy sources in Kazakhstan's energy sector - Kapparov

At a Monday Governmental Hour in the Majilis Kazakh Environmental Protection Minister Nurlan Kapparov stated that it is necessary to increase use of cleaner energy sources - natural gas and renewable sources of energy - in the country's energy structure.

He said the country's energy sector is a major polluter of the atmosphere, as well as the supplier of greenhouse gas emissions and industrial waste.

Coal provides 87 percent of Kazakhstan's energy. By 2020, the coal's share of the total generation of emissions will be 66 percent. Thus the Minister noted the need to increase the share of cleaner sources - gas and renewable energy sources.

According to the Environmental Protection Ministry's data, the country's gas resources amount to 3.7 trillion cubic meters. Gas unlike coal causes twofold lower emissions of carbon dioxide and does not produce ash disposal.