Source: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
To help accelerate their progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, which aims to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, SDG 7 Roadmaps for Kazakhstan and Armenia have been developed under a joint UNDA project implemented by ESCAP and UNECE.
Kazakhstan has already achieved universal access to electricity and is very close to achieving universal access to clean cooking, which stood at 97.8 per cent in 2021. It is estimated that universal access to clean cooking will be achieved by 2030 under the current policy settings. Energy efficiency improvement needs to be boosted across different sectors in order to achieve a 3.4 per cent annual improvement, which would reduce energy intensity to 4.0 MJ/USD by 2030. There is significant scope to increase the efficiency of the country’s energy system. Concerted effort is needed to improve energy efficiency across the entire economy. The power sector is heavily reliant on coal leading to substantial GHG emissions. An increase in renewable energy-based power generation is essential to reduce emissions.
The Roadmap sets out the following four key policy recommendations to help Kazakhstan achieve the SDG 7 targets:
1) Improve energy efficiency across all economic sectors;
2) Proceed with electrification of the transport sector, which will reduce emissions and improve energy security;
3) Decarbonize the power supply, which is the key to achieving net zero emissions by 2050;
4) Decarbonize the heating sector to reduce emissions and improve energy security.
With the presence of multiple enabling frameworks, Armenia’s progress towards achieving the SDG 7 and NDC targets is promising. Armenia has achieved universal access to electricity in recent years. The current pace will be enough to close the clean cooking access gap by 2030. In Armenia, electricity is mainly generated by nuclear, hydro and thermal power plants. Armenia depends heavily on natural gas in its energy system, with a low share of renewable energy.
However, renewable energy capacity is expected to increase to almost 53 per cent by 2030, meeting the 50 per cent renewable capacity target, since a significant amount of solar and wind generation capacity will come on stream. Armenia’s energy efficiency plans could also improve the energy intensity. Following the SDG 7.3 energy efficiency definition, Armenia’s energy intensity is expected to be 2.8 MJ/US$2017 in 2030 under the current policy scenario. Armenia can even further lower its energy intensity to 2.7 MJ/US$2017 in order to align with the global energy efficiency improvement rate of 4 per cent per year. In addition to a highly efficient energy system, a faster transition towards cleaner energy sources, especially renewables in both electricity and heat generation, will help Armenia to reach Net Zero GHG emissions by 2050.
The Roadmap sets out the following four key policy recommendations to help Armenia achieve the SDG 7 targets as well as reduce reliance on imported energy sources:
1) Strong policy measures are required to address the gap in clean cooking by 2030;
2) Accelerating the efficiency of energy use in all economic sectors should be pursued;
3) Fuel switching strategies, including electrification, accelerate SDG 7 progress and provide multiple benefits in the long run;
4) Decarbonization of the power and heating supply provides the highest potential in GHG emission reduction as well as improvement of energy security.
The Launch events were held in Astana on 29 April 2025 and in Yerevan on 14 May 2025 respectively. The Launch in Yerevan was organized jointly by UNDP, UNECE, and ESCAP. Both documents are a result of ESCAP and UNECE efforts involving data collection, analysis, stakeholder consultations at the national level, and modelling using the National Expert SDG Tool for Energy Planning (NEXSTEP) that started in 2022.
UNECE and ESCAP remain committed to assisting Kazakhstan and Armenia in delivering a secure, resilient and sustainable energy future.