Barrister Aemen Maluka spoke on this conference regarding energy conservation efforts, which she said only existed on paper as the policy of self regulation by industries was a failure in the absence of an overseeing mechanism. She said environmental taxes also could not be imposed in a country where tax and electricity was rampant.
A copy of this paper will be published on our official Website as well as in the well known, peer-reviewed, IPRI journal.
To access the Daily times News Paper giving a summary of our participation click here https://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013%5C05%5C17%5Cstory_17-5-2013_pg5_6
About the Energy Conference (Sourced from the brochure)
Pakistan is facing an acute and lingering energy crisis which is not only affecting the daily life of people but also hindering the overall development and progress of the country. Although installed generation capacity is greater than peak summer demands, exorbitant production costs make the electricity unaffordable for the domestic consumer and uneconomical for commercial users.
Currently, multiple ministries and institutions are dealing with differing aspects of national energy policy; however, conflict of interest often impedes the formulation and implementation of a coherent and sustainable policy framework. Furthermore, electricity prices have skyrocketed due to an increasing reliance on thermal sources. Regrettably, most of the vendors presenting alternative routes end up focusing more on production issues than actual costs.
The government’s inability to purchase expensive power produced by the private sectors results in gross underutilization of production facilities. Lack of public awareness for resource conservation, governance issues, technical/management inefficiency and inadequate legislation further add to the shortfall in revenue.
An analysis of the prevailing situation suggests that the energy crisis requires immediate attention from the government and decision makers. Various agreements with neighboring countries have already been put in place in order to meet the country’s energy demand through direct purchase of electricity. At an international level, the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline projects are already underway.
In addition, studies reveal that Pakistan has huge potential for generating renewable energy from sources such as solar, wind, nuclear and water power. The central challenge facing the country at the moment is to find cheaper and sustainable means of generating electricity and to reconfigure the energy mix for enabling power supply at an affordable price – a task which is easier said than done.
Considering the importance of this issue, the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) is organizing a two-day national conference in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, Islamabad, focused on the topic “Solutions for the Energy Crisis in Pakistan”, scheduledon May 15-16, 2013, in the Islamabad Hotel.
The objective of this conference is to formulate policy recommendations which provide short-term as well as long-term solutions to Pakistan’s energy crisis. Specifically, the aim is to formulate a “National Energy Vision: 2030”, covering aspects like policy making, alternative energy sources, attraction of investments and developmental strategies. The conference will both focus on generating energy through economically viable means and estimating the amount of electricity required in 2030 in order to sustain a growth rate of 6-8 percent.