ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the fundamental questions related to renewables in Kazakhstan: economic, financial and geographical, as well as policy issues from the long-term stability of the present development model. It focuses on three core themes: institutional – in order to explore the incentives and barriers for the traditional oil and gas sector to diversify into renewables; transitional – to facilitate the move from oil and gas to renewables, focusing on the role of networks, risk perception and risk aversion at different stages in the selection/finance/innovation process; and entrepreneurial – ICT-enabled education and capacity building in diversification strategies and green start-ups for all stakeholders. The chapter concludes that opportunities for structural change in energy systems remain – even with low oil prices. Central concerns to industrial policy-making are threefold: first, the volatility and sustainability of the resource-driven development model; second, avoiding the 'middle-income trap'; and, third, structural barriers to increased value-added production, labour productivity, industrial diversification and innovation- and entrepreneurship-friendly regulation.
