Financing green shift

ISLAMABAD BUREAU —Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's message at COP31 in Antalya was refreshingly specific - our clean-energy ambitions are real, measurable and already delivering results, but without concessional financing and affordable technology transfers, they will fall by the wayside. The numbers back up that argument.

Pakistan has added nearly 22 gigawatts of rooftop solar capacity in just two years, giving households and businesses access to cheap and reliable clean energy. Clean sources now make up roughly 55% of the energy mix, and new clean projects such as the Chashma-5 nuclear project will add thousands more megawatts.

Despite high initial costs, electric motorcycles have crossed 10% of total motorcycle sales for the first time, with a target of 30% electric new vehicles by 2030. But meeting any such targets depends on either citizens and companies being able to afford them, or the government being able to provide them.

Neither of these can happen without money. Pakistan needs approximately $138 billion by 2035 for low-carbon power generation and another $50 billion to replace coal with solar. Expanding grids, building storage and making emerging technologies affordable are capital-intensive undertakings that heavily indebted developing economies cannot shoulder alone.

The international community must step up because, in PM Shehbaz's words, "35 by 35 will be achieved only if finance flows at the speed of ambition through concessional capital and the transfer of affordable technology". This is not a matter of charity. As has been widely noted, wealthy countries are most to blame for this problem, as their coal- and oil-fueled development journeys are what broke the environment.

Helping poorer countries pay for green transitions and providing climate-vulnerable countries with the means to pay for disaster mitigation measures is the least they can do.