Although, Karachi is the economic hub of Pakistan, it has faced grave energy crisis for more than a decade. As a result, the industrial growth has lost its speedy growth that once achieved during the era of 60s.
Hence, it is pivotal to devise a concrete strategy that could reap fruitful results for not only the people living here, but the city as a whole where the industries is the top priority.
The five point agenda for the energy road-map of the city should comprise of the following steps which could help tackle the city’s energy crisis. Firstly, the energy policies in Karachi need to be participatory. The city government, federal and provincial governments, the private sector, media, civil society, NGOs, academia and climate change experts all have to be on the same page. The vision must unite to bring about a consensus, with each stakeholders’ role being clearly defined.
Secondly, the legislative action to execute the framework for the energy sector of Karachi needs to be robust, focusing on the global best practices and their interface with the provincial and federal government tiers of influence by building scale, training, infrastructure, communication linkages.
Thirdly, human capital development can be achieved by strengthening our academic programmes across Karachi, reviewing existing research programmes, introducing research grants, creating powerful teacher training and mentoring sessions, and encouraging students to pursue environmental studies in college. Fourthly, the renewable energy profile of Karachi must be developed to clearly pinpoint and identify a comprehensive resource pool for renewable energy, thus creating a cost-benefit analysis of each available option and its on-ground application. Once the database is in place, then comes the bench-marking and establishing of targets, like setting up smart grids and storage capacity levels. Companies like Reon Energy working on these kind of renewable projects aggressively. This should be followed by the creation of short and long term funding option availability, creating a link between the spending on increased renewable energy and a reduction in the urban carbon footprint of the city.
Lastly, Karachi, like all other metropolises, must produce an annual green-house gas inventory (GHI), which would indicate changing trends, major emitters, policy measures and administrative guidelines to help cut down on green-house gas emissions.
Furthermore, a build-up of the public mass transit system in Karachi could drastically reduce the use of private vehicles, hence lowering traffic congestion and the environmental damage which is only furthering the acute energy crisis Karachi is facing.
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