Month: June 2020

KARACHI: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has taken notice of the public concerns and complaints regarding the shortage of petroleum products in country and initiated an enquiry to see whether such a shortage is the result of any anti-competitive activity. The CCP is empowered under the Competition Act, 2010 to ensure that businesses do not engage in anti-competitive activities including abuse of dominant position or cartelization that may result in the shortage of supplies or unreasonable increase in prices of products. Sudden shortage of fuel across country at a…

Read More

ISLAMABAD:  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged Pakistan to freeze salaries of government employees and adhere to the fiscal consolidation path by showing a nominal primary deficit in the new budget – the two demands that Islamabad finds hard to digest. The IMF is insisting that Pakistan should continue to follow the fiscal consolidation path due to a high and unsustainable public debt that is set to hit 90% of the total value of national economy. The outbreak of the deadly novel coronavirus has exposed vulnerabilities of Pakistan’s economy…

Read More

The coronavirus pandemic’s economic downturn may have set off a sudden plunge in global greenhouse gas emissions, but another crucial metric for determining the severity of global warming — the amount of greenhouse gases actually in the air — just hit a record high. According to readings from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the amount of CO2 in the air in May 2020 hit an average of slightly greater than 417 parts per million (ppm). This is the highest monthly average value ever recorded,…

Read More

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday signed a $188 million agreement with the World Bank for environmental protection through forest regeneration and biodiversity conservation programmes and boosting the country’s climate-resilience through enhanced disaster risk management. Under the agreement, the World Bank would join hands with Pakistan and provide funding and technical support for disaster resilience and ecosystem restoration initiatives through more reliable and timely weather forecasting. It will also help in improved disaster risk management services as well as overall environmental sustainability and achieving green growth targets of the country. Speaking at…

Read More

Greenpeace has joined a growing list of organisations demanding that the UK government puts protecting the environment at the heart of any post-Covid-19 economic stimulus package. The campaign group has produced a detailed “manifesto” with measures to boost clean transport and smart power. The document follows a comparable call from some of Britain’s most powerful business leaders earlier this week. Last week, the prime minister also expressed a similar ambition. Boris Johnson said he wanted to see a “fairer, greener and more resilient global economy” after Covid-19 and that “we…

Read More