An Unsustainable Future

Environmental groups have missed a tremendous opportunity in the past six months. With energy shortages peaking this summer all around Pakistan, there could have been a serious opportunity to drastically change the way Pakistan produces energy.

Unfortunately there has been no grass roots movement to pressurize the government into making some much needed changes into Pakistan’s energy infrastructure. At present most of Pakistan’s energy is obtained through hydro electric power. The water that runs through Pakistan’s rivers is fast becoming an unreliable source of energy due to global warming and geographical politics. Many foresee lack of water to be the source of future problems of famine and poverty in the Subcontinent region.

This means that there must be a push towards other forms of energy, such as those harnessed by the sun and the wind. Pakistan has great potential for such forms of alternative energy. Most parts of Pakistan experience sunny days for most of the year and the wind corridors in Sindh and the Makran Coast have a potential to generate massive amounts of electricity. The Sindh corridor at Jamshoro alone is supposed to have a potential of 50,000 MW of energy. These alternative energy resources also provide a more convenient and efficient solution for providing electricity to small and sometimes remote towns and villages that are excluded from the national grid. While the Minister of Water and Power is using the strategy of rental oil burning IPPs( Independent Power Producers) to get electricity in the short run it remains to be seen what long term methods he is taking.

Burning coal or oil is economically hazardous. Even if, for some reason you do not believe in global warming, emissions from power plants and oil powered cars economically take a toll in terms of rising health costs due to lung and heart problems in the future, caused by the emission of toxic gases containing Sulphur and Lead.

What we need is a ten year National Energy Policy (much like the five year National Textile Policy that has just been introduced) that consults all stakeholders and comes up with a way Pakistan can reduce its carbon emissions and become economically more efficient and more independent in its foreign policy. To see countries getting adversely affected by of being dependent on others for energy you have to look no further than Russian and the Ukrainian gas crisis which happened a few months ago or when oil prices in the international market boomed to $147 a barrel and caused our Pakistani economy to haywire. Goldman Sachs have predicted that oil prices are soon to surge again and while that might be just speculation it is worth noting that they predicted the first surge of oil prices last fall.

Environmental groups need to start putting pressure on the government to shift resources to a safer, cleaner future of solar and wind energy. They need to publish articles in the press, organize processions on the streets if they can do so, and make their case in as many TV channels as they can. Only then can we build a sustainable future.