Renewable transition

The results of the Climate Risk Index 2026 might come as a bit of a surprise to many in Pakistan, where ‘Pakistan is one of the top ten countries most vulnerable to climate change’ has become a maxim. As it turns out, things are not quite that bad. According to the index, published by international NGO Germanwatch, Pakistan ranks at number 15 in terms of the economic and human effects of climate-related extreme weather events between 1995 and 2024. That means this year’s floods were not part of the data used for the ranking and its long-term nature also, perhaps, understates just how much Pakistan’s climate woes have intensified in recent years. That being said, other regional countries like Bangladesh and India actually rank higher in terms of climate risk. There is even one developed country ranked ahead of Pakistan, with France coming in at number 12. However, the index report concludes that, while all countries are affected by the climate crisis, those in the Global South are disproportionately impacted. More to the point, weather does not really take account of borders. If climate disasters happen in neighbouring and/or other regional countries, Pakistan will also be affected and vice versa. The 832,000 extreme weather deaths and $4.5 trillion in inflation-adjusted economic damage between 1995 and 2024 are a problem that can only be tackled with a collective global approach.

The index report called on countries attending the ongoing COP30 in Brazil to find ways to close global climate ambition gaps. However, with some of the world’s major polluters not in attendance or sending hollow delegations, it is unclear how much stock one can put in global action. This does not mean that nothing can be done. Individual action at the country level can still have a huge impact and such action should be rooted in a transition towards renewable energy. New data this week showed that power generation through net-metering has more than doubled over the past year, with net-metering units, excluding K-Electric consumers, rising from 70.35 gigawatt hours (GWh) in September 2024 to 142.67 GWh in September 2025. According to the 2025 Review of Climate Ambition in Asia and the Pacific, released by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP), solar and wind have now become cost-competitive with coal, creating momentum to shift away from coal-fired plants. Despite higher capital and operation and maintenance costs, wind and solar are still almost half as cheap as coal. This is due, primarily, to the lack of fuel costs. Accordingly, Pakistan’s abundant renewable energy potential makes it a prime territory for a transition to cleaner and more cost-effective energy, even if such projects have higher upfront costs.

For governments like ours, with budget strains and lots of pressure to do something about unreliable power, the easy option in the short run is to go for a cheaper coal plant. It also does not help that any global finance that could help ease the upfront costs and the renewable transition is still very tight. That being said, Pakistan must also have its own plans in place and needs to think of ways to update our grid for the renewable era, with what financial capacity we can muster. And governments in the region are already moving towards tackling this problem, with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for 70 per cent of new renewables capacity globally in 2024. When it comes to this trend, Pakistan cannot afford to be left behind.