Coal subsidies and Pakistan

While much of the world continues to turn its back on coal, it is disconcerting to note that Pakistan, like a number of developing countries, is still going full steam ahead into plumes of black smoke. More worrying is the fact that Pakistan is among the four largest recipients of public finance from G20 countries for coal-fired power plants in 2016-17, according to a report issued by Overseas Development Institute, a London-based think tank.

The report also says despite promising a decade ago to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, the world’s leading economies more than doubled subsidies to coal-fired power plants over three years, putting climate goals at risk. It goes on to explain that between 2014 and 2017, although G20 governments halved direct support for coal mining from $22 billion to $10 billion per year, they also boosted backing for coal-fired power plants from $17 billion to $47 billion a year. Many of these plants are located in poorer nations and were financed as part of their bilateral or multilateral aid programmes.

In case of Pakistan, the reason for such heavy dependence on coal remains problematic. Claims that domestic coal supplies can fuel these stations have been repeatedly rubbished. Although the Thar reserves are massive, they are lignite, a ‘brown coal’, which because of latent high moisture content and low energy density, has carbon dioxide emissions which are much higher per megawatt than even ‘black coal’ plants. In addition, Pakistan’s desire to keep building dirty coal plants while also asking the world for money to help combat climate change is akin to an addict begging for money to buy food with one hand while pressing down on a needle with the other.

Also ironic is that while funding for green projects is easily available from various sources, Pakistan is not willing to pursue it. Instead, we opted for Chinese-funded coal plants, many of which are sputtering due to the government’s inability to pay operating costs.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2019.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.