Kazakhstan leader goes green in annual address

By Raushan Nurshayeva

ASTANA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his people to go green on Wednesday, pointing to developed nations as a model to emulate energy-saving methods.

Like most other ex-Soviet states, Kazakhstan still operates a network of crumbling power utilities and pipelines built in Soviet times when energy-awareness was low on official agenda.

In his annual state of the nation address on Wednesday, Nazarbayev -- in power since before the 1991 Soviet collapse -- said it was time for Kazakhs to get rid of their wasteful habits.

"You've all been abroad and you know how they treat electric power there, even in the richest countries," he said.

"If we continue like this, all the existing electric power stations will stop working and upgrading their equipment. A four-people family living in a three-room apartment can set up electric meters and save up to 40 percent of energy."

Living standards in Kazakhstan, a nation roughly the size of Western Europe but populated by only 15 million people, have improved dramatically over past years due to booming revenues from its key oil and metals exports.

It is home to some of the world's biggest energy deposits and has drawn billions of dollars of foreign investment since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Luxury cars and ritzy shopping malls have become the norm of daily live in Almaty and Astana, its key cities.