Kazakhstan sees positive trend in transparency of ecological information

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 21 By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend: Positive dynamics in the transparency of ecological information of the oil and gas companies have been observed in Kazakhstan from 2017 through 2019, Head of the Program for the Business Environmental Responsibility at WWF-Russia Aleksey Knizhnikov told Trend. "By the initiative of WWF-Russia and the CREON Group, a project was launched in 2014 on the compilation of a rating of the openness of environmental information for oil and gas companies in Russia. Since then, it has been held annually. A similar rating for oil and gas companies in Kazakhstan was initiated in 2017," Knizhnikov said. "The oil and gas industry is very closed, and there is a lot of work to do in this direction," he added. "We’re observing positive dynamics. As for the dynamics, according to the results of the first rating of environmental transparency of oil and gas companies in Kazakhstan, which we disclosed in 2017, the average score assessing the degree of disclosure was equal to 0.49dZFkcrKdk7XegyMd3kp4MGQoLFeMWM6Lion2T3q3h6DScBViFrXXuZoxkHq1TB1mGufMoGzfXd7jJ7ocgpJGxdEiGirjGand according to our forecasts, the figure will grow," he said. Commenting on the importance of transparency of environmental information and the impact of the level of this openness on the development of the oil and gas sector, Knizhnikov noted that it’s obvious that the more openly companies do their work, the more they seek to provide timely and truthful information, the more they are focused on dialogue with society. "More and more companies learn about the ratings, and every year we see more new participants. The Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan receive the results of our ratings and recognize the importance of developing such mechanisms, because the country is a party to the Aarhus Convention, and the rating, which is based on the concept of access to environmentally significant information, certainly helps to implement the provisions of the convention," added the expert. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @nargiz_sadikh