Green Growth No Longer a Choice but an Economic Lifeline for Pakistan
News Desk
Islamabad: In a powerful convergence of public and private voices, a national dialogue in Islamabad echoed a stark but hopeful message: for Pakistan, transitioning to a green economic regime is no longer optional it’s an urgent necessity.
Amid the country’s mounting economic pressures and escalating climate vulnerabilities, stakeholders from the government, civil society, international development partners, and the private sector united under the theme “Greening the Macro-Fiscal Economic Regime for Low Carbon Development.”
The event, part of a broader pre-budget consultation series, was co-hosted by the Planning Commission of Pakistan, the Pakistan-German Climate and Energy Partnership (PGCEP), and the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).
The call for action comes at a time when Pakistan finds itself navigating multiple crises: a faltering balance of payments, growing exposure to climate disasters, and the looming global transition to carbon-neutral trade regimes.
“This is not just about the environment—it’s an economic imperative,” declared Nadia Rehman, Member for Food Security and Climate Change at the Planning Commission.
She stressed the urgent need to align Pakistan’s development strategies with its green commitments under the Uraan Pakistan program and the Planning Commission’s 5Es Framework—Exports, E-commerce, Environment, Energy, and Equity. Rehman outlined several strategic interventions: climate screening of public projects, developing sectoral plans and performance agreements with ministries, and integrating climate risk into financial systems through partnerships with the State Bank and SECP.
“We are positioning the Planning Commission as the central platform for mainstreaming green reforms,” she said, emphasizing climate finance as a tool to lower borrowing and infrastructure costs and ensure global trade competitiveness in the face of carbon border adjustment taxes.
CBAM & Pakistan’s Vulnerability
One of the strongest warnings came from Dr. Khalid Waleed, energy economist at SDPI, who raised concerns about the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The mechanism, designed to penalize carbon-intensive imports, could severely impact Pakistan’s industrial exports unless immediate steps are taken to decarbonize the national grid and phase out fossil fuel power plants.
“The CBAM isn’t just a policy issue. It’s a direct threat to our export economy,” Dr. Waleed cautioned, urging early investment in renewable energy and a unified green development framework.
Catching Up and Decarbonizing
With 13,000 MW added under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Shah Jahan Mirza, MD of the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), pointed out a bitter irony: many Special Economic Zones (SEZs) still remain non-operational and lack GHG tracking systems.
Gul Hassan Bhutto, Advisor at NEPRA, said the energy market must embrace reforms like the Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market (CTBCM), which allows open and competitive electricity trading — a model that could finally bring Pakistan’s decades-old power market into the modern age.
“We’re 30 years behind the world. It’s time to catch up,” Bhutto said, adding that such mechanisms can reduce electricity tariffs and attract private capital.
Omer Malik, CEO of Shams Power, stressed that market liberalization through CTBCM can allow industries to fully decarbonize. “Rooftop solar has its limits. But CTBCM opens the door for entire industries to go net-zero,” he said.
Meanwhile, Omer Haroon Malik from CPPA-G emphasized technological upgrades like grid-stabilizing STATCOMs and battery storage to ensure the resilience of an increasingly renewable-powered grid.
SMEs and the Green Transition
As industrial players look toward cleaner production methods, the question of workforce readiness looms large. Hassan Shafqaat, CEO of the Pakistan Textile Council, highlighted the severe skills gap hampering SMEs from adopting green tech solutions.
“The ecosystem isn’t ready yet,” he said. “We need budget-tagged incentives for industry and capacity-building initiatives at scale.”
Climate as a Systems Issue
Tying the threads of economics, energy, trade, and human security was Aisha Khan, CEO of the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change. In her rousing address, she said Pakistan’s recent floods, crippling power outages, and dwindling exports reflect more than isolated crises—they are symptoms of systemic failure.
“Our floods, our outages, our declining exports — they all speak to a system that urgently needs to change,” Khan said, stressing the need for integrated policy and accountability.
Toward a Federal Climate-Economic Working Group
The gathering concluded with a pledge to move forward. A federal-level working group will be constituted to develop a comprehensive climate-driven economic transformation roadmap. According to the organizers, this was the first of many dialogues meant to reshape Pakistan’s fiscal and development narrative around sustainability.
“Green growth is not just for the environment—it’s our path to global relevance and economic stability,” said Wolfgang Hesse, Coordinator for Energy and Climate at GIZ Pakistan, reaffirming Germany’s commitment to Pakistan’s energy transition and resilience-building.
As Pakistan edges closer to the global frontlines of climate and trade reform, its policymakers are now faced with a choice that’s quickly fading: evolve or be left behind. The stakes are high, but the consensus is clearer than ever — a green economic regime isn’t just the future, it’s now.
