Govt urged to facilitate emission reduction by reducing equipment costs in tech industry

Islamabad: National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA) Managing Director Dr Sardar Mohazzam on Friday said the government was contemplating releasing energy-saving certificates and energy conservation bonds for the technological upgradation in the industries.

Dr Mohazzam was addressing a public-private dialogue on Decarbonizing Pakistan Cement Sector: Pathways to ever net zero targets.

The event was organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) under the auspices of its Network for Clean Energy Transition in Pakistan: Research and Advocacy.

The NEECA managing director said that the cement sector had immense potential for decarbonization and for improving energy efficiency.

“We must analyze and take inspiration from policy initiatives being implemented in India and China,” he added.

He reiterated, “Energy security is a top priority of the government, but pricing remained a pertinent challenge in the uptake of renewables and decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors.”   Dr Mohazzam further said that a designated consumer regime equipped with benchmarks and energy audits to catalyze uptake of renewables and emission reduction from the industrial sector was in the pipeline and would soon set the right regulatory direction for the sector.

Pakistan Environment Trust (PET) Executive Director Talha Khan said there was a need to introduce tax incentives for the cement sector.

The insignificant foreign investment was not enough to bridge the financing gap needed for the decarbonization, PET Talha Khan added.

CIBEA senior Assistant Manager Fawad Hussain Shah said energy use by the country’s cement sector generated 45 per cent emissions, which was much higher than the global average.

Talha Khan elucidated that high carbon intensity of the sector could be traced to 85 per cent coal consumption while the share of biomass and waste-to-energy was merely 0.02 per cent.

The PET senior stressed the need for improving public awareness regarding green cement and updating Building Code of Pakistan to influence the sector to shift from grey to green cement, which is eco-friendly.

Bestway Cement Head of Environment Farrukh Ahmad said globally, the cement sector was sitting back on the issue of decarbonisation and would take some years to realise why it was important to make significant reduction in CO2 emissions.

He further said that amidst financially testing times, the pressure on the industrial sector for emission reduction in the absence of tax exemptions and incentives was rather utopian thinking. He called for the simplification of regulatory environment and incentives to promote growth in the sector.  SDPI Deputy Executive Director (Research) Dr Sajid Amin Javed said that significant emission reduction could be made possible by adopting innovative technologies of carbon capture and storage.

World Resource Institute (WRI) Associate Director Deepak Krishnan urged the governments and international institutions to facilitate emissions reduction by lowering the cost of technology and equipment, and improving access to finance for industries.

Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), United States’ Solutions Fellow Mahmoud Abouelnaga asked the civil society and research organizations to play their role in harmonizing the life cycle analysis of cement sector to design effective policy interventions for decarbonization, in consultation with the stakeholders.

SDPI’s Senior Research Associate Ubaid ur Rehman Zia, expressed the hope that the measures recently announced by the industrial sector would lead to a maximum emissions reduction of 9 per cent, which was significantly lower than the target required to meet 1.5 or 2-degree scenario of the Paris Agreement.   He further highlighted that for the country’s Industrial sector to reach net-zero by 2050, the cement sector had to reduce its emissions by at least 53 per cent by 2030. APP