The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has allocated $300,000 in grant funds to Pakistan to help the country conduct a pre-feasibility study for the early retirement of coal and fossil fuel plants under the Energy Transition Mechanism.
At COP26 in Glasgow, the grant funding were granted to the country. Pakistan is among three other Asian countries receiving support from the Asian Development Bank (Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines).
Read more: SAPM Gauhar proposes converting IPPs running on imported coal to local
Besides the plan to phase out coal plants, the ADB also assisted the government in developing the Alternative and Renewable Energy Policy 2021, which reaffirmed the government’s goal to reaching a renewable energy capacity of 30% by 2030.
“We now have a clear climate direction,” said Malik Amin Aslam, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, who is leading the Pakistani delegation to the COP.
“By 2030, we want to be using 60% renewable energy and 30% electric vehicles, and we want to eliminate imported coal entirely.” With our Recharge Pakistan, Protected Areas Initiative, and 10 billion Tree Tsunami Program, we are opting for nature-based solutions. “It’s a natural beneficial road.” He went on to say.
Earlier during COP26, Jean Su, the energy director at the US Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, stated that 21 countries and five multilateral financial institutions would no longer fund international coal, oil, and gas projects with public funds.
“This is a historic commitment,” she added, noting that it had the potential to redirect $18 billion in annual investment from fossil fuels to renewable energy. “We all understand that we don’t have time for fossil fuels anymore,” she remarked. “An era has come to an end.”
