ESG assessment of Kazakhstan companies

scoring based on published data

jointly withCentral Asia Climate Foundation ↗

We have assessed — of the largest companies based on what they have published themselves: how they protect nature, how they treat people and how they are governed. Each received a score out of 100 and a letter grade from E to A — on one scale for all.

—companies rated

—industries

—average score out of 100 — — level

—of the required information is published by companies on average

Scoring based on public data, without the company's participation

How to read this scoring

The scoring was carried out jointly with the Central Asia Climate Foundation (CACF) based on public data. This is the ESGQ rating, but on the public part of the data: the same items, the same scale. The assessment is based only on what the company has published itself; we do not contact companies. Any letter grade is already a step: a company that has started publishing non-financial data has set out on the path of sustainable development. The score grows with each new publication; the card shows exactly what will raise it.

Who was assessed: the basis is the official list of Kazakhstan's largest taxpayers, supplemented by companies from the PwC TOP-50 and the ESGQ 2023 and 2024 reviews, plus individual companies of our choice — — in the list in total. — have been rated; the rest are waiting in the queue. These are the country's largest companies, not the entire economy.

The industry sets the questions, the region sets the weight

Each of the 24 industries has its own questionnaire: miners are asked about tailings facilities and land reclamation, banks about whom they lend to, power companies about plant emissions, universities about students and the campus. That is why companies are compared fairly — against what matters for their particular business.

The region is taken into account too: where water is scarce, the water topic weighs more; where the air is more polluted, emissions do. A company in Kyzylorda and a company in Pavlodar answer the same questions, but their answers carry different weight.

Industry methodologies ↗ · How the region is taken into account ↗

The methodology is open ↗Expert council ↗ESGQ reviews 2023 and 2024 ↗

The picture across the database

data as of October 19, 2026 · — companies

What the full dataset shows

The figures are recalculated with each database update.

Number of companies at each level

One scale for all industries: from the Initial level (E) to the Leading level (A). No letter grade means “bad”: E is the start — the company has already entered the public space. How to read the scale ↗

Only UN Global Compact participants

initialdevelopingestablishedmatureleading

click a letter to filter the tablehow to read the scale ↗

Company	Industry				Score	SDG		Disclosed

Companies are ordered by how much data they publish: the most open first. Score is the letter grade based on published data; the company did not take part in the assessment. SDG stands for the Sustainable Development Goals: how many of the 17 goals the company's work relates to; it does not affect the letter grade. Disclosed is the share of the required information that has been published. Click a row to open the card.

What a subscription opens up — .

Industries at a glance: average score

ESGQ rating

Rating applications are open

Scoring is the ESGQ rating on the public part of the data: the same model, the same items. A full rating is when the company adds the rest, and the agency verifies the data and issues an . The more a company has already disclosed, the cheaper the rating.

Check a portfolio by a list of BINs or names

Borrowers, suppliers, counterparties — paste a list, one company per line: BIN, name or common name (KPO, Qarmet, Halyk). The answer comes as a single table: who is already scored, who is in progress, who is not in the registry. If a name matches several companies, we show the options.

—

—ESGQ score out of 100 · — level

initialdevelopingestablishedmatureleading

how to read the scale ↗

Scores by component

The three parts of the assessment are calculated separately: E — environment, S — people and society, G — governance. Each has its own letter grade and score out of 100.

What the score means

Profile and assets

Regional context

The region does not change the items or the scores — it changes the weight of environmental topics: where the problem is more severe, the topic weighs more. How the region is taken into account ↗ opens in a new tab

Decarbonization readiness

A separate index from 0 to 100 across four blocks: emissions accounting, governance, energy, results. Not part of the ESGQ score. How it is calculated ↗ opens in a new tab

Contribution to the SDGs

Contribution to the SDGs is a separate platform indicator: it shows which of the 17 goals the company's work relates to and how fully the related topics are disclosed. It is not part of the EQ score and does not affect the letter grades. How it is calculated ↗

From scoring to rating

Shown here is scoring — a score calculated under uniform rules on open data. An ESGQ rating is assigned based on the company's own data, verified by the agency, and is documented in an ESG Passport.

Sample ESG Passport: final letter grade, a ten-grade maturity ladder from E to A+, the position of the E, S and G components — **Sample.** ESG Passport is issued only with a rating — with its own certificate number.

	Scoring	ESGQ rating
Data	public only: reports, KASE, state registries	plus company data at the agency's request
Company	not participating	provides data and may dispute the conclusions
How it was assigned	by the uniform rules of the questionnaire, without expert judgment	an analyst verifies the data, the agency makes the decision
Gaps	an item without disclosure is not scored	are closed with the company's data
Result	EQ score and letter grade	the agency's opinion with monitoring
Document	no	ESG Passport

A rating begins with a request for missing data: we send a list of indicators from the block below and verify what the company provides.

What is not disclosed

Each published indicator from this list raises the score. The first two are open; the top five are available with a subscription.

— material indicators not disclosed out of —. The top five gaps, the score breakdown by topic and the industry rank are available with a subscription; the full list with recommendations comes with an ESGQ rating.

Industry position

—

Services and pricing · Training

Training in ESG and ESG risk management

Since 2022, the agency has delivered more than twenty programs — for companies, the stock exchange, the regulatory community, independent directors, and business schools. The programs are built on the ESGQ methodology and Kazakhstan data, including official environmental data.

23programs in the list

2022–2026years

Programs delivered

Year	When	For whom and about what
2026	January — May	AlmaU, MBA and Executive MBA programsmodule on ESG and sustainable business
2025	January 31 — February 1	Chevron's social partners and civil society (KBTU, jointly with the Nature First foundation)two-day ESGQuest workshop with a proprietary business game, more than 40 participants
2024	December 8	QID — "Independent Director. Successful Career" programthe essence of ESG and sustainability for independent directors
2024	November	Narxozlecture on ESG
2024	October — November	KMG and subsidiariesseminar "Human Rights Fundamentals: Protection and Promotion"
2024	October 30	KBTUlecture on ESG
2024	September 27	Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE)ESG in corporate governance
2024	August 27	Open online course"ESG Fundamentals: Corporate Sustainability Strategy and Implementing ESG Practices"
2024	May 24	Aktobe, regional enterprisesESG seminar
2024	March 12	KTZESG workshop with hands-on assignments
2024	February 16	Central Securities DepositoryESG seminar
2023	November	KPI (Atyrau)ESG in procurement and management — forum and seminar
2023	November 6 — 7	KMGtwo-day training: non-financial reporting, ESG ratings, social responsibility
2023	October 26	Corporate secretariesESG for corporate secretaries
2023	October 3	KazEnergy Women's ForumESG talk
2023	September 9	KazatompromESG training
2023	August 25	Caspiy NeftESG seminar
2023	May, August	KTZseminars: ESG, non-financial reporting under GRI, corporate governance
2023	July 20	International Center for Green Technologies and Investment Projectslecture on ESG
2023	June	NaCEC; West Kazakhstan Region (GreenForum)ESG trainings
2023	April 5	AlmaUlecture on ESG
2023	February 27 — 28	Shelltwo-day course: climate and decarbonization, greenwashing, ESG strategy
2022	December	KazAzot, KazGerMunai, Samruk-Kazyna OndeuESG trainings for companies

Based on the agency's archive of materials. The list is not exhaustive: it includes programs for which materials have been preserved.

Analytics · regional climate risks

Regional climate risks

Which natural hazards threaten business in each of Kazakhstan's 20 regions — based on the observations of Kazhydromet and the Ministry of Emergency Situations and on open data sets. Click a region on the map — you will see its level and the list of its hazards.

jointly withCentral Asia Climate Foundation ↗

Detailed regional information

We show which natural hazards threaten business in each region of Kazakhstan — and how severely. Heat, drought, water scarcity, floods, mudflows, dust storms, wildfires. At the regional level this is free. For a specific address, a separate paid assessment.

Where the data comes from

We calculate from observations, not from someone else's estimates. The basis is Kazhydromet data: weather stations and river gauges across the country, from the 1990s through last year. How the climate will change we take from international climate models — the same ones behind Kazakhstan's climate projections for the UN.

What you see for a region

Click a region on the map — you will see its level and the list of its hazards. The level of a region is not a company assessment and not a rating: it tells you what a business that operates, builds or holds collateral here will have to deal with.

The risk level of the region in one word: low, medium, high or very high
All hazards of this region and the level of each — you see exactly what makes the region difficult
Which hazards are not applicable to the region: Mangystau Region has no river floods, and inland regions have no Caspian storm surges

What is behind each hazard

Heat

How often the temperature reaches dangerous values and how many such days there are per year. It hits people working outdoors, equipment and cooling, and electricity demand.

Drought and water scarcity

How dry the climate is becoming and how strained the water balance of the basin is. This is a risk for operations with large water withdrawals, for agriculture and for new projects that need water.

River floods

How often rivers reach danger levels and whether this frequency is rising. It concerns everything located in a floodplain: warehouses, roads, settlements, bank collateral.

The Caspian

Storm surges and sea level change — for coastal assets and port infrastructure.

Mudflows, avalanches, landslides

Mountain and foothill areas: hazard zones and the history of events. No projection for them exists anywhere in the world — and we say so plainly.

Wind and dust storms

Hurricane-force winds, dust and sand storms: roofs, power lines, road visibility, equipment operation.

Heavy rainfall, hail, frost and blizzards

Short, intense events that most often cause the damage: waterlogging, damaged equipment, halted traffic.

Wildfires and land condition

Steppe and forest fires near assets; erosion, salinity and land degradation — from the state land report.

The picture across the country

Heat and humid heat — south and west, but in different ways

The driest heat is in the south: Shymkent, Kyzylorda and Turkistan Regions, where 35 °C and above lasts about two months a year. For people working outdoors humid heat matters more, and there the leaders are Mangystau, Atyrau and Kyzylorda. A warehouse near Aktau is harder in terms of working conditions than one near Turkistan, even though by the thermometer it is the other way round.

Water — south and center

The most stressed basins are the Aral-Syrdarya (Kyzylorda, Turkistan, Shymkent) and the Nura-Sarysu (Karaganda, Ulytau). In the west, water withdrawal is high in the Zhaiyk-Caspian. The north is the calmest. Within a region the spread matters more than the average: a site above a water intake and a site below it are different stories.

Floods have shifted to the north and to the center

Over thirty years of observations the share of years in which water reached a danger level rose in Karaganda Region from 1 to 19%, in Ulytau Region from zero to 30%, and in North Kazakhstan Region from 1 to 14%. In the south there were almost no exceedances: the Syrdarya is regulated. The widest flood of 2024 was in Kostanay Region: the water reached the danger level at 13 gauges out of 18.

Mudflows and avalanches — mountain regions

Almaty, Zhetysu, East Kazakhstan, Abai and Turkistan Regions. Here the regional level is knowingly coarse: a mudflow comes down a particular channel, and a village on the alluvial fan and a village ten kilometers away are different risks. A different scale of data is needed.

Land — salinity in the west, erosion in the south

The hardest hit are Mangystau, Atyrau, West Kazakhstan and Kostanay Regions: more than half of their agricultural land is saline. Erosion is stronger in the south and south-east. In the north it looks modest at the regional level but hits cropland: Pavlodar Region accounts for three quarters of all wind-eroded cropland in the country.

Dust storms — the west

Mangystau Region: nine days with a dust storm per station per year, Atyrau Region seven, Kyzylorda Region six. In the north and in Zhambyl Region these are isolated cases.

What has changed over thirty years of observations: the country is warming faster than the world, and this shows up above all in the number of very hot days and in the shift of floods to the north. Aridity is growing not because there is less rain — annual precipitation totals have barely changed — but because evaporation is rising.

An overview of all 20 regions at once — the level, how many hazards are high and which ones — .

What each hazard is computed from

For each hazard you can see which observations and data sets it is built on and for which period. This is what you can show an auditor or an inspector when they ask where the figure comes from.

Hazard	Observations and data sets	Period	Primary sources
Heat (by the thermometer)	The State Climate Cadastre of Kazhydromet — temperature by station; daily station summaries NOAA GSOD; ERA5 reanalysis for verification	cadastre 2021–2025, stations 2021–2024, ERA5 from 1951	Kazhydromet cadastre, NOAA GSOD, ERA5
Heat stress (humid heat)	The same stations, but with dew point (NOAA GSOD); the sWBGT indicator under the ISO 7243 working-conditions standard	2021–2024	NOAA GSOD, ISO 7243
Drought	ERA5 reanalysis: the SPEI-12 index and the aridity index; UNICEF data on agricultural drought — as a cross-check	1951–2025	ERA5 SPEI-12, UNICEF GeoSight
Water stress	Water management basins of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation; WRI Aqueduct 4.0 by sub-basin	current assessment	Government Decree No. 66, Ministry of Water Resources, WRI Aqueduct 4.0
River flooding	Kazhydromet's hydrological database: daily levels at 438 gauges and the map of danger levels; emergency situation reviews of the Ministry of Emergency Situations	levels 1994–2024, Ministry of Emergency Situations 2018–2026	hydrological database of gauges, map of danger levels, emergency reviews, Ministry of Emergency Situations
Caspian: storm surges and sea level	Kazhydromet publications on the regime of the Caspian Sea; the hydrological database, the gauges of the Small Aral	observations through 2024	Caspian Sea regime, review of storm and negative surges
Mudflows and avalanches	Kazhydromet's list of mudflow-prone regions; Ministry of Emergency Situations data; ThinkHazard (GFDRR) for landslides	current lists	mudflow hazard review, mudflow studies, ThinkHazard! The list of avalanche-prone sites is not published openly — on request from the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Land condition	Consolidated analytical reports on the condition and use of land in Kazakhstan (Land Resources Management Committee): erosion, salinity, overgrazing, waterlogging, disturbed land	2024 and 2025 editions	land report for 2025, 2024 edition
Wind and dust storms	Natural hazards of the cadastre; the atmospheric phenomena table of the yearbook — days with a dust storm by station	2021–2025	Kazhydromet cadastre, dust storm analysis, CAREC
Heavy rainfall and hail	Precipitation at cadastre stations, daily maxima; natural hazards of the cadastre	2021–2025	Kazhydromet cadastre
Frost and blizzards	Temperature at cadastre stations; natural hazards of the cadastre	2021–2025	Kazhydromet cadastre
Wildfires	Active fire hotspots of NASA FIRMS (MODIS) for the fire season; ThinkHazard for cross-checking	2015–2024	NASA FIRMS, fire danger forecast
Earthquakes (not climate)	The World Bank seismic hazard map of Central Asia (SFRARR); the intensity scale of Kazakhstan's building codes; the USGS earthquake catalog	return period 475 years	SFRARR maps, World Bank, USGS catalog The intensity scale is SP RK 2.03-30-2017; there is no openly available text of the standard.
Protected areas nearby	The same land report: protected areas of republican significance	2025 edition	land report for 2025

Region boundaries — OpenStreetMap. Calculations and conclusions — ESGQ. The thresholds that turn an observation into a level are part of the methodology: they are in the report, not on the platform.

Where to find the primary sources

Everything our calculations rest on is open government and international data sets. Here they are collected in full, with the terms of access: any figure of ours can be verified at the source.

Kazakhstan

State Climate Cadastre, Kazhydromet · hydrological database of gauges · hydrological monitoring map · climate change monitoring bulletin · Caspian Sea regime · mudflow studies · emergency situation reviews, Ministry of Emergency Situations · report on the condition of land, Land Resources Management Committee · Water Resources Management Concept (Government Decree No. 66) · Taldau: damage from emergencies

International data sets

NOAA GSOD — daily station data · ERA5 reanalysis, Copernicus · WRI Aqueduct 4.0 — water risk · ThinkHazard!, World Bank · NASA FIRMS — fire hotspots · SFRARR seismic hazard maps · USGS earthquake catalog · UNICEF GeoSight — climate risk for children · situational analysis of dust storms, CAREC · region boundaries, OpenStreetMap

The Kazhydromet cadastre and databases open after registration; we do not reprint the cadastre tables — we publish our own indicators and conclusions with a reference to the source. Aqueduct 4.0 and the seismic hazard maps are CC BY 4.0, the region boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Two sources are not published openly: the list of avalanche-prone sites of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (on request) and SP RK 2.03-30-2017 (paid databases) — wherever we use them, this is stated explicitly. The levels and assessments are an ESGQ expert opinion, not a credit rating.

Limits of the data

We present floods through the observation record and the direction of change rather than a projection: global models of river runoff in Kazakhstan disagree with one another
For mudflows, avalanches and landslides no projection exists anywhere: we provide hazard zone maps and the history of events
Ground subsidence, karst and the groundwater level cannot be determined from open data — engineering surveys are required; the report states this explicitly
The level of a region is a hazard, not your risk: risk appears where there is a specific asset and its vulnerability

Region profile, site assessment and portfolio assessment with a 2030 and 2050 outlook — .

A comment, question or suggestion about this material?

An ESGQ expert opinion, not a credit rating. Observation data — RSE Kazhydromet. Risk levels are updated as new observation data become available.

About

ESGQ^® Rating Agency

We believe that ESG ratings can help build a sustainable and prosperous Central Asia. The agency was founded on August 8, 2022 in Astana.

Mission

We are a reliable partner that will support you on the path to an environmentally sustainable and just future and help you become more attractive for sustainable investment.

Our expertise, which accounts for industry and regional specifics, and our knowledge of global best practices in ESG risk management support responsible investment decisions.

UN Global Compact

The agency has been a signatory to the UN Global Compact, the world's largest sustainability initiative, since 2023. In 2026 it published a public Communication on Progress.

We value

Openness and broad engagement with experts
Focus on results
Applied nature of the work
Global best practices and communications
Assessment of ambition, effort and progress
«Reverse» analysis
Competitiveness
Authenticity of the methodology

Main areas

Scoring

ESG scoring of Kazakhstan companies based on public data: a score and letter grade for ESG risk management maturity, data coverage and a list of what is not disclosed.

Platform access

Registry, company cards and industry comparisons — for banks, investors and procurement, with a subscription.

Rating and ESG Passport

An assessment based on the company's own data verified by the agency, with the right to dispute the conclusions and with monitoring. An ESG Passport with a certificate number is issued.

Training

Corporate programs and open courses on ESG, ESG risk management, non-financial reporting and working with environmental data.

Scientific basis of the methodology

The methodology draws on the author's academic researchYerlik Karazhan — Candidate of Economic Sciences, specialty 08.00.14 “World Economy and International Economic Relations”, Institute of Economics, Almaty, 2010. The dissertation deals with international carbon trading and the national economy's participation in it; its findings underpin the agency's approaches to emissions intensity and the carbon price. The findings were used in the development of the Republic of Kazakhstan's “Zhasyl Damu” program for 2010–2014, in the preparation of greenhouse gas reporting for BG Group and of the sustainability management system of North Caspian Operating Company.

Expert council

Rae Kwon ChungAdviser to the UN Secretary-General on climate change; Nobel Peace Prize laureate as part of the IPCC (2007)

Judy KuszewskiCEO of Sancroft; formerly chair of the council on sustainable finance and non-financial reporting standards (United Kingdom)

Mughis ShaukatSpecialist in Islamic finance and standards, MIT graduate

Chokan LaumulinUnited Nations Economic Commission for Europe, sustainable energy; PhD (University of Cambridge)

Ainur SospanovaHead of the QazaqGreen renewable energy association

Contacts

Emailinfo@esgq.kz

WhatsApp+7 706 878 09 66

Websiteesgq.kz

Instagram@esgq.kz

LinkedInESGQ Rating Agency

Company details

OrganizationESGQ Rating Agency LLP

BIN220840012205

LocationAstana, Republic of Kazakhstan

BankBank CenterCredit JSC

IBAN (KZT)KZ408562203121165738

BIC · Beneficiary codeKCJBKZKX · 17

The Agency is a VAT payer. The full legal address is given in the invoice and the contract and is provided on request to info@esgq.kz.

ESGQ® is a registered trademark. The agency's scoring and ratings are separated from advisory services.

About us · Press

ESG assessment of Kazakhstan companies — media materials

jointly withCentral Asia Climate Foundation ↗

ESGQ Rating Agency has assessed — of Kazakhstan's largest companies from — industries based on what they have published themselves: how they protect nature, how they treat people and how they are governed. Each received a score out of 100 and a letter grade from E to A — on one scale for all. The scoring was carried out jointly with the Central Asia Climate Foundation (CACF) based on public data: we do not contact the companies and do not charge them for the assessment. This is the ESGQ rating, but on the public part of the data; a company receives the full rating when it adds the rest itself.

ESGQ proprietary methodology, 2026. Data as of October 19, 2026. Any letter grade is already a step: E is the start — the company has entered the public space with non-financial data.

Key figures

A low score means that the company publishes little data so far, not that it has committed a violation. Why a company should publish: this is how it answers investors, banks, customers, employees and neighbors on the questions that matter most to them.

How to read the scoring

Each company receives a score out of 100 and a letter grade. The scale is the same for all industries: a C for a bank and for a mining company means the same thing. Three parts are shown separately: E — environment, S — people and society, G — governance.

Number of companies at each level

Industries

Each industry has its own questionnaire, and the region changes topic weights — companies are compared against what matters for their business. Click a company to open its card.

How to cite

According to ESG scoring by ESGQ Rating Agency jointly with CACF as of October 19, 2026

And a link to the company card: each card has a permanent address. The card is open free of charge — score, letter grade, main gaps, sources.

What not to write

Do not confuse scoring and rating. Scoring is the ESGQ rating on public data, without the company's participation; the correct wording is “ESGQ ESG scoring”. An ESGQ rating without qualification is assigned based on the company's own data verified by the agency.
Do not call it a credit assessment. It is an expert opinion on disclosure and ESG risk management.
Do not present a low score as a violation. It is an absence of public data, not proven wrongdoing.
Do not call E and E+ a “bad grade”. This is the initial level: the company already publishes non-financial data and can grow with each publication.
Do not compare with other scales — the PwC TOP-50 on disclosure or the ESGQ 2023 and 2024 reviews: a different sample and scale.

How much ESG costs — figures for your story

Refusing to modernize now has a price in Kazakhstan, written into law. The figures can be quoted with reference to the source given under each.

×12the factor by which the emission charge of the largest polluter without an integrated environmental permit will grow by 2031 · Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Art. 639–640

0 ₸charge for emissions within the standards at an enterprise with such a permit · ibid., Art. 640(2)

75 €price of a CBAM certificate (tonne of CO₂) for exports of steel, aluminum and fertilizers to the EU, Q2 2026 · European Commission

43 timesthe fine per tonne of missing carbon allowance is higher than the allowance itself: 19 660 versus 455 tenge · ICAP, 2025

47 billion ₸paid for emissions by 190 subsoil users in 2024 · EITI, ESGQ calculation

+69 billion ₸benefit for an exporting plant on the list of 50 over 10 years with modernization and a permit · ESGQ calculation, typical case, an example — not a real enterprise

According to calculations by ESGQ Rating Agency, “ESG economics” model, September 2026

The model is about model companies. Do not label its figures with the names of real enterprises.
Statutory rules — ×12, ×6, zero charge with a permit — cite them with a reference to the article of the Tax Code.
The estimate of “more than 100 million € a year” for CBAM is cited by the EU Delegation with reference to the International Trade Centre and QazTrade — attribute it to them.

Questions and answers

Why does a large, well-known company have a low letter grade?

Scoring takes into account only what the company publishes. If there are no publicly available data on emissions, water or occupational safety, no score is awarded for these items.

Can a company disagree?

Scoring is based only on public data; the agency does not request anything from companies. If a company publishes the missing data or points to data already published, the scoring will be recalculated at the next update. An assessment based on the company's own data is provided by the ESGQ rating, a separate service.

Do companies pay for scoring?

No. Scoring on public data is carried out in queue order, free of charge for the company and the same way for everyone. Any user — a newsroom, a bank, an investor or the company itself — can order scoring of a company that is still in the queue: there is a for this. It is a paid service because it requires the work of the agency's analysts; payment does not affect the result. An ESGQ rating based on the company's own data is a separate service.

Who does the scoring?

ESGQ Rating Agency jointly with the Central Asia Climate Foundation (CACF). Assessments are assigned only by ESGQ; the foundation promotes the scoring among companies, government bodies and international partners.

What methodology is used?

ESGQ proprietary methodology, 2026: 209 items across 21 topics, industry methodologies, alignment with IFRS S1 and S2, SASB and GRI, and more than 800 regulatory acts of Kazakhstan in force. The is open.

How often is it updated?

Database snapshot once a month; a company's scoring is recalculated when its new report is released.

Press contact

info@esgq.kz or WhatsApp +7 706 878 09 66 — we reply within two business days.

About · News

Agency news

The agency's Instagram posts — new posts appear here automatically.

Instagram @esgq.kz ↗

Scoring · Small and medium-sized business

ESG profile of small and medium-sized businesses

We do not assess small and medium-sized companies on open data — they have almost none, and such an assessment would be an assessment of silence. Instead, the company itself fills in a short questionnaire — two to three times shorter than the full one, we verify the answers against documents and issue a profile with a letter grade. SME profiles are compared only with each other, not with the assessments of large companies.

Who needs this

For suppliers of large companies and bank borrowers: they are increasingly asked about ESG but have nothing to show yet. The profile is a ready answer to such a request.

What the company receives

A letter grade and score on the short scale, a list of what will raise the assessment, and an ESG Passport with the rating. The profile is shown in this section.

How to get it

Fill in the short questionnaire and attach documents. The price is the SME tier of the ESGQ rating, .

Overview of profiles

—SME profiles

—average score on the short scale, % — letter grade —

—items of the short set disclosed on average

initialdevelopingestablishedmatureleading

click a letter to filter the listhow to read the scale ↗

One ladder for everyone: E is the start, A is the leader. SME profiles are compared only with each other.

Profiles

Short SME scale; not comparable with the assessments of large companies.

How the short SME scale works

Who falls into this section

A company's size is determined under Article 24 of the Entrepreneurial Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, by average annual headcount and average annual income (over three years): micro — up to 15 people or up to 30 000 MCI of income (one condition is enough); small — up to 100 people and up to 300 000 MCI; medium — up to 250 people and up to 3 000 000 MCI; large — if at least one of the two thresholds is exceeded. An exchange listing does not change the size, and professional securities market participants (brokers, investment banks) are not recognized as small.

Which items are asked

The short set has from — to — items instead of —–— in the full set for the same industry. The items hardest for a small company have been removed: three-year quantitative series, greenhouse gas inventories, intensity indicators per unit of output. The topics remain industry-specific: a financial company is asked its own questions, a mining company its own.

How the score and letter grade are calculated

The score is the share of the maximum of the short set that was earned, from 0 to 100%. The maximum is fully attainable: the company answers all items of the set itself, so the ceiling of the SME scale is 100% in every industry. The letter grade follows the same ten-grade ladder as for large companies: from E (start) to A+ (leader). An not disclosed answer receives zero and stays in the calculation.

A typical small company with a basic set of documents — internal labor regulations, occupational safety instructions, a waste removal contract, electricity bills — receives D+. An “E” goes not to a company that works badly, but to one that has not yet told the public about itself: every answer filled in raises the score.

Why SME profiles are not compared with large companies

A score on the short scale and a score on the full scale are different quantities, and in a single list both are misleading. The same answers on the full scale would give a score —–— times lower — for example, —. That is why SME profiles are included neither in the general registry nor in industry comparisons.

Where the data comes from

A profile is built from the company's own data or from its public documents: annual reports, audited financial statements, policies on the website, regulators' registers. We do not assess a small company on the basis of silence: a profile appears when the company has something to show — publishing data matters for small businesses too. Every statement in the profile is accompanied by a document and a page.

The methodology is open ↗

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in progress

Scoring not yet calculated

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Collection of public data. Sustainability reports and annual reports, KASE disclosures, state registries.
Calculation by the industry questionnaire. Material topics and weights follow the company's industry; the region follows the location of assets.
Publication in the registry. Score, letter grade, data coverage and the list of what is not disclosed.

Expedite your scoring

There is no need to wait for the queue. Any user — a bank, an investor, a journalist or the company itself — can order scoring of this company: on request, the agency calculates it within 3 business days based on public data, and nothing needs to be sent. The service is paid because it requires the work of the agency's analysts; the price is the same for everyone — see the page.

Industry methodology ↗

Methodology description · 2026 edition

ESG risk management maturity scoring methodology

The assessment works in two steps. Scoring is calculated from what the company has published itself: reports, its website, government registers. We do not ask the company anything, so the score shows how openly it reports on its work. The purpose of scoring is to encourage companies to disclose more: every publication raises the score.

Rating is the second step: the ESGQ agency requests missing data from the company itself, verifies them and issues an ESG Passport. The methodology is the same: it is built from global best practices and Kazakhstan legislation, so a company does not need to fill in several different questionnaires for a bank, an exchange and customers — once, and to the point.

An unfamiliar word? See the : 193 terms in plain language.

How the assessment works

pillars, topics, items, weights

We look at a company from three sides: E — how it protects nature, S — how it treats people, G — how it is governed. Inside there are 21 topics: water, emissions, occupational safety, workers' rights, the board of directors, anti-corruption and others. Each topic has questionnaire items: whether a document exists, whether the company keeps records, what changed in the numbers. An answer about results is valued more than an answer about having a document on paper.

Materiality. Not all topics are equally important for everyone: for miners, tailings facilities and reclamation are material; for a bank, whom it lends to; for a university, students and the campus. A material topic is one that truly affects the company and the people around it in its industry. Immaterial topics are not put to the company, so that nothing superfluous is asked.

Not disclosed means zero. If data are not publicly available, the item gets zero and stays in the calculation: we do not guess anything on the company's behalf. That is why a low score most often means “has said little”, not “performs poorly”.

Region. Where water is scarce or the air is heavy, the corresponding topic weighs more. The region by itself does not change the letter grade.

Scale

ten letter grades, five maturity levels

Ten letters from E to A+ and five levels. The scale is the same for all industries: a C for a bank and for a mining company means the same thing. No letter means “bad” — the scale shows how far a company has come on the path to transparency.

EE+InitialThe company has entered the public sphere: it keeps records and has begun to talk about itself. This is already a step, and this is where growth is fastest — every publication raises the score.

DD+DevelopingBasic practices are in place, priorities are visible. The company knows what matters to it and is starting to show it.

CC+EstablishedKey topics are under systematic management. The company gives feedback to those connected with it — banks, investors, employees, neighbors — and hears their response.

BB+MatureManagement is systematic and complete; the question now is the quality of data and results, not whether they exist.

AA+LeadingPractices at the level of global benchmarks; the company is an example for its industry.

Industry methodologies

topics and weights for each industry

Each of the 24 industries has its own questionnaire. It reflects the industry's best global practices and the official data available for it, and, above all, the specifics of the industry itself: which topics are material for it and to what extent. For miners, tailings facilities and land reclamation carry a large weight; for power companies, plant emissions; for banks, whom they lend to; for universities, students and the campus.

That is why companies are compared fairly: against what matters for their particular business, not against a generic list. The full table of topics and weights for each industry is available by subscription.

Industries and sources

summary table and explanation of the standards

In every industry the basis is the same: GRI (Global Reporting Initiative — the world's main standard for non-financial reporting; it also has sector supplements, and they are taken into account), international disclosure standards and the legislation of Kazakhstan. Beyond that, each industry adds its own: for extractive industries — oil and gas, metals, coal, uranium — there is a separate item on disclosure of payments to governments; for real estate and construction, building certifications, both global and Kazakhstan ones, are credited; for finance, the financed emissions accounting standard and the regulator's guidance apply.

Small and medium-sized business mode. For smaller companies the questionnaire is shorter, there is one reporting year, and the scale is their own: they are assessed on the company's own data rather than on public data.

Choose an industry to see what it takes into account. Standards are given under their original names; what each one means is in the .

Industry

Regional adjustment

severity of issues by region

The industry decides which topics are assessed, and the region decides how much they weigh. Water matters more where it is scarce, emissions where the air is burdened by industry, occupational safety where injury rates are higher. For each region, the severity of issues is set from observational data, so the water topic weighs more for a company from Kyzylorda than for a company from Pavlodar, while in Pavlodar emissions weigh more. The region by itself does not change the letter grade.

Alignment with IFRS S1 and S2

which requirements the questionnaire checks

IFRS are International Financial Reporting Standards, under which companies prepare reports for banks and investors. In 2023 two new standards were added to them: S1 — general sustainability-related disclosures, and S2 — climate-related disclosures. The idea is simple: sustainability information should be as verifiable and comparable as financial information.

In Kazakhstan their application is under discussion: the timeline for a mandatory transition has not yet been set, but the standards are expected to become mandatory, and the financial market regulator already relies on them in its disclosure guidance. The ESGQ methodology is built on these standards in advance: a company that goes through the assessment is preparing for a requirement that is yet to come.

Sustainable Development Goals

topic mapping and how to read the contribution

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 goals adopted by UN member states in 2015: clean water, affordable energy, decent work, climate action and others. Kazakhstan has endorsed them and tracks national indicators for them: these are the country's own goals and commitments, not just an international agenda.

In ESGQ, every assessment topic is linked to the goals and to Kazakhstan's national indicators maintained by the Bureau of National Statistics. This shows which goals a company's work relates to and how well the related topics are disclosed. This contribution does not affect the score or the letter grade — it is a separate view.

Decarbonization readiness

a separate index: accounting, management, energy, results

Kazakhstan has a goal of carbon neutrality by 2060. The decarbonization readiness index shows how ready a company is to take part in this process. It is our own assessment, and it is important to understand that it is not about technology: we do not judge what equipment is installed at a plant. We take a systemic view — of how the company sees and manages its emissions.

What we pay particular attention to: whether the company measures its emissions and publishes multi-year time series; whether it has a plan — a reduction strategy, adaptation to climate risks, energy management; how much energy it sources from renewables and whether it tracks energy intensity; whether emissions are actually falling. The index runs from 0 to 100, does not count toward the scoring and does not affect letter grades.

ESG Passport

how an ESGQ rating is issued

ESG Passport is the document in which the agency formalizes an ESGQ rating. A single page shows how maturely the company manages ESG risks, by each pillar and overall, and what it should do next.

2sides: the result and the assessment architecture

10scale grades — from E to A+

5maturity levels — from Initial to Leading

3languages — Kazakh, Russian, English

Front of the ESG Passport: final letter grade C+, a ten-grade ladder from E to A+, the position of the E, S and G pillars, industry, period and certificate number — **Front side — the result.** The final letter grade and maturity level, a ten-grade ladder with the position of each pillar — E, S, and G — the industry, the assessment period, the certificate number, and the date of issue.

Back of the ESG Passport: how the assessment works, the scale with levels, what has been achieved and the next step, the company's scores by pillar — **Reverse side — how to read the result.** What the rating measures, what the methodology rests on, the scale of levels: what is achieved at each and what the next step is, and the company's scores by pillar.

Example. "Example Energy" is a fictional company; the scores are illustrative.

When it is issued

Only with an ESGQ rating — based on the company's own data verified by the agency against primary sources. No passport is issued for scoring based on open data.

Why companies need it

Show a bank, an investor or a customer the maturity of ESG risk management in a clear form: one letter, a level and a growth trajectory — on a single page.

Scoring and rating

what is the difference

ESGQ scoring

A score calculated under the published methodology on open data. The company does not participate in the calculation; there is no expert judgment. The result is a score and a letter grade. No passport is issued.

ESGQ rating

The agency's opinion on the same scale. The scoring is the basis; on top of it — the company's data, their verification, the agency's decision, the right to challenge the result, and monitoring. Documented in an ESG Passport with a certificate number.

Right of reply

The scoring is based on public data, and a company may have disclosed more than the agency found. Any company in the registry may send a link to a published document, or the document itself, to info@esgq.kz, indicating the page where the metric is disclosed. The agency verifies the submission, recalculates the score and updates the company card in the next data release; every answer taken into account keeps its source in the card. An assessment based on data the company has not published is an ESGQ rating: it is performed under a contract, with verification and the right to challenge the result before the passport is issued.

What makes ESGQ different

international agencies, ESGQ scoring and rating

International agencies assess large listed companies and sell the results to investors. Only a handful of Kazakhstan companies are in their coverage — those listed in London or New York. ESGQ assesses Kazakhstan companies against international standards and Kazakhstan law, shows the result to the company itself, and explains where and why points were lost.

In short: MSCI, Sustainalytics and S&P rate large companies with foreign listings and sell the results to investors; only a handful of Kazakhstan companies are in their coverage. ESGQ assesses companies of Kazakhstan — under international standards and Kazakhstan law, on one scale for all industries, adjusted for the region. The scoring is visible to everyone free of charge, and a company sees not only the total but every indicator: disclosed or not, and what exactly will raise its score. ESGQ does not replace an international rating, but it prepares a company for one.

What ESGQ scoring gives you

Position today, free of charge. Score, letter grade, breakdown by E, S, G and contribution to the 17 SDGs.
Gap map. How many of the industry's material indicators are not disclosed — a ready plan for the next report.
Explaining the losses. The data exist, but the points were lost: it is clear what exactly needs fixing.
Comparison with the industry in Kazakhstan, not with a global sample that contains no Kazakhstan companies.
Priority assessment within 3 business days at the request of any user; nothing needs to be sent.

What an ESGQ rating gives you

Closed gaps. Internal data enter the calculation: the score reflects practice, not just the report.
Right to dispute and supplement. The data are verified together with the company.
ESG Passport with letter grades for E, S, G and a maturity level.
Breakdown with recommendations and a comparison with the industry.
Industry guides together with the questionnaire: what to collect, where to get it, how to calculate it.
A response to requests that are already coming in: disclosure under the regulator's guidance, banks' ESG questionnaires, supply chain requests from large customers.
For small and medium-sized businesses — a simplified set of items and one reporting year.
Reproducibility. Recalculation a year later with the same data yields the same number.

When an international rating is needed. For a listing abroad, inclusion in global ESG indices and negotiations with foreign funds, a rating from MSCI, Sustainalytics or S&P is required — ESGQ does not replace it. ESGQ prepares a company for it: it closes disclosure gaps under the same standards in advance and in plain language. For all other companies in Kazakhstan, ESGQ is the only external assessment.

Both ESGQ scoring and ESGQ rating are an expert opinion. This is not a credit rating and not an investment recommendation. The principles of the methodology are open and versioned, and the current edition is 2026; exact weights and scoring rules are in the methodology description provided under contract.

Agency research

Insights

The agency's insights include reviews of ESG disclosure by Kazakhstan's largest companies, research publications, an analysis of what ESG costs business and what inaction costs, a climate risk map of 20 regions and a glossary. A review is not a company rating: it shows how openly business reports on the environment, people and governance.

jointly withCentral Asia Climate Foundation ↗

Guests can read the conclusions of each publication, told in plain language. Subscribers get more: full calculations and tables, the model with its assumptions, risk and stakeholder matrices, observations and primary sources for each climate hazard, and the picture across all regions.

ESGQ Glossary

193 terms: the language of ESG and the words readers see in company cards · platform terms link to the methodology section

A single list, in alphabetical order. General ESG concepts are compiled from primary sources — GRI, TCFD, SASB, the PRI and ICMA principles, the ISO 26000 standard, Kazakhstan's Environmental Code and Model Corporate Governance Code — and each entry states what it is based on. Platform terms — the score and the letters, the gap and coverage, scoring and rating, holding, the right of reply — are described in two sentences with a link to the “Methodology” section. Climate terms — hazards, observations, indices and data sets — are described from primary sources: the IPCC, ISO and WMO standards, materials of RSE Kazhydromet and the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and open international data sets. In company cards the words are used in exactly these meanings.

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method): Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method of the British institute BRE (Building Research Establishment), in use since 1990; a building earns a percentage across categories — energy, water, materials, waste, health and others — and receives a rating: Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent or Outstanding. The card shows the rating, percentage and building according to the register of BREEAM-certified buildings; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from OMIR: BREEAM is an international system, OMIR is Kazakhstani, adjusted for the local climate and regulations. (based on BRE materials, breeam.com)
CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism): Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) of the EU: a carbon charge paid by an EU importer for imported cement, iron and steel (including ferroalloys), aluminum, fertilizers, hydrogen and electricity. From January 1, 2026 the importer declares the emissions generated in producing the goods and surrenders CBAM certificates — one per tonne of CO₂ equivalent; the certificate price is linked to the auctions of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), and a carbon price already paid in the country of production can be deducted. For a Kazakhstan exporter this means that the bill for emissions arrives through the European buyer, and without verified data on its own emissions the default values are used in the calculation. (based on Regulation (EU) 2023/956 and European Commission materials, taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu)
CCKP: Climate Change Knowledge Portal of the World Bank: an open showcase of observations, reanalysis and CMIP6 model projections on a common 0.25° grid. It is convenient because different indices are brought to a single format and come with a description of how they are calculated. (based on World Bank materials)
CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project): A non-profit organization, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project; each year it collects company questionnaires on three themes — climate change, water security and forests — and assigns a score from A to D−: A — leadership, B — management, C — awareness, D — disclosure, F — questionnaire not submitted. The card shows the theme, letter and assessment year according to the company's report or the CDP list; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from MSCI and Sustainalytics: CDP assesses what the company itself disclosed in the questionnaire, not risk to the investor. (based on CDP materials, cdp.net)
CMIP6: Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6; coordinated by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). The IPCC assessments and national climate projections, Kazakhstan's among them, are built on CMIP6 runs. (based on WCRP materials)
EcoVadis: A supplier sustainability assessment platform: the company fills in a questionnaire and attaches documents, receives a score from 0 to 100 across four themes — environment, labor and human rights, ethics, sustainable procurement — and a medal based on its percentile among all companies assessed over the past 12 months: bronze — top 35%, silver — 15%, gold — 5%, platinum — 1%. The card shows the medal, score and date according to the company's report or its EcoVadis scorecard; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from MSCI and Sustainalytics: the assessment is based on the company's own documents rather than open data, and it is needed primarily by customers along the supply chain. (based on EcoVadis materials, ecovadis.com) → section “How ESGQ differs”
ERA5: ECMWF Reanalysis, 5th generation — the reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. A 0.25° grid (about 25 km), series from 1940; distributed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, C3S. It is used where station series are not sufficient — above all for drought. (based on ECMWF and Copernicus materials)
ESG: An acronym from English. E – Environmental (relating to the natural environment). S – Social (relating to society). G – Governance (relating to how the organization is managed).
ESG Passport: the document that formalizes an ESGQ rating: letter grades by pillar, the maturity ladder, number, and date. No passport is issued for scoring. → section “ESG Passport”
ESG investments: Investment instruments that comply with the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and include, but are not limited to: green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds as classified by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA), green and social bonds under the Climate Bonds Standard, as well as green, social and sustainability-linked loans as classified by the Loan Market Association (LMA), loans from international financial institutions, and Islamic finance instruments (e.g., green Sukuk). (based on the PRI Principles for Responsible Investment and the ICMA Green and Social Bond Principles)
ESG reporting (non-financial reporting): An organization's non-financial reporting that covers both the results of its activities and its performance on ESG aspects.
ESG aspects, ESG issues, ESG factors: The set of characteristics of sustainability management of organizations and other economic entities, covering environmental issues, social issues, and corporate governance. (compiled using the report “Who Cares Wins: Connecting Financial Markets to a Changing World”, 2004)
ESG criteria: Criteria for assessing organizations and other economic entities on ESG aspects. Used by investors, financial institutions, and other stakeholders to assess organizations' sustainability performance.
ESG principles: Principles of sustainable business based on ESG factors in accordance with international standards, requirements and recommendations.
ESG ratings: Opinions of rating agencies, formed under their own proprietary methodology, on the quality of organizations' management of ESG aspects.
ESG risks: Environmental, social, and corporate risks of a business, including climate and reputational risks, that can affect financial performance (net profit, value of assets under management, operational efficiency) and the attraction of investment not only in the short term but also in the medium and long term.
ESG ranking: Lists of companies compiled by classifying them against certain ESG factors and grouped on the basis of a given scoring system.
Global SWF (GSR Scoreboard): Global SWF is a research company focused on sovereign funds; its GSR Scoreboard (Governance, Sustainability and Resilience) annually assesses the world's 200 largest sovereign wealth and public pension funds on 25 yes/no questions using open data — 10 on governance, 10 on sustainability and 5 on resilience — with the result in percent. The holding's card shows the overall percentage and its components according to the Global SWF publication; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. This is an assessment of the fund as an investor, not of the companies it owns. (based on Global SWF materials, globalswf.com)
GRI (Global Reporting Initiative): Global Reporting Initiative; its GRI Standards (universal, sector and topic standards) are the world's most widely used set of rules for sustainability reports: how a company affects the economy, the environment and people, for all stakeholders. The tag in the card means that the company has stated that its report is prepared “in accordance with” or “with reference to” the GRI Standards, and this is confirmed by the report itself; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from SASB: GRI looks at the company's impact on the world, SASB only at what matters to investors. (based on GRI materials, globalreporting.org)
IFRS S2 and IFRS S1 (ISSB standards): IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures and IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information, issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in June 2023 and applicable to reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2024. The tag means that the company discloses climate information with reference to IFRS S2 — across the governance, strategy, risk and metrics and targets blocks, including Scope 1–3 emissions; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from TCFD: the TCFD recommendations are voluntary, while IFRS S2 is a standard that has fully absorbed them and that a regulator can make mandatory. (based on IFRS Foundation materials, ifrs.org)
ISIMIP: Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project: runs of hydrological, agricultural and other impact models under common climate scenarios. For the rivers of Kazakhstan the absolute runoff values of different models differ severalfold, so what is taken from them is the direction of change, not the magnitude. (based on ISIMIP materials)
ISO 14001: ISO 14001:2015 Environmental management systems — Requirements with guidance for use, a standard of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO); in Kazakhstan it applies as the national standard ST RK ISO 14001. The certificate confirms that the company has a working system for managing its environmental impact — targets, responsible persons, internal audit — not the actual level of emissions or discharges. In the card, the tag caption shows whether there is a certificate and whether it is publicly available; the tag itself adds no points — the score includes the questionnaire answer on whether a certified system is in place. (based on ISO materials, iso.org)
ISO 27001: ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection — Information security management systems — Requirements; a joint standard of ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The certificate confirms that the protection of customer and company data is built as a system with risk assessment and controls — a governance (G) topic in ESG. In the card, the tag caption shows whether the core operations are certified and whether the certificate is published; the tag itself adds no points — the score includes the questionnaire answer on whether a certified system is in place. (based on ISO materials, iso.org)
ISO 45001: ISO 45001:2018 Occupational health and safety management systems — Requirements with guidance for use; in Kazakhstan it applies as ST RK ISO 45001-2019 and replaced the former OHSAS 18001. The certificate confirms that the company has an occupational safety management system — hazard assessment, worker participation, incident investigation — not the actual injury rate. In the card, the tag caption shows the certification body and validity period, if disclosed; the tag itself adds no points — the score includes the questionnaire answer on whether a certified system is in place. (based on ISO materials, iso.org)
ISO 50001: ISO 50001:2018 Energy management systems — Requirements with guidance for use. The certificate confirms that the company systematically measures and reduces its energy consumption — with a baseline, indicators and an improvement plan — not that it is already energy efficient. In the card, the tag caption shows whether the system is in place or still being implemented; the tag itself adds no points — the score includes the questionnaire answer on whether a certified system is in place. (based on ISO materials, iso.org)
ISO 7243: the international standard “Ergonomics of the thermal environment — Assessment of heat stress using the WBGT index”, current edition 2017. It sets out the method for a preliminary assessment of the heat load on a worker over a shift of up to eight hours. (based on the description of ISO 7243:2017)
MODIS: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, an instrument on the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites. It sees thermal anomalies at a resolution of about a kilometer, so it misses ground fires and fires under cloud: the absence of a hotspot does not prove the absence of fire. (based on NASA FIRMS materials)
MSCI ESG Ratings: The ESG rating of MSCI (historically Morgan Stanley Capital International) on seven grades from AAA to CCC: AAA and AA are leaders, A, BBB and BB are average, B and CCC are laggards; it shows how resilient a company is to financially material ESG risks compared with companies in its industry. The card shows the letter and year according to the company's report or announcement; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from Sustainalytics: at MSCI a higher letter is better and the comparison is within the industry, at Sustainalytics a lower number is better and the risk measure is absolute. (based on MSCI materials, msci.com) → section “How ESGQ differs”
NASA FIRMS: Fire Information for Resource Management System of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). It publishes the coordinates of active fire hotspots detected by satellites within the first hours after acquisition; country archives are open. (based on NASA FIRMS materials)
NOAA GSOD: Global Summary of the Day — an open data set of daily values from weather stations worldwide. It is maintained by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). For Kazakhstan these are the same Kazhydromet observations, transmitted through the channels of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). (based on the data set description of NOAA NCEI — the National Centers for Environmental Information)
NPV (Net Present Value): Net Present Value (NPV): the sum of a project's future income and expenses converted into today's money at a discount rate. A positive NPV means the investment pays off taking into account the time value of money, a negative one means it does not; in the “ESG economics” section, NPV compares the cost of ESG measures with the cost of inaction and is calculated by ESGQ on assumptions in three scenarios — it is a model, not a forecast for a specific company. Difference from the simple payback period: NPV takes into account that a tenge in ten years is worth less than a tenge today. (a generally accepted concept of corporate finance; the calculation in the section is an ESGQ model, September 2026)
OMIR (KazGBC green building standard): A Kazakhstan green building rating system developed by the Kazakhstan Green Building Council (KazGBC) with the support of the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) on the basis of LEED and BREEAM criteria, adjusted for Kazakhstan's climate and regulations. A building earns points against the criteria, and their total determines the certificate level — Silver, Gold or Platinum; the card shows the level, points and building according to the green buildings registry at kazgbc.kz, and the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from BREEAM: the certificate is Kazakhstani and is recognized primarily in the domestic market. (based on KazGBC materials, kazgbc.kz)
OpenStreetMap: an open map of the world maintained by volunteers. It is the source of the region boundaries on the climate risk map: no open machine-readable boundaries could be found from government sources.
PCAF (Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials): Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials, founded in 2015 by Dutch banks; its Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard for the Financial Industry describes how a bank or investor calculates financed emissions: the emissions of borrowers and investees, Scope 3, category 15 under the GHG Protocol. The standard is recognized by the GHG Protocol and introduces a data quality score from 1 (verified reported emissions) to 5 (estimates based on industry averages), so a single emissions figure without such a score says little. The tag is assigned if the company has disclosed a calculation of financed emissions under PCAF; it is not part of the ESGQ score. (based on PCAF materials, carbonaccountingfinancials.com)
People & Planet University League: People & Planet University League, a ranking by the British student organization People & Planet: UK universities are assessed against climate and social justice criteria and awarded a class as in British degrees — 1st Class (from 70%), 2:1, 2:2, 3rd Class and Failed. In the card, the tag for a Kazakhstan branch campus is assigned based on the class of the parent British university, as stated in the caption; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. (based on the People & Planet methodology, peopleandplanet.org)
PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness): Power Usage Effectiveness — the energy efficiency ratio of a data center: all the energy consumed by the data center in a year divided by the energy of its IT equipment; it cannot be below 1, and a PUE of 1.5 means that for every kilowatt-hour of server operation another half a kilowatt-hour goes to cooling, power supply and other overhead. The benchmarks are set by law: under Germany's Energy Efficiency Act (Energieeffizienzgesetz, EnEfG), existing data centers with a rated connected load of 300 kW or more must reach a PUE of no more than 1.5 from July 1, 2027 and no more than 1.3 from July 1, 2030, and those commissioned from July 1, 2026 — no more than 1.2; in the EU, operators of data centers with an IT equipment power of 500 kW or more must report PUE to the European database. In ESGQ scoring, the PUE item is asked of companies in the “Telecom and IT” industry that have data centers: what is assessed is the level of the latest year — against the statutory norms, not against a sample of companies — and the three-year trend, which is calculated on energy overhead (PUE − 1). (based on ISO/IEC 30134-2, Germany's EnEfG, §§ 3 and 11, and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364) → section “Industries and sources”
PwC TOP-50 (PwC Kazakhstan review of ESG disclosure): PwC Kazakhstan's annual review “TOP 50 ESG Disclosure Companies in Kazakhstan”: public reports are assessed against criteria in five areas — sustainability strategy, corporate governance, society, environment and reporting practice — and assigned letters from A+ to E, where A+ is the best. The card shows the rank, the letter and the year of the reports according to the PwC publication; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score and is not directly comparable with ESGQ letter grades. Difference from ESGQ: PwC assesses how fully and how well the report is written, whereas ESGQ assesses the indicators disclosed under the industry questionnaire (see “External disclosure assessments”). (based on PwC Kazakhstan publications, pwc.com/kz) → section “How ESGQ differs”
QS Sustainability (QS World University Rankings: Sustainability): QS World University Rankings: Sustainability by Quacquarelli Symonds; universities are compared across three blocks — environmental impact, social impact and governance — and the result is a world rank or rank band. The university card shows the rank and edition year according to the QS website; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from UI GreenMetric: QS looks at the university as a whole, including research and social policy, GreenMetric primarily at the “green” campus. (based on the QS methodology, topuniversities.com)
S&P CSA (S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment): S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment: an annual industry-specific questionnaire resulting in a score from 0 to 100; it underlies the Sustainability Yearbook and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. The card shows the score and year according to the company's page on the S&P Global website; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from MSCI and Sustainalytics: the company fills in the questionnaire itself, and the score shows the level of practices rather than the magnitude of risk. (based on S&P Global materials, spglobal.com/esg/csa) → section “How ESGQ differs”
SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board): Sustainability Accounting Standards Board; the SASB Standards set indicators for 77 industries — those most likely to affect financial performance — and are addressed primarily to investors; since August 2022 they have been maintained by the IFRS Foundation through the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The tag is assigned if the report contains a SASB index for its industry; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from GRI: SASB answers the question “what matters to investors”, GRI answers “how the company affects everyone”. (based on IFRS Foundation materials, sasb.ifrs.org)
SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative): Science Based Targets initiative, created by CDP, the UN Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and WWF; it checks whether a company's emission reduction targets are consistent with the Paris Agreement pathways and publishes the status on its target dashboard. The “Committed” status means that the company has only committed to submit targets for validation; “Targets set” means the targets have been validated and approved. The card shows the status according to the SBTi registry as of the data date; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. (based on SBTi materials, sciencebasedtargets.org)
SFRARR: Strengthening Financial Resilience and Accelerating Risk Reduction in Central Asia — a World Bank program. Its seismic hazard maps of Central Asia are open under the CC BY 4.0 license and give ground acceleration for different return periods. (based on the data set entry in the World Bank data catalog)
SPEI-12: Standardised Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index. It accounts not only for rainfall but also for evaporation, so it detects drought caused by heat while precipitation is unchanged; “12” means an accumulation window of twelve months. Negative values mean drier than normal, positive values wetter. (based on the description of the SPEI index, CSIC)
Sustainable Fitch ESG Entity Rating: A company ESG rating from Sustainable Fitch, a unit of Fitch Group: a grade from 1 (best) to 5 (worst) with a sub-score from 0 to 100, where 100 is the best result; it shows how far environmental and social issues are embedded in the company's business and strategy and how governance works. The scale is absolute, so ratings are comparable across industries; the card shows the grade, points and year according to the company's announcement, and the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from a Fitch Ratings credit rating: this is a separate product that says nothing about creditworthiness. (based on the Sustainable Fitch methodology, sustainablefitch.com)
Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating: The ESG Risk Rating of Morningstar Sustainalytics: the number shows the magnitude of a company's unmanaged ESG risk — the lower, the better; five categories — negligible (0–10), low (10–20), medium (20–30), high (30–40), severe (40 and above). The card shows the number, category and date according to the company's report or the agency's website; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from MSCI: the scale is absolute and comparable across industries, and the best result is the lowest number. (based on Morningstar Sustainalytics materials, sustainalytics.com) → section “How ESGQ differs”
sWBGT: simplified WBGT — a simplified heat stress index: it is computed from air temperature and humidity only, without solar radiation and wind. It is usable where full measurements are unavailable, but its values cannot be compared directly with those of the full WBGT. (based on the description of heat stress indices of the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal)
TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures): Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, created by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in 2015; its 2017 recommendations are built on four blocks: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. In October 2023 the task force completed its work, and monitoring of disclosures passed to the ISSB, whose IFRS S1 and S2 standards incorporate the TCFD recommendations in full; the tag in the card is assigned based on the TCFD index in the company's report and is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from IFRS S2: TCFD provides voluntary recommendations, while IFRS S2 is a standard with mandatory requirements. (based on FSB TCFD and IFRS Foundation materials)
THE Impact (Times Higher Education Sustainability Impact Ratings): Times Higher Education Impact Rankings of the British publication Times Higher Education, renamed Sustainability Impact Ratings from the 2026 edition: the only global table that assesses universities against all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals; the overall result combines the mandatory SDG 17 “Partnerships” and the university's three best goals, and participants are placed in rank bands (for example, 401–600). The university card shows the overall band and year according to the THE website; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from QS Sustainability: THE measures the contribution to the SDGs using data submitted by the university itself, QS uses three blocks — environment, society and governance. (based on the THE Sustainability Impact Ratings 2026 methodology, timeshighereducation.com)
ThinkHazard!: an open service of the World Bank's GFDRR (Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery): for a selected administrative unit it shows hazard levels from very low to high. It works as an external cross-check but not as a basis for assessment — for Kazakhstan, for example, it does not distinguish regions by wildfire. (based on the ThinkHazard! methodology report, GFDRR)
UI GreenMetric: UI GreenMetric World University Rankings of the University of Indonesia (Universitas Indonesia), run since 2010, assesses the “green” campus in six areas: setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation, education and research. The university card shows the world rank, number of participants, points and year according to the ranking website; the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. Difference from THE and QS: the subject of assessment is campus operations, not the contribution to the SDGs or research. (based on UI GreenMetric materials, greenmetric.ui.ac.id)
UNICEF CCRI: Children's Climate Risk Index of UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund): it combines exposure to climate and environmental hazards with the vulnerability of children (access to water, healthcare, education). It is used as an external cross-check of the regional breakdown, not as a source of observations. (based on UNICEF materials, the Children's Climate Risk Index report)
USGS: United States Geological Survey; its open earthquake catalog gives the history of events by coordinates, date and magnitude. In work on Kazakhstan the underground nuclear tests of the Semipalatinsk test site are excluded from the catalog separately — otherwise they enter the statistics as earthquakes. (based on USGS catalog data)
WBGT: Wet Bulb Globe Temperature, the international heat stress index. It is measured with three sensors at once — a wet-bulb thermometer, a black globe (sun) and an ordinary thermometer — so it accounts for humidity and radiation, not for air temperature alone. (based on the description of ISO 7243:2017)
WRI Aqueduct 4.0: a set of water risk indicators of the World Resources Institute (WRI), 2023 edition: water stress, depletion, riverine floods, droughts — by sub-basins of the world rather than by countries. Licensed under CC BY 4.0; the authors themselves warn that the indicators are not validated against measurements and do not account for inter-basin transfers. (based on the technical note by Kuzma et al., “Aqueduct 4.0”, WRI, 2023)
WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness): Water Usage Effectiveness — the water use ratio of a data center: the water used by the data center in a year divided by the energy of its IT equipment, in cubic meters per megawatt-hour; zero means that the data center needs no water to operate. In the EU, operators of data centers with an IT equipment power of 500 kW or more must report WUE to the European database, and the standard, in its third measurement category, also requires stating the level of water stress of the location. In ESGQ scoring, the item on data center water is stepwise: the cooling method is disclosed; the volume of water is disclosed; the volume is related to the water stress of the location; WUE and its link to water stress are disclosed, or cooling without water consumption is confirmed. Difference from PUE: PUE shows energy overhead, WUE shows water consumption. (based on ISO/IEC 30134-9:2022 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/1364) → section “Industries and sources”
Climate change adaptation: adjustment to the actual or expected climate and its effects in order to reduce harm or take advantage of the opportunities that arise. Unlike emission reduction, adaptation does not change the climate — it changes the asset and the way work is organized. (based on the definitions of the IPCC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sixth Assessment Report AR6)
Administrative sources: government and exchange registries from which the scoring takes data without the company's involvement: PRTR (emissions and water), EITI (taxes and payments of subsoil users), the carbon allowance allocation plan, and the KASE ESG bond registry. If a company does not disclose a metric but it is present in a registry, the answer is counted from the registry. → section “Industries and sources”
Active fire hotspot: a point at which a satellite has recorded a thermal anomaly. Not every hotspot is a wildfire: flares, landfills and spring stubble burning look the same, so hotspots are filtered by type, confidence and season. (based on the description of the NASA FIRMS active fire products)
Model ensemble: a set of runs of different climate models under a single scenario. The median and the spread are taken: an individual model may err in either direction, while the agreement of an ensemble is more reliable. The spread between models is itself an honest measure of uncertainty. (based on IPCC terminology, IPCC AR6)
E, S, G pillars: the three parts of the assessment: environmental, social, governance. Each pillar has its own weight in the final score and its own letter grade in the card. → section “How the assessment works”
Letter scale: ten grades from A+ to E into which the score is converted; five maturity levels of two letters each. The letter grade reads the same for scoring and for a rating. → section “Scale”
ESG reporting verification: A procedure of independent external assurance of ESG reporting with respect to the information provided, in accordance with applicable criteria (the reporting framework, standards, or regulations used by the company to prepare the information).
Contribution to the SDGs: a separate card indicator: which of the 17 UN goals the company's work relates to and how fully the related topics are disclosed. Not part of the score; does not affect the letter grades. → section “Sustainable Development Goals”
Humid heat: heat at high humidity: sweat evaporates less readily, and the same temperature is harder to bear. That is why, in terms of working conditions, the Caspian coast turns out to be harder than the dry south, where the thermometer reads higher.
External disclosure assessments: a card row with assessments by other organizations, for example the PwC TOP-50 on ESG disclosure (separate entry “PwC TOP-50”). They assess the report as a text, whereas ESGQ counts disclosed indicators, so the assessments may differ; they are not part of the ESGQ score. → section “How ESGQ differs”
Water stress: the ratio of water withdrawal to the basin's renewable water resources. On the scale of SDG indicator 6.4.2, a basin under high stress makes the “Water resources” topic more severe for all companies in the region. → section “Regional adjustment”
Water management basin: a unit of water management defined by catchment boundaries rather than by the administrative map. Kazakhstan has eight of them: Aral-Syrdarya, Balkhash-Alakol, Yertis, Yesil, Zhaiyk-Caspian, Nura-Sarysu, Tobyl-Torgai, Shu-Talas. A region may lie in two basins at once, with different levels of stress. → section “Regional adjustment”
Greenhouse gas emissions: Greenhouse gas emissions mean the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as a result of anthropogenic processes (compiled based on the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan)
Hydrological database: an open database of RSE Kazhydromet with daily water levels at river gauges across the eight water management basins; the series are available from roughly 1994. It is what gives the history of floods, whereas the climate cadastre shows only the most recent years. (based on RSE Kazhydromet materials)
River gauge: an observation point on a river or a lake where water level and discharge are measured daily. The level is counted from the gauge datum — the reference mark of that particular gauge — so centimeters at different gauges cannot be compared with one another.
UN Global Compact (UN GC): United Nations Global Compact, a voluntary UN initiative launched in 2000: a participating company commits to observe ten principles on human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption and to report annually on its progress (Communication on Progress). The card shows the company's participation and year of joining according to the initiative's official registry; this is a public commitment, not an assessment, and the tag is not part of the ESGQ score. (based on UN Global Compact materials, unglobalcompact.org) → section “How the assessment works”
State Climate Cadastre: a compendium of generalized observation data of RSE Kazhydromet from the country's weather stations: temperature, precipitation, atmospheric phenomena. It is maintained in the State Climate Cadastre information system (IS GKK) and issued as a monthly bulletin, a yearbook and a climate reference book. Under the terms of use of the system we publish calculations and conclusions but do not reprint the cadastre tables. (based on RSE Kazhydromet materials)
Decarbonization readiness: a separate index from 0 to 100 across four blocks: emissions accounting, governance, energy, results. Calculated from the answers in the “Climate and energy” block; not part of the ESGQ score; a total of 0 means there are no data for assessment. → section “How the assessment works”
Greenwashing: An unfair practice and/or marketing ploy whereby organizations misrepresent the characteristics of their products, services, and activities in general, positioning themselves as environmentally responsible and caring about the environment while not being so.
Corporate group: several legal entities under one parent company. A subsidiary with its own report is assessed on its own; without its own report — as part of the group, and the card says so. → section “How the assessment works”
Data as of: each platform build is based on a single data release; the date is shown in the header. The score changes only with a new release, not at the moment a company publishes something. → section “Scoring and rating”
Downscaling and bias correction: downscaling is the conversion of a coarse model grid to a fine one; bias correction is the fitting of the model distribution to observations. Without both procedures the absolute values of a model cannot be compared with station readings: a model cell tens of kilometers across “averages” mountains and plains together. (based on IPCC terminology, IPCC AR6)
Land degradation: a persistent decline in the productivity of land: salinity, erosion, overgrazing, waterlogging, desertification. The concept is established by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which also introduced the goal of land degradation neutrality. (based on UNCCD definitions)
Decarbonization: A set of measures by which countries, companies or individual sectors of the economy can reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mainly carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄)) and thereby limit their impact on the climate. Decarbonization of the economy as a whole means reducing CO₂ emissions per unit of GDP (tonnes of CO₂e per US dollar per capita). Decarbonization of the energy system means reducing CO₂ emissions per unit of energy produced (kg per barrel). Decarbonization is achieved mainly by replacing hydrocarbons with “clean” energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, etc., or with non-carbon energy sources such as nuclear.
Delta method: a projection method in which the baseline is taken from the observations of the nearest station and only the change (the delta) to the future period is taken from the model. It preserves the specifics of a particular place, whereas ready-made global climate maps give the average over a grid cell. On the plains the difference is small; in the foothills it is severalfold.
Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO): An executive whose area of responsibility covers environmental, social and corporate governance matters and who is accountable for implementing the company's sustainability strategy. According to Harvard Business Review, the CSO is responsible for the following tasks: 1) Ensuring compliance with sustainability regulations. 2) Preparing ESG reporting. 3) Overseeing the portfolio of sustainability projects. 4) Engaging with stakeholders. 5) Building organizational capabilities through upskilling and reskilling. 6) Driving cultural change (organizational transformation) 7) Fostering openness to the external innovation ecosystem 8) Embedding sustainability into processes and decision-making at all levels of management https://hbr.org/2023/03/the-8-responsibilities-of-chief-sustainability- officers
Hot days (hd35, hd40): the number of days a year when the maximum temperature reaches 35 °C or 40 °C. Simple observation counters: they show not average warming but exactly how many times a year conditions become hard on people and equipment. (based on the description of climate indices of the World Bank Climate Change Knowledge Portal)
Report assurance: An independent review of a non-financial report by an auditor or another accredited organization under ISAE 3000 (Revised) (International Standard on Assurance Engagements) or ISSA 5000 (International Standard on Sustainability Assurance; adopted by the IAASB in November 2024, mandatory for periods beginning on or after December 15, 2026); the same as verification of ESG reporting. “Limited assurance” means the auditor checked selectively and found no indication of material misstatement; “reasonable assurance” means the auditor confirms the data with a depth close to a financial audit. In the card, the tag caption shows the type of assurance according to the wording of the assurance statement in the report; the tag itself adds no points — the score includes the questionnaire answer on whether the report is assured. (based on IAASB standards: ISAE 3000 (Revised) and ISSA 5000)
Stakeholders: Individuals and legal entities, or groups of individuals or legal entities, that affect or may affect the organization's activities, and whose actions can reasonably be expected to affect the organization's ability to successfully implement its strategies and achieve its objectives. Organizations have many stakeholders, each with different types and levels of involvement, and often with differing, and sometimes conflicting, interests and concerns. (based on the international non-financial reporting standards (GRI), the AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard (SES) and the 2018 Model Corporate Governance Code)
Soil salinity: the accumulation of salts in the root layer — from the rise of mineralized groundwater, from irrigation without drainage or from marine influence. It lowers yields and damages foundations and underground utilities. The shares of saline agricultural land by region are published in the consolidated analytical report on the condition and use of land. (based on reports of the Land Resources Management Committee)
Green school: A school that has built sustainability and climate action into four areas of its work — governance, the building and its operation, learning, and links with the community — and this is confirmed by an external accreditation scheme (a voluntary review against a set of criteria). The “Green school” scheme under the UNESCO standard (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is under development: the operator is CACF (Central Asia Climate Foundation), the methodology is by ESGQ; no school has been accredited yet. Separately, Kazakhstan has the “Green school” model of the Ministry of Education — a state model, not an ESGQ scheme. The ESGQ assessment of a school is something different: it is an expert opinion on the ESGQ scale, not a state accreditation and not an accreditation under the UNESCO standard, and a school can have one without the other. (based on the UNESCO Green school quality standard, 2024, and materials of the UNICEF Regional “Green Schools” Platform (UNICEF, United Nations Children's Fund)) → section “Scoring and rating”
Green loans: Any type of loan instrument made available exclusively to finance or refinance, in whole or in part, new and/or existing green projects. (compiled based on the terminology of the GLP Green Loan Principles)
Green bonds: Any type of debt instrument whose proceeds, or an equivalent amount, are applied exclusively to finance or refinance (in full or in part) new and/or existing green projects (compiled based on the terminology of the ICMA Green Bond Principles)
Green projects: Projects eligible for financing through green bonds and loans. The following categories of green projects exist (taxonomy; see the definition in the Glossary): 1. Renewable energy (wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, bioenergy, supply chain and supporting infrastructure for renewable energy sources, hydrogen production). 2. Energy efficiency (improving energy efficiency at existing and newly built industrial facilities, improving energy efficiency in the public and utility sectors, energy-efficient buildings, structures and facilities). 3. Green buildings (green buildings, related systems and building materials, green infrastructure). 4. Pollution prevention and control (air quality, soil). 5. Sustainable use of water and waste (sustainable water use and water conservation, waste and wastewater, resource conservation and recovery). 6. Sustainable agriculture, land use, forestry, biodiversity conservation and ecotourism. 7. Clean transport (clean transport, low-carbon vehicles, clean transport infrastructure, clean transport information and communication technologies). (according to Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 996 dated December 31, 2021)
Default values (CBAM default values): Specific emissions per tonne of goods that the European Commission sets for CBAM by country of production and product code; they apply when a plant's actual emissions have not been determined and verified by an accredited verifier. For steel, aluminum, cement and hydrogen a mark-up is added — 10% in 2026, 20% in 2027 and 30% from 2028 — so the lack of verified emissions data costs the exporter more every year. Difference from actual emissions: a default value describes the country's average producer, not a specific plant, so a producer cleaner than average benefits from calculating and verifying its actual emissions. (based on Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621, Annex I, table for Kazakhstan)
Aridity index (P/ET₀): the ratio of annual precipitation to potential evapotranspiration: the lower it is, the drier the climate. Under the UNEP classification, land with a value below 0.65 is classed as dryland and below 0.20 as arid. It shows the background against which droughts occur, not the event itself. (based on the UNEP classification of drylands, the “World Atlas of Desertification”)
Potential evapotranspiration (ET₀): how much water would evaporate from a surface if its supply were unlimited — the “demand of the atmosphere”; it is calculated with the Penman–Monteith equation. Its growth makes the climate drier even when the same amount of precipitation falls: in Kazakhstan aridity is increasing in exactly this way. (based on the FAO reference evapotranspiration method, the FAO-56 guidelines)
Source: the document and page from which each answer and each fact in the commentary is taken. Without a source, a fact does not make it onto the platform; the link leads to the page of the primary source. → section “Scoring and rating”
Stakeholder capitalism: A form of capitalism in which companies not only optimize short-term profit for shareholders but also seek to create long-term value, taking into account the needs of all their stakeholders and society as a whole. (compiled using WEF materials)
Climate-related opportunity (opportunities arising from climate change): The potential positive impact on an organization related to its efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, for example through resource efficiency and cost savings, the adoption and use of low-emission energy sources, the development of new products and services, and building resilience along the supply chain. Climate-related opportunities vary depending on the region, market and industry in which the organization operates. (based on TCFD definitions)
Climate-related risks: The potential negative impact of climate change on an organization. (based on TCFD definitions)
Climate stress test: a calculation of what happens to a portfolio or to capital if a given climate scenario materializes. In Kazakhstan such an exercise was carried out by ARDFM (the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market): 11 of the largest banks took part in the climate stress test of the banking sector, and a world with warming held in check was compared with a world warming by 3 °C. (based on the ARDFM report on climate stress testing of the banking sector, September 2025)
Sustainability committee (sustainability reporting committee): A committee of the supreme governing body (usually under the Board of Directors or the Supervisory Board) responsible for decision-making and oversight of the management of the organization's impacts on the economy, the environment and people, ESG risk management, and sustainability disclosure. (based on GRI definitions)
ESGQ commentary: three sentences in the card: what is disclosed, what is not, and what would raise the score. Written for a specific score and withdrawn when it changes, pending re-verification. → section “Scoring and rating”
Corporate governance: The set of processes that provide the structure, direction and control of an organization's activities, through which the organization's objectives and the means of achieving them are established and performance is monitored and evaluated, and which encompass the relationships among shareholders, the supreme governing body, other management bodies and other stakeholders. (based on the Model Corporate Governance Code and the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance)
Severity coefficient: a value from normal to high, set for each region and each regional topic based on government statistics and industry scales. The higher the severity, the greater the topic's weight for companies in that region. → section “Regional adjustment”
IEP (integrated environmental permit): Integrated environmental permit (IEP) — the single document under which a Category I facility operates: it contains technological standards and emission standards based on BAT, waste limits and an industrial environmental monitoring program. An IEP became mandatory for Category I facilities on January 1, 2025, but for facilities commissioned before July 1, 2021 the requirement applies only upon reconstruction, and a facility that does not yet meet BAT receives an IEP together with an environmental performance improvement program — so having an IEP does not yet mean that BAT have been implemented. The difference shows in money: with a valid IEP, the payment for emissions within its standards is multiplied by a coefficient of 0, while facilities on the list of 50 without an IEP pay with a multiplying coefficient. In ESGQ scoring, since September 29, 2026 IEP status has been assessed by the item on BAT implementation in the “Environmental management system” topic — five levels: nothing is disclosed; the transition to BAT or an IEP is named as a goal without facilities or deadlines; there is a program with facilities and deadlines, or an IEP application has been filed; an IEP has been obtained for some Category I facilities, or for all of them but with an environmental performance improvement program; an IEP has been obtained for all Category I facilities without such a program. The item is not asked of companies without Category I facilities, and the increased emission charges are not included in the score. (based on the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Art. 111, 112, 119 and 418, and the 2025 Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Art. 640) → section “Industries and sources”
Avalanche: the descent of a snow mass down a mountain slope. The mountain areas of the east and south-east of the country are exposed; the list of the most avalanche-prone regions and sites is maintained by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which also issues avalanche warnings. For avalanches, as for mudflows, the regional level is too coarse: the hazard is tied to a particular slope and channel.
ODbL license: Open Database License — an open license for databases: they may be used freely, but the source must be credited and derived databases distributed on the same terms. OpenStreetMap data is released under it, which is why the source is credited beneath every map. (based on the text of the Open Data Commons license)
International non-financial reporting standards and recommendations: Guidance issued by international councils and initiatives that includes non-financial reporting disclosure requirements, as well as instructions and recommendations on how ESG information is structured and prepared, including which topics are covered, helping organizations understand what information needs to be disclosed across a broad range of ESG matters. The most widely used recommendations and standards are CDP, CDSB, GRI, SASB, IIRC and TCFD. In early 2021, the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation announced the creation of a working group formed by SASB, IIRC and CDSB to accelerate the convergence of global sustainability reporting standards focused on enterprise value.
Position in the industry: the company's position by score among rated companies in the same industry. The list of the other companies in the industry with their scores is available with a subscription. → section “How the assessment works”
Meteorological drought: a shortfall of precipitation relative to normal over a chosen period. It differs from agricultural drought (a shortage of soil moisture at the growth stage where it is needed) and from hydrological drought (low water in rivers and reservoirs): a dry year does not necessarily mean an empty reservoir, and vice versa. (based on the drought classification of the World Meteorological Organization, WMO)
Weather station: a permanent observation point where temperature, precipitation, wind and humidity are measured under a single program. Stations are distributed unevenly: in the mountains and on the coast neighboring points differ more than on the plains, so what matters is not only the region but also the distance to the nearest station.
Meteorological yearbook: the annual issue of the climate cadastre: for each station — the characteristics of temperature and precipitation for the year, atmospheric phenomena and the list of natural hazards. It is the main source of the observed picture for heat, heavy rainfall, frost and wind. (based on RSE Kazhydromet materials)
Global industry benchmark: a foreign company from the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook sample, scored under the same questionnaire and scale. Shows where the industry bar is; not included in the registry of Kazakhstan companies. → section “Industries and sources”
MCI (monthly calculation index): Monthly calculation index (MCI) — the unit in which Kazakhstan's laws set fines, emission charge rates, duties and benefits; its value for each year is set by the law on the republican budget. In 2026, 1 MCI equals 4 325 tenge, so a rate of “20 MCI per tonne” is 86 500 tenge per tonne. Difference from the MW (minimum wage, 85 000 tenge in 2026): the MW is the floor for pay, while the MCI is a calculation unit for payments and fines. (based on Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 239-VIII of December 8, 2025 “On the Republican Budget for 2026–2028”, Art. 7)
Storm surge and negative surge: a storm surge is a rise of water at the shore under the pressure of the wind; a negative surge is the reverse retreat of water from the shore. In the shallow north of the Caspian both are measured in tens of centimeters and occur dozens of times a year: a storm surge floods the shore, a negative surge exposes the approaches to berths and water intakes. (based on annual data on the regime of the Caspian Sea, RSE Kazhydromet)
Common names: short and colloquial company names recognized by search: KPO, Qarmet, Halyk. Not shown in the card; used only for search. → section “How the assessment works”
Disturbed and worked-out land: areas where the fertile layer has been removed or damaged by mining, construction or the laying of utilities; worked-out land is land where the work has been completed and which is subject to reclamation. This is the direct subject of the questionnaire items on reclamation and land use. (based on reports of the Land Resources Management Committee)
BAT (best available techniques): Best available techniques (BAT) — the most effective and advanced stage in the development of technologies and methods of operation, on the basis of which technological standards are set for an enterprise; “techniques” means not only equipment but also processes, practices and management methods. Industry requirements are set out in BAT conclusions approved by the Government, and until a conclusion exists, reliance on the European BAT Reference Documents (BREF) is permitted. Difference from the IEP: BAT is the bar for an industry's technologies, while the IEP is the permit in which this bar is turned into standards for a specific facility. In ESGQ scoring, since September 29, 2026 BAT implementation has been assessed by IEP status — five levels, from a transition named as a goal to an IEP for all Category I facilities (see “IEP”); the item is not asked of companies without Category I facilities. (based on the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Art. 113 and 418) → section “Industries and sources”
Not applicable item: an item that is not asked of a company given the substance of its activities: a bank is not asked about product eco-labeling. Such items are excluded from the maximum rather than counted as a gap. → section “Industries and sources”
ESGQ reviews 2023 and 2024: studies of disclosure by the largest taxpayers on a 22-point scale. The review scale is not letter-based and is not directly comparable to the scoring; it is shown in the card for reference. → section “”
Emergency situation reviews of the Ministry of Emergency Situations: summaries of the Ministry of Emergency Situations on incidents by region: floods and evacuations, wildfires, mudflows. They are needed where the observation network does not see the event: water may come down a small river that has no gauge. (based on the emergency situation reviews of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2018–2026)
Category I facility and the list of 50: A Category I facility is an enterprise with a significant negative impact on the environment: the activities and criteria are listed in Section 1 of Appendix 2 to the Environmental Code, and the Code divides facilities into four categories in all, from I (significant impact) to IV (minimal). The list of 50 comprises fifty Category I facilities with the largest total emissions of pollutants as of January 1, 2021; it was approved by the Government and, for most entries, has applied since January 1, 2025, while for thermal power plants and one metallurgical plant it applies from January 1, 2031. A facility on the list without an IEP pays for emissions with a multiplying coefficient — 2 in 2026–2027, 4 in 2028–2030, 8 in 2031–2036 — so for its owner the IEP and the transition to BAT are a direct question of money. A facility’s report to the pollutant release and transfer register does not establish its category: it is submitted by facilities above the threshold values of capacity and emissions, which is why company profiles describe such facilities as “reported to the PRTR”. (compiled from the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Art. 12, Art. 22 para. 9 and Appendix 2, Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 187 of April 1, 2022 as amended on December 27, 2024, and the Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan of 2025, Art. 640)
Environment: The totality of conditions, substances and objects of the material world surrounding a person, including the natural environment and the anthropogenic environment. The environment is considered favorable for human life and health if its quality ensures environmental safety and the natural balance of the natural environment, including the sustainable functioning of ecological systems, natural and natural-anthropogenic objects and natural complexes, as well as the conservation of biodiversity. (based on terminology from the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan).
Protected areas: specially protected natural areas — strict nature reserves, national parks, nature reserves and game sanctuaries. The denser their network in a region, the higher the likelihood that a company's asset will be next to a protected area, and the stricter the requirements for its impact. → section “Regional adjustment”
Danger level: the water level set for a particular river gauge above which flooding of nearby assets and settlements is possible. Each gauge has its own; it is what the count of how often a river reached the danger level is based on. (based on the hydrological monitoring map of RSE Kazhydromet)
Hazard: a natural phenomenon capable of causing damage: heat, drought, flood, mudflow, dust storm. A hazard describes the threat itself and how often it occurs — without regard to what exactly stands in that place. (based on IPCC definitions, IPCC AR6)
PSA operator: a company running a project under a production sharing agreement on behalf of the participants. The operator is assessed; the participants' cards show their stakes and a link to the operator. → section “How the assessment works”
Landslide: the sliding of ground down a slope, usually after waterlogging or after the slope has been cut by works. There is no open Kazakhstan data on landslides broken down by region, so the external ThinkHazard assessment is used, while a precise answer for a site can come only from engineering surveys.
Regional severity: what is shown in the card next to each regional topic: “more severe than average”, “about the national average”, or “milder than average”. The comparison is against the average across all regions for companies in the same industry. → section “Regional adjustment”
Industry methodology: the set of topics, weights, and items for a particular industry. It determines which topics are material and how much they weigh; the overall scale remains the same for all. → section “Industry methodologies”
Sustainability report: A corporate report containing information on the organization's economic, environmental, social, and governance performance and the impact of its activities. (compiled based on TCFD)
Reporting periods: the three most recent years for which indicators are collected. A series of three values is needed to see the trend; a single value earns part of the points. → section “How the assessment works”
Scope 2: location-based and market-based methods: Two ways to calculate indirect emissions from purchased energy (Scope 2): the location-based method uses the average emission factor of the grid in which the energy is consumed, while the market-based method uses factors from the company's own contracts: green energy certificates, direct contracts with a generator, supplier data. As a result, the purchase of renewable energy is visible only in the market-based figure, and companies operating in markets with such contractual instruments must disclose both. In ESGQ scoring, for global industry benchmarks the location-based time series is taken when it is published for all three years; otherwise the market-based one is taken, with a note: the purchase of renewable energy is already assessed by a separate item on its share, and the market-based method would count it a second time. (based on the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance, Greenhouse Gas Protocol, World Resources Institute (WRI), 2015) → section “Industries and sources”
Scopes 1, 2, 3: The three scopes of an organization's greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 1 covers the organization's direct greenhouse gas emissions from the production of goods and services. Scope 2 covers indirect greenhouse gas emissions from the consumption of purchased electricity, heat or steam. It depends on the sources from which the organization obtains its energy: coal-fired plants, nuclear plants, hydropower plants, renewables. Scope 3 covers indirect greenhouse gas emissions not included in Scope 2 that span the entire product life cycle: procurement of raw materials, delivery by vehicles not owned or controlled by the organization, other transportation and associated losses, sale, use, disposal and other waste — that is, greenhouse gas emissions not directly attributable to the producer. (IPCC, Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, 2014)
Floods and seasonal high water: seasonal high water is the annual rise of water (in Kazakhstan it is the spring snowmelt), a flood is a short-lived rise caused by rain or a winter thaw. On the platform both situations are called “floods”: what matters for an asset is not their origin but whether the water reached a danger level.
Greenhouse gases (GHG): Gaseous substances (chemical compounds) making up the Earth's atmosphere, of both natural and anthropogenic origin, that are capable of absorbing or reflecting infrared radiation: 1) carbon dioxide (CO₂); 2) methane (CH₄); 3) nitrous oxide (N₂O); 4) hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs); 5) perfluorocarbons (PFCs); 6) sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆). (based on the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kyoto Protocol)
Transition climate risks (transition risks): Risks associated with the transition to a lower-carbon global economy, the most common of which relate to policy and legal actions (policy and legal risks), technological change (technology risk), market responses (market risk) and reputational considerations (reputation risk). (based on TCFD definitions)
Return period: the average interval between events of such strength: “once in 475 years” means that the probability of exceedance is 10% over 50 years. This is not a timetable — an event may occur twice in a row; a return period speaks of probability, not of a queue.
Peak ground acceleration (PGA): peak ground acceleration — the maximum acceleration of the ground surface during an earthquake, expressed in fractions of g. Modern hazard maps are built in PGA, and the familiar intensity degrees are derived from it through the intensity scale. It is calculated for reference rock ground: on loose soils the same shock is felt more strongly.
Climate risk adaptation plan: a company document setting out which physical hazards threaten it and what it is doing about them: protection of sites, water reserves, changes to work schedules in the heat, backup routes. In the decarbonization readiness index such a plan is counted in the “Governance” block. → section “Decarbonization readiness”
Exposure: the presence of people, buildings, equipment, crops or collateral where a hazard is at work. The same flood on empty steppe and in an industrial zone causes different damage: the hazard is the same, the exposure is different. (based on IPCC definitions, IPCC AR6)
Sustainable development policy: A document that sets out the organization's principles and rules of operation, its overall sustainability goals and objectives, governance structure, and the main responsibilities of the responsible parties.
Data coverage: the share of questionnaire items for which an answer was found in open sources. It shows how much the company has disclosed, not how well it performs. → section “How the assessment works”
Water losses in the network: water that has been supplied to the water supply system but has not reached the consumer and has not been used for the water utility's own operational needs. The Water Code divides losses into technical ones — leaks from the network and storage structures, losses during repairs and connections — and commercial ones: unauthorized water use, distortion of readings or damage to metering devices; losses above the norm must be eliminated. In ESGQ scoring, the item on the share of losses in the water supplied to the network is asked of water utilities — the “Water supply, sewerage and waste management” industry: the level of the latest year and the three-year trend are assessed. (based on the 2025 Water Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Art. 102) → section “Industries and sources”
Human rights: Rights inherent to all human beings, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination. (based on the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ILO Declaration) https://www.un.org/ru/global-issues/human-rights
Right of reply: the company's ability to send a document with the page where an indicator is disclosed and receive a recalculation in the next data release. Available to all registry companies free of charge. → section “Scoring and rating”
Disclosure gap: a questionnaire item for which no answer is found in open sources. A gap is not counted as a violation; it simply earns no points; the company itself can close it. → section “How the assessment works”
Dust and sand storms: the transport of dust and sand by strong wind with a sharp drop in visibility. A storm is considered hazardous when it lasts 3–12 hours with wind of 10–14 m/s and visibility of 500–1000 m, and especially hazardous when it lasts longer than 12 hours with wind of 15 m/s and above. It hits roofs, power lines, visibility on roads and the operation of equipment. (based on the classification of hazardous and especially hazardous dust storms of Central Asia, “Arid Ecosystems”, 2013, and the situation analysis of CAREC — the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia)
RSE Kazhydromet: the national hydrometeorological service of Kazakhstan (RSE — republican state enterprise): a network of weather stations and river gauges, the climate and water cadastres, storm warnings. It is the principal source of observations for the climate part of the platform; when its data is used, crediting the service is mandatory.
Reanalysis: a calculation of past weather: a model is run back in time and assimilates archived observations. It gives values at every grid point and for years when there was no station nearby. This is not an observation but a model reconstruction of one — area coverage in exchange for accuracy at a point. (based on IPCC terminology, IPCC AR6)
Region of operations: a region or city of republican significance where the company has production facilities, with a share of presence. For a company with several regions, topic severities are weighted by these shares; if no facilities are found in open sources, the region of registration is used. → section “Regional adjustment”
Regional “Green Schools” Platform (RGSP): A platform for cooperation and coordination on greening education in Central Asia, created on Kazakhstan's initiative with UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund); presented at the RES-2026 (Regional Environmental Summit, Astana, April 2026) and included in the Action Program for implementing regional environmental initiatives in partnership with the UN for 2026–2030. By 2030 the platform intends to green at least 20 000 educational institutions in the region, reach more than 15 million children and young people, and attract 100 business partners. For a reader of this portal this is a common regional framework: the platform's four components — climate education, infrastructure and operations, youth community initiatives, and governance systems — correspond to the four dimensions of the UNESCO standard. The platform is a cooperation mechanism, not an assessment or an accreditation of an individual school. (based on the UNICEF platform concept of December 22, 2025, the RES-2026 initiative form and the Action Program of April 7, 2026)
Regional topics: topics whose weight depends on the region: environmental — water resources, air pollutant emissions, circular economy, biodiversity — and three social ones: workforce management, local communities, health and safety. The other topics do not depend on the region. → section “Regional adjustment”
Regional coefficient: an adjustment for the severity of environmental problems in the regions where the company operates: water scarcity, air quality. It changes the weight of environmental topics, not the score itself. → section “Regional adjustment”
ESGQ rating: the agency's opinion on the same scale as the scoring, but with the company's data, their verification, and the right to challenge the result. Documented in an ESG Passport. → section “Scoring and rating”
Rating agency: An organization that assesses the performance, financial stability, risks, and other indicators of organizations and other economic entities based on quantitative and qualitative analysis, and assigns corresponding credit and other ratings.
Company/organization reputation: The aggregate of third-party opinions of stakeholders (partners, investors, consumers, employees, media, etc.) about an organization in terms of its business qualities.
Governance body of a company: A formalized group of persons responsible for the strategic guidance of the organization, effective monitoring of management, and the accountability of management to the broader organization and its stakeholders. (compiled based on GRI)
Overgrazing of pastures: a grass stand trampled and worn down by livestock; reporting divides pastures into moderately and heavily overgrazed. Overgrazing concentrates around villages and watering points, so a region with large pasture reserves may still have a severe picture next to settlements. (based on reports of the Land Resources Management Committee)
Landfill gas: gases that form in the body of a landfill from the waste disposed of in it; they include methane, a greenhouse gas. Under the Environmental Code, municipal solid waste landfills must be equipped with systems for collecting and venting landfill gas and for monitoring it, and the landfill operator is obliged to reduce methane emissions — to cut the landfilling of biodegradable waste and install gas collection and recovery systems. In ESGQ scoring, the landfill gas item is asked of landfill operators in the “Water supply, sewerage and waste management” industry: the levels run from gas monitoring to gas collection at some of the landfills, collection and flaring at all of them, and use of the gas for energy generation; the item is not asked of a company without landfills. (based on the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Art. 350, and Council Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste, Art. 2) → section “Industries and sources”
Mudflow: a mud-and-debris flow that moves down a mountain channel after heavy rain, rapid snowmelt or a lake outburst. It arrives suddenly and reshapes the channel within minutes. Mudflow hazard monitoring covers the mountain areas of Almaty, Zhetysu, Zhambyl, Turkistan, Mangystau, Abai and East Kazakhstan Regions. (based on the mudflow hazard review of RSE Kazhydromet for 2023)
ESGQ scoring: a score calculated under the published methodology on open data, without the company's participation and without expert judgment. The result is an EQ score and a letter grade. → section “Scoring and rating”
EQ score: the assessment result as a percentage from 0 to 100: the sum of item points taking into account topic and pillar weights. Calculated only on the items applicable to the company. → section “How the assessment works”
Solonetz soils: soils with a high content of exchangeable sodium: dense, poorly permeable to water and hard to work. In land reporting they are recorded separately from saline soils, although the two phenomena share a common cause. (based on reports of the Land Resources Management Committee)
Social responsibility: The responsibility of an organization for the impacts of its decisions and activities on society through transparent and ethical behavior that contributes to sustainable development, including the health and well-being of society; takes into account the expectations of stakeholders; complies with applicable law and is consistent with international norms of behavior; and is integrated throughout the organization and practiced in its day-to-day activities. (based on ISO 26000)
Social bonds: Social bonds are any type of debt instrument whose proceeds are applied exclusively to finance, in full or in part, new social projects and/or refinance existing ones. (per the ICMA Social Bond Principles)
Social projects: Projects in the social sphere aimed at achieving, among others, the following objectives: • Providing accessible basic infrastructure (e.g., supplying the population with clean drinking water, wastewater treatment, improved sanitation, transport, energy); • Ensuring access to essential services (e.g., health care, education and vocational training, financing and financial services); • Building affordable housing; • Supporting the working-age population and programs designed to combat unemployment caused by socioeconomic crises, including through financing of small and medium-sized enterprises and microfinance; • Food security and sustainable food systems (e.g., providing physical, social and economic access to safe and sufficient food that meets dietary needs, sustainable agricultural practices, reducing food loss and waste, improving the productivity of small-scale producers); • Socioeconomic advancement and empowerment (e.g., equitable access to and control over assets, services and resources, equitable market access and participation in society, including the reduction of wealth inequality). (based on the ICMA Social Bond Principles)
UNESCO Green School Quality Standard: The standard that UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) issued in 2024 as a common basis for green school accreditation schemes under the GEP partnership (Greening Education Partnership); the partnership aims for at least half of the schools in every country to become green by 2030. It describes 186 actions in four dimensions — school governance, building and operations, learning, and community — and a scheme is considered aligned with the standard if it includes at least a third of the actions in each dimension and one mandatory action per dimension. The standard is addressed to operators of accreditation schemes, not to schools themselves; the ESGQ items for the “Secondary education” industry are built on its actions. Not to be confused with the ESGQ assessment: the standard defines what a green school does, while the ESGQ assessment shows how much of this the school has disclosed and confirmed. (based on the UNESCO document “Expression of alignment to the Green school quality standard,” 2024) → section “Industry methodologies”
Station-years, gauge-years: a unit for counting observations: one station or one gauge over one year. Ten stations over five years give fifty station-years. Counting in these units makes it possible to compare regions with many stations against those that have only a few.
ETS and carbon allowance: ETS — Kazakhstan's emissions trading system, in operation since 2013: installations in the power, oil and gas, mining, metallurgical and chemical industries, as well as cement, lime, gypsum and brick production, emitting more than 20 thousand tonnes of CO₂ a year receive a carbon allowance — the permitted volume of emissions under the National Carbon Allowance Allocation Plan. A shortfall in allowances can be covered by purchased carbon units or offsets, and for each uncovered tonne above the allowance the installation operator pays a fine of 5 MCI. Difference from CBAM: the ETS is a domestic market with a low price (in 2025, on average 455 tenge per unit on the secondary market), while CBAM is a European border charge at the EU ETS price. (based on the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Art. 289–292, the Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Administrative Offenses, Art. 329, and the ICAP overview “Kazakhstan Emissions Trading System”, icapcarbonaction.com)
Natural hydrometeorological hazard (SGYa): an event that has reached the criteria at which a storm warning is issued: very heavy rain, large hail, a severe blizzard, a severe dust storm, a very strong wind. Kazhydromet keeps a list of such events by station in its yearbook; they are known as severe (hazardous) hydrometeorological phenomena. (based on RSE Kazhydromet materials)
Sustainability strategy: A document that sets objectives and an action plan for achieving sustainability goals over a given period, based on the scale and nature of the organization's activities and taking into account risks and opportunities, through the coordination and allocation of resources. The organization's strategy establishes the basis on which it can track and measure its progress toward the desired state. (based on TCFD)
Material topics: Topics (matters) in the areas of the environment, society, workforce, economy and corporate governance that are important to the company's operations and its stakeholders, which the company should take into account when developing its sustainability strategy and reflect in its non-financial reporting. (based on GRI)
SSP scenarios: Shared Socioeconomic Pathways. The first digit is the pathway of social development, the second is the additional radiative forcing by 2100 in W/m²: SSP1-2.6 describes a world with stringent climate policy, SSP5-8.5 a world without one. A scenario is not a forecast but an “if” condition, which is why a calculation is always shown for at least two of them. (based on the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report)
Taxonomy: A classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities that helps redirect financing toward more sustainable technologies and initiatives and is designed to protect investors from greenwashing. The Taxonomy Regulation (2020/852)* is part of EU legislation that entered into force in July 2020 and is positioned as part of the European Green Deal, an initiative to make the EU climate neutral by 2050. The Taxonomy Regulation defines six environmental objectives: 1. Climate change mitigation 2. Climate change adaptation 3. Sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources 4. Transition to a circular economy 5. Pollution prevention and control 6. Protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems. *link: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32020R0852 The Republic of Kazakhstan has approved a classification (taxonomy) of green projects: a system for classifying categories of green projects aimed at improving the efficiency of use of existing natural resources, reducing negative environmental impact, improving energy efficiency and energy conservation, mitigating climate change and adapting to climate change (Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 996 dated December 31, 2021).
Topic: one of the 21 assessment areas, for example “Climate and energy” or “Business ethics”. A topic consists of items and has a weight that depends on the industry. → section “How the assessment works”
Heat stress: the load on the body from the combination of temperature, humidity, wind and sun — what a person working outdoors actually feels. It is assessed not by the thermometer but by working-condition indices. (based on ISO 7243 on the assessment of heat stress)
Tropical night: a night when the minimum temperature does not fall below 20 °C: neither the body nor buildings have time to cool down, and the cooling load never lets up. In climate data sets the counter is defined exactly this way — the number of days with a minimum above 20 °C. (based on the definition of the tropical nights index in the ETCCDI set — the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices)
Carbon neutrality: Achieving net zero carbon emissions either by ending the emissions themselves or by balancing the carbon emitted through removals or offsets (the process of reducing or avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, to compensate for emissions made elsewhere). (based on UN materials)
Risk management: A set of processes comprising the identification, assessment and prioritization of possible risks affecting an organization's long-term objectives, carried out by eliminating risks and managing the combined potential impact of those risks (the coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor and control the probability or impact of adverse events, or to maximize the realization of opportunities). (based on ISO 31000 and TCFD)
Maturity level: the level of the answer to an item: a document exists, a process is in place, a measurable result is achieved. The higher the level, the more points for the same item. → section “Scale”
Caspian Sea level: the sea surface elevation in the Baltic height system, which lies below ocean level and is therefore expressed as a negative number. According to Kazhydromet reports, since 2006 the level has fallen by about two meters — this changes depths at berths, the position of the shoreline and the operation of water intakes. (based on RSE Kazhydromet publications on the regime of the Caspian Sea and the dynamics of its level)
Sustainable development (sustainability): In the general sense, development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. / In the Republic of Kazakhstan, sustainable development is also defined as development achieved without compromising ecological sustainability, while ensuring environmental safety and ecologically balanced use of natural resources in order to equitably meet the needs of present and future generations. (based on the report “Our Common Future” by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, and the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan)
Sustainability-linked loans (loans tied to sustainability performance): Any type of loan instrument and/or contingent facility (such as bonding lines, guarantee lines or letters of credit) that incentivizes the borrower to achieve ambitious, predetermined sustainability objectives. The borrower's sustainability performance is measured using sustainability performance targets, which include key performance indicators, external ratings and/or equivalent metrics that measure improvements in the borrower's sustainability profile. (based on SLLP terminology)
Vulnerability: the propensity of an asset to suffer: how easily it can be damaged and how hard it is for it to recover. A warehouse on piles with drainage and the same warehouse without them are equally exposed but differently vulnerable. Risk arises where all three come together — hazard, exposure and vulnerability. (based on IPCC definitions, IPCC AR6)
Physical climate risks (physical risks): Risks that may be driven by acute events, such as the increased severity of extreme weather events (e.g., cyclones, droughts, floods and wildfires). They may also relate to chronic, longer-term shifts in precipitation and temperature and increased variability in weather patterns (e.g., sea level rise). (based on TCFD terminology)
Holding: a state or private fund holding stakes in companies in the registry. The fund's card shows its companies with their stakes and scores; the company's card shows its holding affiliation; each company's score is calculated from its own disclosure. → section “How the assessment works”
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs): The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, is a shared plan for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and in the future. At its core are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an urgent call to action for all countries, developed and developing, within a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand in hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality and spur economic growth, while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. (based on information from https://sdgs.un.org/goals)
Data center: a structure or group of structures that houses, connects and operates servers and associated equipment for data storage, processing and transmission. A data center consumes a lot of electricity and, with water cooling, water as well, so it is asked about separately (see PUE and WUE). In ESGQ scoring, data center operators belong to the “Telecom and IT” industry; a data center inside a bank or a plant stays in its owner's industry, and the items on PUE and data center water are not asked of such a company. (based on the definition in Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics, Annex A, point 2.6.3.1.16) → section “Industries and sources”
Supply chain (value chain): A value chain refers to the upstream and downstream life cycle of a product, process or service, including the sourcing of materials, production, consumption and disposal/recycling. Upstream activities include operations related to the initial stages of producing a good or service (e.g., material sourcing, material processing, supplier activities). Downstream activities include operations related to processing materials into a finished product and delivering it to the end user (e.g., transportation, distribution and consumption). (based on TCFD)
Circular economy (closed-loop economy; also cyclic economy): A model of production and consumption that involves reducing the use of primary resources, sharing, leasing, avoiding the incineration and landfilling of waste, and reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible, in order to address global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste and pollution. (based on materials of the European Parliament) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2016/573899/EPRS_BRI%2820 16%29573899_EN.pdf
MSK-64 scale: the Medvedev–Sponheuer–Kárník scale of 1964, a 12-degree scale of earthquake intensity. A degree describes not the energy at the source but how strongly the ground shakes at a particular point and what happens to buildings. The seismic zoning maps of Kazakhstan's building codes are expressed in degrees of this scale. (based on the description of the MSK-64 macroseismic scale)
Environmental responsibility: The obligation of enterprises to prevent and remedy environmental damage that may be caused by their business activities. (based on Directive 2004/35/CE of the European Parliament of April 21, 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage)
Energy transition: The transition of the global energy sector from fossil fuel-based systems of energy production and consumption, including oil, natural gas and coal, to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, as well as lithium-ion batteries. The global transformation of energy systems comprises four elements: energy efficiency, decarbonization, decentralization and digitalization. The term “energy transition” (Energiewende) was first used in 1980 in a publication by Germany's Öko-Institut (Institute for Applied Ecology) titled “Energy Transition: Growth and Prosperity without Oil and Uranium” (“Energie-Wende. Wachstum und Wohlstand ohne Erdöl und Uran”).
Soil erosion: the destruction and removal of the upper fertile layer by water (sheet wash) and by wind (deflation, blowing). In land reporting eroded land is divided accordingly — water-eroded and wind-eroded. For business this means dust on the site, siltation of water bodies and undercut slopes. (based on reports of the Land Resources Management Committee)
Explicit zero: a disclosed zero value, for example “no ESG bonds were issued”. It is an answer, not a gap: the company has stated that the indicator is absent. → section “How the assessment works”

The interpretation of definitions may differ from those of third parties; comments and additions are accepted at info@esgq.kz. The first edition — “ESGQ Glossary, Volume 1” (May 18, 2023) with 25 abbreviations.

Download the first edition (PDF) ↗Page on esgq.kz ↗

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ESGQ · insights · September 28, 2026

How much does ESG cost business, and what will inaction cost?

Do spending on the environment, people and governance pay off? Analysts at the ESGQ rating agency have added up both bills — the cost of ESG and the cost of inaction — using Kazakhstan's figures. A report costs a company anywhere from a few thousand euros a year to a million or more. Refusing to modernize now also has a price, and it is written into law: by 2031 the largest polluters without an environmental permit will pay 12 times more for their emissions than they do today.

A publication of ESGQ Rating Agency based on open sources and its own calculations. An expert opinion, not a credit rating or an investment recommendation.

Two bills for one decision

Taking care of the environment, people and the quality of governance costs money. Reporting on it costs a medium-sized company several thousand euros a year, and a large one hundreds of thousands or more. But abandoning ESG now has a price too. ESGQ calls it the second bill: it arrives later, and the amount on it is usually larger.

The clearest example is emission charges. Under the new Tax Code, a Category I enterprise that has obtained an integrated environmental permit pays nothing for emissions within the standards. Without a permit the charge rises every year, and for the 50 largest polluters it will grow 12-fold by 2031. For now the amounts are small — in 2024 all 190 subsoil users in the EITI report paid 47 billion tenge for emissions, — and many postpone modernization. But, as ESGQ analysts note, each further delay costs more than the last.

The second bill comes from Europe. Since 2026, importers of steel, aluminum, ferroalloys and fertilizers into the EU have been buying CBAM certificates — one per tonne of CO₂; in the second quarter a certificate cost about 75 euros. If a producer cannot verify its emissions, the EU calculates them using inflated values. According to an estimate cited by the EU Delegation, this costs Kazakhstan exporters more than 100 million euros a year.

The third bill is accidents and fines. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cost BP 67 billion dollars, and the Brumadinho dam collapse cost Vale 37.7 billion reais. And in Kazakhstan the fine per tonne of missing carbon allowance is 43 times the price of the allowance itself.

Does modernization pay off? ESGQ analysts calculated a hypothetical example: a metallurgical plant on the list of 50 replaces its equipment for 100 billion tenge. Over ten years, in today's money, it spends 63 billion on equipment and saves 109 billion on emission charges — ending up about 69 billion tenge ahead. For a plant outside the list with expensive equipment, modernization does not pay off within ten years: the law raises its charges more slowly.

Which threats are the most dangerous, and who can send the bill? Scheduled risks — rising charges, CBAM, mandatory new technologies, allowance shortages — cannot be avoided, but companies can prepare for them in advance and more cheaply. Rare disasters — accidents and tailings dam failures — cost the most, and here ESG works as insurance. According to ESGQ, the strongest levers are held by the environmental regulator, the financial regulator and the stock exchange, lenders and buyers in Europe.

With a subscription — the full version of the publication: six quotable figures, the statutory fork in charges with the composition of the list of 50, the plant model with a breakdown and three cases, the model's assumptions, the risk map and the 5×5 stakeholder matrix, and a review of research on the link between ESG and financial performance.

How to cite

According to calculations by ESGQ Rating Agency, “ESG economics” model, September 2026.

The plant, the bank and the medium-sized company in the calculation are made up for the example. Do not label the figures with the names of real companies.
The statutory amounts (×12, ×6, zero charge with a permit) are provisions of the Tax Code and can be cited with a reference to the article.
The estimate of “more than 100 million € a year” for CBAM is cited by the EU Delegation with reference to the International Trade Centre and QazTrade; cite them as the source.
The material is an ESGQ expert opinion, not a credit rating or an investment recommendation.

Terms

ESG: Environment, people and governance: how a company affects nature and society and how honestly it is run.
Category I facility: An enterprise with a significant environmental impact under the Environmental Code. The list of 50 includes those of them with the largest emissions as of January 1, 2021.
IEP: Integrated environmental permit. An enterprise receives it after switching to best available techniques. With it, the charge for emissions within the standards is zero.
BAT: Best available techniques: the level of equipment the law requires of large polluters.
MCI: Monthly calculation index, the unit for payments and fines. In 2026 it is 4 325 tenge.
CBAM: A carbon charge at the EU border. The importer buys one certificate for each tonne of CO₂ emitted in producing the goods.
Default values: Emissions per tonne of goods that the EU assigns to a country when a producer has no verified data.
ETS and allowance: Kazakhstan's emissions trading system. An enterprise receives an allowance for tonnes of CO₂ and pays a fine for any shortfall.
Today's money (NPV): Future costs and income converted to today: a tenge in five years is worth less than a tenge today.

Sources

European Commission. Commission Staff Working Document SWD(2026) 500, pp. 14, 21. ec.europa.eu
Tax Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 214-VIII of July 18, 2025, Art. 639(2)–(3), Art. 640(2)–(5). adilet.zan.kz
Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 239-VIII “On the Republican Budget for 2026–2028”, Art. 7. adilet.zan.kz
European Commission. Price of CBAM certificates. taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621 of December 16, 2025, Annex I. eur-lex.europa.eu
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1740 of July 20, 2026 correcting Annex I to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2621. eur-lex.europa.eu
Directive (EU) 2023/959 of May 10, 2023, recital 46. eur-lex.europa.eu
Delegation of the European Union to Kazakhstan. Assessing CBAM readiness in Kazakhstan, June 9, 2026. eeas.europa.eu
ICAP. Kazakhstan Emissions Trading System, October 2025 update. icapcarbonaction.com
BP p.l.c. Annual Report and Form 20-F 2018, note 2, p. 151. sec.gov
Vale S.A. Form 6-K, February 4, 2021, p. 1. sec.gov
Kazakhstan EITI, national report for 2023–2024, Annex 3 (emission charges, budget classification code 105316); the total by company is an ESGQ calculation. eiti.org
Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 187 of April 1, 2022, as amended by Resolution No. 1131 of December 27, 2024. adilet.zan.kz
ESGQ. “Cost of ESG versus cost of inaction” model, September 2026, recalculated on September 28, 2026. Three cases (unfavorable, typical, favorable), calculation based on assumptions.
Friede G., Busch T., Bassen A. ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies. Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, 2015, 5(4), 210–233. doi.org
Whelan T., Atz U., Van Holt T., Clark C. ESG and Financial Performance: Uncovering the Relationship by Aggregating Evidence from 1,000 Plus Studies Published between 2015–2020. NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, Rockefeller Asset Management, 2021. stern.nyu.edu

A comment, question or suggestion about this material?

2026research article

What Firms Disclose Versus What Employees Perceive: ESG–SDG Alignment in Kazakhstan

Sustainability, 2026, Vol. 18, No. 16, Article 8222 · published August 11, 2026 · Jessica Neafie, Amina Sagymbayeva, Kanat Kenzhetayev, Brendan Duprey, Yerlik Karazhan, Emil Bayramov

The study compares what Kazakhstan companies disclose about their contribution to ESG and the Sustainable Development Goals with how their own employees see these practices. It shows where public disclosure diverges from internal reality — and why an assessment based on reports alone does not see everything.

Read the article (open access) ↗

2025review

Review of the commitment of Kazakhstan's major taxpayers to ESG principles and sustainable development

2024 edition · presented on January 31, 2025 at KBTU, jointly with Nazarbayev University and KBTU

356real-sector companies — seven times more than in the first review

75 %of companies scored no more than 7.5 out of 22 disclosure points

The list comprises the largest taxpayers per the State Revenue Committee. We looked at corporate websites and public communications: which companies disclose their ESG activities, how, and to what extent — under ESGQ's proprietary methodology.

The review scale is disclosure points out of 22; it is not the scoring letter scale. Versions in Russian, Kazakh and English.

Download the review (PDF) ↗Reviews page on esgq.kz ↗

2024expert review for Parliament

ESG transformation: the role of business in delivering the sustainability agenda

The agency's recommendations for the Parliamentary Commission on Monitoring the Implementation of National Sustainable Development Goals and Objectives · Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan · May 2024, for the Commission's meeting of May 17, 2024

8agency recommendations

Introduce mandatory standardized electronic ESG reporting — minimal but sufficient for assessing ESG risks, taking into account industry, region, size and form of ownership.
Give business a clear view from the government of how business's contribution to national goals — carbon neutrality by 2060, the SDGs — is assessed.
Ensure a dialogue between government, business and independent experts on global best practices in ESG risk management.
Hear recommendations on the "ESG Guide for Kazakhstan" that the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources is preparing with the EBRD.
Promote green finance and projects in other ESG areas: social taxonomy, transition bonds.
Make the allocation of emission allowances transparent, conduct regular analysis of the emissions trading system, develop the voluntary carbon market.
Start combating greenwashing, including corporate liability measures.
Promote ESG and provide training, including expertise in interpreting non-financial reporting and managing ESG risks.

2023review

Review of Kazakhstan's largest taxpayers for their commitment to ESG principles

First edition · August 2023

50leading companies of Kazakhstan

The first systematic study of how Kazakhstan's largest taxpayers disclose information about their contribution to sustainable development on their corporate websites. The review covered the 50 largest taxpayers by 2021 results.

Download the review ↗Reviews page on esgq.kz ↗

2023publication

Commitment of Kazakhstan's largest companies to sustainability principles

Ekonomist.kz · October 3, 2023 · article prepared with the participation of QID, the Association of Independent Directors

The ESG part of the material was prepared by the agency: the project lead, Director of ESG Practice at ESGQ and member of QID, discusses the results of the first review — what companies disclose, what is missing, and why business needs to understand that publishing information on its contribution to sustainable development is mandatory.

Read on Ekonomist.kz ↗

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