Pakistan must transition to climate solution provider: experts

“Sustainability is not a cost, it’s an investment, and an intergenerational one,” said Faraz Khan, CEO and Managing Partner of Spectreco LLC USA, as he addressed a packed hall during the Future Summit session titled “Shaping the New Climate Economy” at Karachi’s Movenpick Hotel.

Spectreco is an AI-driven ESG platform that performs data management and reporting across multiple industries, including real estate, infrastructure, hospitality, and finance.

The discussion was part of the two-day Future Summit 2025 organised by Nutshell Group and the National Bank of Pakistan. Sustainability experts at the session called for bold leadership and actionable strategies to steer Pakistan toward a climate-smart, resilient economy.

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The panel, featuring Faraz Khan and Sajjeed Aslam, Co-founder and Partner of Spectreco LLC (USA), focused on how Pakistan can align economic growth with environmental sustainability while attracting international climate finance.

“The future belongs to economies that decouple growth from emissions,” said Sajjeed Aslam, emphasising the need for bold and visionary leadership to balance economic expansion with environmental responsibility. “We need leaders who don’t just predict the future, but create it, for our generation and the ones to come.”

Aslam noted that Pakistan already has a national climate finance strategy, a carbon market policy, and a green taxonomy in place. However, he cautioned that effective implementation remains the key challenge. “Money is available globally — the question is whether we are ready to access it,” he said.

He urged policymakers to prioritise education, competitiveness, and innovation, citing examples of countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Rwanda that transformed their economic trajectories through focused reforms.

Faraz Khan, who recently participated in a panel at the New York Stock Exchange alongside BlackRock, shared insights on the global financial shift toward sustainability. “We are witnessing the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history, over $68 trillion, and sustainability has become its cornerstone,” he said, adding that this generation will carry economic sustainability forward as they are today’s consumers and investors.

Khan highlighted that Europe, the Middle East, and China are moving toward mandatory ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting. “Pakistan has the chance to leapfrog straight into a green economy if industries build capacity to meet these global standards,” he said.

“What’s missing to achieve this vision,” Khan noted, “is the capability of our industries, their ability to understand and integrate local, regional, and global sustainability frameworks into their systems.”

He explained that the challenge lies not in policy but in implementation. “We already have a strong policy structure in place, what we call the ICIS framework, which stands for Individuals, Communities, Institutions, and Systemic transformation,” he said. “Systemic transformation is happening. Policies are in place. Community resilience, adaptation, and mitigation are well understood. The real impact, however, must reach the individual level.”

Khan added that the missing link lies within financial institutions, fund managers, banks, insurance companies, and asset managers, the key distributors of these frameworks. “These are the players with end-to-end exposure to transactions,” he said. “They must now enable and integrate sustainability policies, both local and global, into their financial systems, trade, and export strategies. That’s where real change begins.”

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He stressed that sustainability must be viewed as an investment rather than a cost. “It’s an opportunity for market growth, valuation gains, and access to capital,” he said. “If we shift our mindset, Pakistan can move from being a climate aid recipient to a provider of climate solutions.”

Later, during a Q&A session, a participant asked whether penalty-based mechanisms could help enforce sustainability policies, referencing the success of the e-challan system. Faraz Khan responded that while penalties could be effective, they also risk causing financial strain on industries if not implemented carefully.

In conclusion, both panelists agreed that Pakistan has the framework, funding, and opportunity to become a contributor to global climate solutions. The key, they said, lies in leadership, execution, and strategic integration of sustainable practices across industries and education.