Earlier this month, the government of Punjab declared a smog emergency. A few days later, the Lahore High Court ordered school and office closures twice a week to mitigate smog in the largest city of Punjab. According to a 2018 study, air pollution comes from vehicular emissions, industry and agriculture through crop burning.The electric vehicle revolution Globally, the electric vehicle…
Read More
Subsidisation of inefficiency fosters rent-seeking behaviour, impedes capital flow into efficient sectors such as IT ISLAMABAD: The interim government, in its recent policy move, opted to increase gas prices while rejecting the idea of eliminating subsidies for exporters. Export subsidies have been a contentious and enduring issue in Pakistan’s economic landscape for a considerable span of time. The government’s tendency…
Read More
Despite the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development energy watchdog, continuing to emphasise, and in no uncertain terms, that the era of oil demand growth is coming to an end, what is making Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi petroleum minister, so ebullient and convinced that the global crude demand will continue to grow in…
Read More
ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has advised Pakistan to revive its five-year development planning, get climate-sensitive public investment management plans working and publish criteria for project appraisals for transparency to attract global climate financing. The IMF’s guidance comes immediately after the two sides reached a staff-level agreement on the first review of a $3 billion bailout, followed by a public announcement…
Read More
The Pakistan Solar Association (PSA) has reaffirmed its commitment to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the government in achieving its ambitious clean energy targets by the year 2030 for cutting the carbon footprint of the power sector and saving precious foreign exchange reserves otherwise spent on the import of highly expensive fossil fuel for electricity production.The PSA leadership assured the fullest support…
Read More
Pakistan and Iran have decided to revive their stalled cooperation on the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project, which has been languishing for years due to the fear of US sanctions. The two countries will start formal negotiations within the next few weeks. This was the outcome of the recent visit of Pakistan’s Interim Energy Minister Muhammad Ali to Tehran, where…
Read More
ISLAMABAD: An energy expert claims he has a realistic and workable plan to slash the country’s reliance on liquefied natural gas imports by up to 50 percent gradually in the next three years and reduce its massive power sector debt by using solar energy. Eng Arshad H Abbasi, co-Founder of Energy Excellence- Center NUST, Engineering University Peshawar said he has…
Read More
Stresses need for local private sector to take leading role in financing these projects LAHORE: The Pakistan Solar Association (PSA) has pledged its commitment to collaborate with the government of Pakistan to achieve the ambitious goal of generating 60% renewable electricity by 2030. The announcement was made by PSA Chairman Amir Chaudhry at the ‘Lets Grow Together’ event on Friday.…
Read More
Lender doesn’t agree with growth, CAD projections ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised Pakistan’s foreign loan requirements to $25 billion for this fiscal year — reducing it by $3.4 billion — and also lowered the economic growth projection to just 2%, turning down the government’s external as well as macroeconomic forecasts. Finance ministry sources said the IMF had…
Read More
ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday announced that it had approved $250 million in loans to Pakistan for improving its power transmission network in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to ensure reliable electricity supply. The project is aimed at helping the country achieve national grid stability, energy security, climate resilience and increased transmission capacity to deploy sufficient, reliable, clean,…
Read More
