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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Pak delegation off to Russia: APA moot to welcome BRI actions for connectivity of energy infrastructure

By Tariq Butt
April 19, 2019

ISLAMABAD: Two Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members of the National Assembly have flown to Russian Federation to attend a four-day meeting of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) Committee on Economic & Sustainable Development.

The conference opened on Thursday and will continue till Sunday at Naryan-Mar, Russian Federation. The government nominated Sadaqat Ali Abbasi and Mansoor Hayat Khan (son of ex-petroleum minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan), both elected from Rawalpindi district, to represent Pakistan in the moot. Deputy of State Duma [Parliament] of the Russian Federation Alexey Lyaschenko issued the invitation to Pakistan for the APA committee meeting.

According to available agenda of the conference, the conclave will welcome concrete actions under the Road and Belt Initiative (BRI) to promote cooperation in the connectivity of energy infrastructure, to work in concert to ensure security of oil and gas pipelines and other transport routes, to build cross-border supply network and power transmission routes, and to cooperate in regional power grid upgrading and transformation.

The meeting will be concerned about the political crisis in the West Asia in recent years as a real obstacle for realisation of Asian Integrated Energy Market (IEM). It will recognise that the IEM can help the Asian countries to maximise the interests of both producers and consumers and minimise the risks and costs of energy in Asia.

The conference will emphasize the need to develop multilateral cooperation among the Asian countries and the work of APA to develop an IEM in Asia as parts of efforts to provide a sustainable, green and clean energy as they are crucial for the climate change mitigation and attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It will welcome the decreasing trend of energy intensity in most regions of the world particularly Asia and Asian governments’ trend to reduce carbon emissions affecting global warming and environment.

The meeting will support a wider use of natural gas as an economically efficient and ecologically clean fuel to promote sustainable development as well as to reduce greenhouse emissions in accordance with the Paris Agreement on the climate change.

It will encourage parliaments to develop strategies that support and hold governments accountable in relation to sustainable development and to expand dependence on clean, renewable energy such as solar, hydro-power and wind energies and to give priority to utilisation of water as a resource when sufficient and applicable.

A resolution to be passed by the meeting will decide to expand the mandate of the Advisory Group on energy to link the demand and supply for energy in Asia and promote its sustainable use in line with the spirit enshrined in the UN Summit 2015 Declaration to secure the planet for present and future generations.

It will call upon APA Member Parliaments to encourage their respective governments to expand bilateral and multilateral cooperation among Asian countries in the field of energy and sustainability and to link such efforts with the existing international commitments such as the SDGs and the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The resolution will urge APA member states in South and West Asia to respond positively and urgently to the appeal of the Integrated Asian Energy Market in North-East, East- and South-Asia. It will oppose any arbitrary sanction by the global powers on the free trade of energy in Asia, which is the sovereign right of APA Member Parliaments.

The conclave will urge members of the APA Parliaments to report to the Secretary General on their national experiences in the field of increasing energy efficiency and their energy policies for the betterment of the information of the Advisory Group and to be forwarded to the Plenary.

The APA body will request the Secretary General to seek the views of the members Parliaments on the implementation of this resolution.