Managing Director of the National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority Dr. Sardar Mohazzam said the government is thinking of issuing energy-saving certificates and energy conservation bonds for the modernization of technology in the industries. He was speaking at a public-private discussion titled "Decarbonizing Pakistan Cement Sector: Pathways to Lever Net Zero Targets," which was held under the sponsorship of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute's (SDPI) Network for Clean Energy Transition in Pakistan: Research and Advocacy.

According to Dr. Mohazzam, the cement industry has enormous potential to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency. He said, “we must examine and draw ideas from the policy measures being carried out in India and China.” Energy security is the government's top concern, but price is still a significant obstacle to the adoption of renewable energy sources and the decarbonization of industries that are difficult to regulate.

According to Executive Director of Pakistan Environment Trust Talha Khan, the cement industry needs tax advantages. He continued by saying that the meagre foreign investment was insufficient to close the finance gap required for the decarbonization. Syed Fawad Hussain Shah, Senior Assistant Manager at the Center for Industrial & Building Energy Audits, said the country's cement industry used energy at a pace that produced 45% more emissions than the average for the world at the time. He said that the industry's high carbon intensity might be attributed to its 85% coal use, whereas biomass and waste-to-energy only accounted for 0.02% of total energy production.

He emphasised the necessity of raising public knowledge about green cement and upgrading Pakistan's Building Code in order to persuade the industry to switch from grey to green cement, which is more environment friendly. Head of Environment at Bestway Cement Farrukh Ahmad claimed that the cement industry is mostly ignoring the subject of decarbonization and that it would take some time before they fully understood the necessity of considerable CO2 emission reductions. He said that it was really idealistic to expect the industrial sector to reduce emissions during these difficult economic times in the absence of tax breaks and incentives.

To encourage industry growth, he urged the regulatory framework and incentives to be made simpler. In his opening remarks, Dr. Sajid Amin Javed, Deputy Executive Director (Research), SDPI, stated that the adoption of cutting-edge carbon capture and storage technology might result in a considerable decrease in emissions. Associate Director at the World Resource Institute Deepak Krishnan urged governments and international organisations to make it easier for businesses to get financing and reduce the cost of technology and equipment in order to reduce emissions.

Solutions Fellow at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, United States, Mahmoud Abouelnaga urged research and civil society organisations to contribute to the synchronisation of the life cycle analysis of the cement industry in order to develop efficient policy interventions for decarbonization in collaboration with the stakeholders.

Senior Research Associate at SDPI Ubaid ur Rehman Zia expressed optimism that the recent industrial sector actions would result in a maximum emissions reduction of 9%, which was far less than the aim necessary to fulfil the 1.5 or 2-degree scenario of the Paris Agreement. He also emphasised that the cement industry needed to lower emissions by at least 53% by 2030 in order for the country's industrial sector to reach net-zero by 2050.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk