A brighter energy future

There have been recent tall claims out of the Ministry of Climate Change. The rhetoric is welcomed but the plans communicated at a press conference following Pakistan’s visit to Morocco to attend the 22^nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change seem more to be hyperbole than concrete actions that will be executed. Policies for combating climate change have been vague. Climate Change Minister Zahid Hamid’s bragging that Pakistan is set to establish the world’s largest solar park is astonishing. Energy projects in the past and even new ones have centred around fossil fuels and prior to the recent changes in subsidy policies, the government used to discourage the development of private energy projects.

Mr Hamid also discussed the government’s implementation of the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act 2016 and the PM’s Green Pakistan Programme which will enact a Pakistan Climate Change Council to inform policymaking. Progressive as they might be, if trained in effectiveness, there are other basic factors surrounding our atmosphere that need to be handled. Mandating responsible garbage disposal and recycling, regular vehicle maintenance checks, introduction of more fuel-efficient vehicles and encouragement of using public transport, awareness of public health concerns and engendering a national conscience in people for taking care of their environment are more pressing issues as without basics, environmental improvement will be a painstaking process. Looking around our polluted and industrialised cities, the claim that Pakistan’s contribution to global greenhouse gases is one per cent is surprising, but it is calming that Mr Hamid at least acknowledges the vulnerability of Pakistan towards the effects of climate change. Whether the share of contribution of greenhouse emissions is a fraction of a per cent or greater, the fight is the responsibility of all countries and they will all have to confront the challenges that will result from it.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2016.

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