We are focusing on the Covid-19 pandemic, but the world’s biggest threat remains the climate crisis. To restrict the global temperature to 1.5°C, CO2 emissions are reduced to half by 2030 and hit net null by 2050.
Although these commitments were inadequate. A pandemic and the subsequent economic shutdown resulted in a 4-8% reduction in global carbon emissions.
Decarbonization is the best way out of a conundrum and to make it quick.
The time has come for Pakistan “to fight foreign attempts to decarbonize,” said Dawar Butt, Chief Analyst for Equilibrium, which enables industries to rapidly become climate-positive.
While the implementation between local companies, including government and developers has fallen, Mr. Butt said that it has still been rudimentary and did not result in an equitable structure leaving aside a lot of activity on the ground.
“What happens when the world says it doesn’t buy our basmati because we have produced so much greenhouse gas [GHGs] or because we have used dirty energy from our textiles or because these types of diesel become prohibitively costly, so other countries stop using and therefore stop buying them, and we want our 1, 2 million tubes to run” asked Dr. Arif Anwar, a water specialist who painted a doomsday.
Mr. Butt said that this “wait and watch” was a way to take Pakistan’s waiting opportunities. Since 1994, carbon emissions in Pakistan have risen 2015 by 123 pc. It is estimated that these emissions will increase by around 300 percent by 2030 and that electricity (and all connected) and agriculture account for about 90 percent of overall carbon emissions.
However, with some hand keeping (totaling 40 million dollars) in the idea of decarbonization of the transport and agriculture industry, Pakistan will reduce its GHG emissions by up to 20pc by 2030, followed closely by the sectors.
46pc of the entire country’s carbon from fossil sources is currently being burned.
To solve this power deficit, Pakistan has been pushed, even at a time when the rest of the world has moved away from its dirty fuel, to heavily invest in coal in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“The world could increase the cost of importing coal because the coal-sellers will have to ensure that the CO2 emitted during coal burning is paid for the price,” cautioned Dr. Anwar.
Pakistan has huge solar and wind energy potential that could satisfy not just its domestic electricity need, but of almost all the countries in the region. Pakistan’s new energy policy aims to alter the emission profile of the country to meet 30pc of its energy needs using renewable. Pakistan seems reluctant to let go of coal. Prime Minister Imran Khan plans to explore the possibility of cleaner technologies like coal to liquid (CTL) and coal to gas (CTG) options in a bid to reduce emissions.
Decarbonizing transport
Pakistan is the second-most urbanizing country in South Asia. Pakistan is also the second worst-polluted country in terms of air pollution. According to Mr. Butt, half of the 46pc of emissions coming from the energy sector was from transport. Without decarbonizing transport, addressing global warming would be an exercise in futility. Pakistan’s dependence on private transport has risen sharply in the past decade, especially goods and freight movement in the absence of an efficient rail network.
He said that Pakistan can be part of the supply chain with China and India, respectively the largest electric four-wheeler and two-wheeler manufacturers, and gain, say, from local components production.
If Pakistan does not engage the world community in decarbonization, Dr. Anwar worried that the nation would no longer have such technology available. Huge emissaries such as the US and China reduce CO2 pollution by technological changes.
“We will vanish for ourselves alongside machinery and their parts as newer equipment continues to be used if we don’t change our approach,” he added. “Even if we don’t need to decarbonize, we still have to live in a decarbonized world!”
Leave a Reply