Regional and world news
On January 25, 2022, parts of the territories of
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan experienced a massive
blackout. The three countries are united by one power grid
inherited from the Soviet Union — the Unified Energy System of
Central Asia. 11 months later, the first days of December also
brought an energy crisis to two largest countries in Central
Asia: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Several cities of Kazakhstan
suffered accidents in thermal power plants at the beginning of
the new heating season. An especially large one happened in
the city of Ekibastuz, in the north of the country.
Tajikistan first began to experience these chronic
difficulties in the early 2000s, when Uzbekistan suspended
deliveries of natural gas. Shortage of that fuel meant power
generators were unable to work at full capacity in winter.
Many a time since then, Rahmon has assured the public that
Tajikistan is on the cusp of achieving “energy independence.”
He promised in
2016 that the day would come “within three years.” In 2009,
he vowed energy
independence would be attained “within four years.”
The states of Central Asia — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — are facing severe
environmental challenges, which are being further exacerbated
by climate change. These issues are complex, intertwined, and
often rooted in the countries’ common Soviet legacy. The list
of issues includes how to battle Central Asia’s climate crisis
and its inherited ecological disasters: intense air pollution,
deforestation, nuclear contamination and the ecological
disaster that is the disappearing Aral
Sea. According to data from
the Swiss air quality technology company IQAir, Central Asian
cities rank among the worst in the world in terms of air
pollution.
Armenia, a mountainous, landlocked country in the
South Caucasus, is one of the most vulnerable countries in
Europe and Central Asia to climate change. The
nation’s average
temperature has risen by more than 1.2°C since 1929,
and changing climatic patterns have caused the degradation of
important landscapes, including watersheds and wetlands. In
the face of those challenges, Armenia has launched an
ambitious effort to adapt to climate change and cut domestic
greenhouse gas emissions, which fuel the climate crisis.
Coal-powered plants and the stoves of residential
homes in Central Asia's largest cities are pumping toxins into
the sky, icy roads are thick with slow moving, aging vehicles,
and social media chatter is full of talk about how bad the air
is and where to buy the best air purifier. Air pollution, and
especially dirty winter air, has long been a problem in the
region, but it is now beginning to resemble a catastrophe. The
political will to combat air pollution has traditionally been
weak, but with public awareness of the problem growing and the
health effects telling, can governments continue to ignore the
obvious?
The Bank has arranged two syndicated loans worth US$
520 million to help construct and put into operation two wind
power plants with a total installed capacity of 1GW in the
Bukhara region. The financing is the EBRD’s largest renewable
energy project to date across its regions. The Bank’s loan of
US$ 277 million to Bash Wind Power Plant (WPP) will consist of
an A loan of US$ 150 million on the EBRD’s own account and a B
loan of US$ 127 million, which will be syndicated to
commercial lenders. The new wind power plant will generate
more than 1,650 GWh of electricity annually and help reduce
annual CO2 emissions by 930,000 tonnes.
On 17 December, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili,
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Hungarian Prime Minister
Viktor Orban, and Romanian Prime Minister Romania Nicolae
Ciucă signed the agreement for the development of the
1,100-kilometer-long Black Sea strategic submarine electricity
cable aimed at transporting energy from Azerbaijan to the
European Union through Georgia. The agreement followed the
Plenary Session on Strategic Partnership Agreement for Green
Energy Development and Transmission held in Bucharest,
Romania.
The EU’s €10 bn investment in ASEAN member states will
help accelerate their green transition, but as the Ukraine war
and competition with China exposes vulnerabilities within both
unions, their strategic partnership’s motivations are almost
certainly more intricate in nature. One of the agreements
promised by the EU was a “Global Gateway” investment package
of €10 billion to ASEAN nations, intending to help member
states to advance their green economies and infrastructure
whilst staying on track to reach ambitious climate neutrality
targets. “Because our energy and trade cooperation will only
reach its full potential if it is underpinned by the right
infrastructure,” said President
von der
Leyen. |
