At the beginning of July, Kazakhstan introduced a new Euro-4 environmental standard for imported cars. From January 1, 2014, it will also be required for cars produced within the country. According to Andrey Lavrentyev, president of the Association of Kazakhstan Automotive Business (AKAB), this will improve the environmental situation in the country.
Now a question has arisen about the customs clearance procedure for cars that have been imported since July 2013. Unfortunately, the flaw in this mechanism projects negativity onto the entire initiative as a whole. The issue is already being raised at a high government level in order to clarify the situation as soon as possible for people who want to import a car into Kazakhstan on their own, and to regulate the procedure. This may take some time, but the situation will definitely clear up soon, which will help avoid the import of low-quality cars.
If we talk about the environment, the Euro 4 standard will not be able to completely change the situation, but it can influence its improvement. To correct the environmental situation, a set of measures is required. They include changing fuel production standards, introducing gas-powered transport, and importing electric vehicles. These measures entail updating the country’s transport infrastructure: the construction of gas filling stations and filling stations for electric vehicles. All this takes time. But this is precisely why we cannot abandon measures that can already change the situation for the better.
“It is our responsibility to take care of the country where we live,” says Andrey Lavrentyev, president of the Association of Kazakhstan Automotive Business. “And the government is moving in the right direction by limiting the import of polluting cars. The government does not lobby for the interests of anyone, but cares about the population of Kazakhstan. In the end, the younger generation should enjoy normal natural resources, clean air, and water. It is necessary to support the environmental initiative. In our country, any government decision initially causes a negative assessment among citizens. But if you look at it, you can see that a lot is being done to develop Kazakhstan, preserve and increase existing resources. Of course, there are questions regarding the mechanism for implementing the new resolutions, but all this can be resolved.”
The Euro 4 environmental standard applies to all car brands that were produced in the year in which it came into force in the country exporting the product. The requirements for the Euro 4 level are to achieve the required emissions of harmful substances, namely, nitrogen oxides - 2 g/kWh, carbon oxides - 4 g/kWh and hydrocarbons - 0,55 g/kWh.
Currently, used cars are imported into the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan in a simplified manner, according to the Conformity Table, which determines their environmental class depending on the year of manufacture and country of production. Thus, cars produced in the European Union since 4, in the USA and Korea - since 2005, and in China - since 2006 are subject to the Euro-2012 standard.