Year: 2020

EU Targets Emission Savings From Buildings

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The European Union (EU) aims to make buildings more energy efficient to save energy and cut emissions, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday. Public buildings and private homes are currently responsible for 40 percent of the EU’s energy consumption, she said, noting that the process of renovation and retrofitting has already started. “But at the current pace, it would take more than a century to bring emissions from our buildings to zero,” von der Leyen said in a speech today. Regions and cities will be at…

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The Ticking Time Bomb of Circular Debt

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The loan programme of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended in January remains in limbo as Pakistan’s public debt went past 87 per cent of GDP at the end of 2019-20, up from about 72pc of GDP at the end of 2017-18. Pakistan direly needs the IMF support to maintain healthy foreign inflows from bilateral and multilateral lenders to keep servicing over $78 billion foreign public debt. While the circular debt is emerging as one of the key risks to Pakistan’s financial and economic stability, a road map for its…

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Consumers’ Dilemma and the gas sector crisis in Pakistan

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Pakistan’s energy crisis resulting from expensive fuel sources, chronic natural gas and electricity shortages, highly inefficient distribution system, culture of non-payment of bills, theft, circular debt, and inadequate and aged transmission and distribution systems – has played a role in the country’s laggard economic growth. But while the country’s power sector woes are much talked about, far less is debated about the natural gas sector despite it mirroring all the ills of power sector. For example, distribution losses in the Power Sector are approximately 18% (equivalent to Rs. 45 Billion…

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As Pakistan’s Energy Crisis Worsens, Have Chinese Investments Failed Islamabad?

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Successive official reports on Pakistan’s power sector indicate that the country suffers from a shortage of power generation, transmission losses, lack of planning and inappropriate policies leading to an escalating energy crisis. This power crisis in Pakistan is the direct result of massive institutional and governance failure in the form of reckless energy policies over the last three decades. This begs an answer to the question: what has been the impact of the investments from the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with its much-touted power projects, on the energy crisis? Circular…

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