Minister of State for Environment Malik Amin Aslam on Friday launched carbon trading strategy which invites and envisages investments in renewable energy, energy conservation end forestry sectors for the country. The strategy is based on participation in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), said a press release here on Friday. The new carbon trading market has been estimated to be in the billions of dollars (estimated around dollars 30 billion/year).
A number of carbon funds have been formulated to provide financing for such projects which include the Japanese carbon fund, the World Bank prototype carbon funds the British Petroleum carbon fund, Shell renewable fund and the UPS carbon fund etc.
The minister of state said a national entity has been established in Ministry of Environment, which was also the focal point for the Kyoto Protocol under which Pakistan has become eligible to enter carbon-trading market. The entity would welcome project concept and ideas from prospective investors and process and approve them in a transparent and time-barred procedure as per priorities of the government. He add the objective of that strategy was to allow investors the lowest possible transaction cost for participating in carbon reduction projects in Pakistan and also to position the country to aggressively participate in that new market.
The minister further said projects like small hydro, wind and solar energy, municipal waste to energy, fuel switching to gas, clean transport, energy conservation industrial efficiency improvements and forestation were some of the wide range projects that could be financed through CDM.
He said orientation workshops would be held to raise awareness about the issue amongst investors and also road-shows to attract foreign investors and bilateral co-operation would be held under the strategy.