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Thursday March 28, 2024

Renewable energy projects to reduce carbon emissions: minister

By our correspondents
August 22, 2017

ISLAMABAD: Alternative and renewable energy projects have potential to achieve sustainable development goals and reduce the country’s carbon emissions from energy sector, which accounts for nearly 50 percent of the total annual carbon emissions, climate minister said on Monday.

“The present government, therefore, has taken up a broad spectrum of initiatives for the tapping of country’s renewable energy potential, particularly from solar and wind, to boost economic development and earn revenues by selling carbon credits to the industrialised countries,” Climate Change Minister Mushahidullah Khan said in a statement.

Khan was addressing a workshop on the United Nation’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Climate change ministry, in collaboration with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Japan-based Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, organised the event.

Minister said in recent years a fast-paced industrial growth coupled with huge investment in trade development has been witnessed.  “This scenario is benefiting from new policy architecture, major economic reforms and improving security situation in the country,” he added. “But, energy projects are of paramount importance for sustaining the growth trajectory.”

Climate Change Minister said climate change-resilience and sustainable development have been recognised as core components of the economic growth model by the present government.

“No socio-economic gains yielded by any economic growth or development models can sustain, if these are not climate change-resilient and adaptive to the fallouts of the global warming-induced shifting and erratic weather patterns,” he said.

Khan told the participants that the present government’s growth-centric economic model is aimed to achieve overall sustainable socioeconomic and environmental development through various policy measures, particularly poverty reduction, improved living standards of the people, good health and well-being, sustainable cities and communities, quality education, hunger eradication and increased energy access.

Efforts have been made to ensure that the policy measures for achieving overall socio-economic and environmental development is resilient to the impacts of the climate change-induced extreme weather events including, riverine and urban flooding, land erosion, shifting and unpredictable rainfall patterns, groundwater depletion and irregular river flows.

On CDM adoption in the country, the minister said the United Nations has so far commissioned 75 CDM projects, out of which CDM executive board have registered several projects. He said most of the 75 projects registered under the CDM are renewable and clean energy projects, which are at different stages of implementation.

The board supervises the CDM under the authority and guidance of the member countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The CDM allows emission-reduction projects in developing countries like Pakistan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh to earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2. 

Developing countries can sell and trade the CERs. Industrialised countries can use them to a meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. The mechanism, in fact, aims to achieve sustainable development in poor countries and emission reductions in industrialised countries at the same time for tackling global warming by stabilising climate change.

UN-sponsored CDM Regional Collaboration Centre has been established in Bangkok, which is helping countries in the Asia and the Pacific region in identification and development of potential CDM projects and providing support to these countries regarding capacity-building.

“We are effectively engaging with the centre to building up capacity of different government and non-governmental organisation, which are interested in developing more clean development projects in different socio-economic and energy sectors,” Khan said.