Pakistan is considered one of the disaster-prone countries in Asia. Natural disasters such as Droughts, Floods, and heat waves have become common in the country. Among these, floods have been recognized as the most severe form of natural disaster

Droughts

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Report of 2015, Groundwater resources in Pakistan are very limited which has already been reduced from 5,600 m3 (at the time of Independence 1947) to 1200 m3 (per Capita). Due to the low availability of water, the frequency of droughts had been higher in the region of Baluchistan and Sindh, according to climate data. Millions of hectares of the country’s land experience an annual rainfall of less than 30 mm, and some hectares of land which is suitable for agriculture are subjected to wind and water erosion, waterlogging, loss of organic matter and salinity. Several other severe episodes of droughts were recorded in 1967–69, 1971, 1973–75, 1994, 1998–2002, and most recent 2009–15.

Floods

On the other hand Pakistan has a long history of floods and floods of 1928, 1929, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1973, 1976, 1988, 1992, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2008, 2010, and recent 2020 share the saddest events with tremendous damages in the country. The floods of 2010, resulting from heavy monsoon rain affected the Indus River basin. 1/5th of the country’s total land area was underwater, approximately 796,095 square Km (307,374 sq mi). The floods directly affected about 20 million people, mostly by destruction of property, livelihood, and infrastructure, with a death toll of close to 2,000, according to Pakistan Government data. Data from Pakistan Meteorological Department in 2010, recorded Heavy rainfalls of more than 200 millimeters (7.9 in) in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

At one time Pakistan faced severe drought conditions due to extremely low rainfall which caused extreme famine conditions affecting 3.3 million families, and at other times country faced the most destructive form of floods. Several factors are responsible for the vulnerabilities of shifts in climatic conditions.

The major dynamic pressures on society causing vulnerability are fragile natural environment, lack of education and awareness, environmental degradation, explosive population growth, poor construction practices, poverty, weak agriculture practices, poor early warning systems, and deforestation. Uncontrolled free grazing of livestock (Tragedy of Commons), and aridity is one of the causes of droughts and deforestation. These play role in the flooding equation because trees strengthen the soil and prevent soil erosion and absorb water efficiently.

Fewer Tress = More Floods

Climate Change and Glacial Melting

According to the Fourth Assessment Report on climate change of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate change (IPCC) and Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change 2009, “Glaciers have been the most visible indicators of Climate Change”. The northern part of Pakistan occupies glacier in the range of Karakoram, Hindu Kash, and the Himalayas covers around 13,680 Km2 which represent around 13% of the mountainous regions of the upper Indus Basin.

Glaciers are important aspects of climate change because they provide important information and tells about past climate that is preserved in the core specifically trapped in air bubbles, and this scientific information enables the scientist evaluate the past climate change and to predict the future trends. It also analyzes the current situation of climate change, as they are very sensitive to temperature, and unusual weather conditions.

The study of glaciers provides the basis for climate change and global warming. Glaciers are receding and wasting at a global level, which shows the sign of Global warming. On the other hand, it has also been reported that in some cases glaciers are not wasting or receding but the pattern of snow melting and feeding capacity has been increased with the passage of time which is the root cause of Hazards. According to the Government of Pakistan, the global mean temperature due to global warming is expected to increase from 1.5oC to 6oC by the end of this century, and these changes are responsible for a discernible increase in floods, storms, forest fires.

Some glaciers in Pakistan are growing due to rapid change in seasonal variations and summers and winter seasons are becoming shorter. The major sources of fresh water in Pakistan are glacier, upon which almost 50 million people are dependent, and changes in glaciers definitely affect the population. The bulk of glacier melts coincide with the monsoon rainfall increasing the risks of floods hazards. Climate change in the Indus basin is not uniform; the temperature increase in both summers and winters will be higher in the northern part of Pakistan as compared to the southern part of the country and these changes are the cause of variability in monsoons adding water-stressed conditions in the arid and semi-arid region of the country.

As we already know that during the past few decades, technology has fundamentally changed our lives and some of them have sparked intense debates about the future of these technologies by policymakers. Nowadays, energy is very essential for the quality of life and has a pivotal factor in the economic growth and development of any country.

Different policies are developing around the globe for renewable energy resources to reduce the dependence on fuel to produce electricity. The electricity produced by renewable resources is cleaner than the electricity produced by coal-fired power generation because it does not emit carbon into the atmosphere that causes global warming and pollution to Earth.

Although this way of generating energy seems eco-friendly for the atmosphere and natural resources, there arises some socio-economic considerations and ethical issues, that whether the high cost of implementing this system is actually helping the environment or not, particularly to those countries which are under development and have low employment status.

I am writing this blog to raise the importance and understanding of the ground realities of society in which the technology has to operate in. Therefore, the analysis of the socio-economic consideration tools i-e SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat), PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental) and STEEPLE (Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical) are very crucial.

We must always welcome new innovations and their benefits it, but we must also commit to sustainable development, by viewing the issues of human inequalities, dignity, and inclusiveness. Some technologies progress independently of political support. But in that case, good governance and ethical considerations must still be the main focus. I have studied literature related to this particular subject and I consider that we need more research work. This would be a very interesting topic for research work also.

Solar Energy: Source of Sustainable development rather than an environmental liability

Solar energy is certainly a prerequisite for sustainable development because of its reduced or sometimes no dependence on natural resources including fuel, water, and Coal.

European Union accepted the concept of sustainable development in 1990 and defined this concept as an important economic, social, cultural, and technological development adjusted with the protection of the environment and enables the current generation to meet the need without compromising the quality of life of the future generation.

Renewable technology leads us to sustainable development because of its less consumption of natural resources. This concept is upgrading the life and environment and also focused on the preservation of the natural eco-system. Although this technology has reduced the environmental impact, it may interfere with land disturbance of the local community. This facility could also affect the designated areas such as wilderness areas, protected areas, areas of environmental concern, and special recreation management areas. Proper management and decisions can help to reduce and avoid the land disturbance

Purposed Methodology

To identify the problems, barriers, restrictions, and opportunities for Solar Systems, business tools i.e SWOT, PESTLE, and STEEPLE can be analyzed. Under these tools, the study can find socioeconomic factors. The methodology can be classified into Surveys, Questionnaires, and Open-ended Questions within the community. In-depth interviews with experts in a particular area (where the technology is implemented) can also be done in order to analyze the operation of new Environmental friendly technologies. The company/Organization and researcher can then decide and consider the factors by rapid response and good value services to the community in the future.

Business Analysis

To run a business of technology in the market or in the local community, either bigger or small scale, business owners or government policymakers need to conduct various analyses to understand the locals. There are many methods, which can help to conduct the analyses before making a decision. SWOT analysis is the most commonly used technique, but STEEPLE and PESTLE are also used by companies that identify the internal and external factors, which are favourable or sometimes unfavourable to achieve a specific target. These analyses can also be used to examine business solutions in case of some problems and organizational capabilities.

In order to determine which technique is better, depends upon the reality, culture, and habitat of the community. Innovations are good and should always be welcome if it brings justice to human and environment. To take into account, human need is important but without deteriorating the natural environment. Each advanced technology poses some ethical values for humans and their environment. Therefore policymakers and most important scientists should incorporate the technology into the environment with some ethical and socio-economic considerations.

It is considered that Agricultural Revolution had altered the earth structure but Industrial Revolution has completely changed the atmosphere of planet Earth. Burning of fossil fuels (Primary culprit of Climate Change) for industrial and energy purpose or any other purpose release a large amount of Particulate Matters (PM), CO_2, NO_X, SO_X  and methane gas which are responsible for variety of illness to humans especially the community that are residing near these projects. These substances cause impaired lung function, asthma, wheezing, shortness of breath and premature deaths. This is what we can call, the real Human Cost in the form of diseases, money, and deaths.  Scientists warned that transition to renewable energy must be taken place within a century otherwise the fossil fuels will become scarce and danger of Global Warming may reach to the tipping point due to smoke that will cause a catastrophic results. Scientists of Mauna Lao Observatory revealed a report with continuous increase in concentration of CO₂ (major contributing gas to Global Warming) between 1960-2010.

The World Bank issued a report in 2012 that showed that by 21^st Century, Global Warming is likely to reach at 4^oC and if it reaches to the level of 6^oC then Permian – Triassic extinction events will be initiated. However, the evidences are there in the literature of the initiation of extinction of biodiversity. Greenhouse gases into atmosphere by burning of fossil fuels leads to the warming of oceans and seas, causing the acidification that results in Coral Bleaching which can be responsible of many fishes and other aquatic organisms to die or to migrate to other side, and can also cause the adverse effect on economy with great loss. Along with Carbon Dioxide, Methane gas is considered a major contributor in greenhouse gases. Apart from anthropogenic activities, natural sources of methane gas are microbes living in oceans that release gas through process of Methanogenesis, other may include the volcanic eruption. These sources combine their effect with anthropogenic sources and double the consequences.

So we can say;

Fossil Fuel Energy projects = Economic Cost + Human Cost + Environment Cost

Countries in Asia are taking a deep consideration in the transition to renewable energy sources, for instance China, India and Pakistan. Bangladesh is far behind in renewable energy source initiative. A report was published in The Daily Star on May 21, 2017 that “Bangladesh is a populous country and does not have enough space to install renewable energy resources”. But on the other hand China and India are also populous countries but taking a leading role in generating the renewable energy  in Asia. Pakistan, an Asian developing Country, has also taken a great initiative in generating the renewable energy. Dawood Wind Power project in Sindh (Province of Pakistan) is also constructed at the cost of 115 Million USD with the help of Hydro-China under CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) Project. Almost fourteen wind energy projects are working now and some are under construction in Sindh. According to a report of USAID, Pakistan has the probability of generating 150,000 MW of wind energy and among which Sindh Corridor can produce 40,000 MW through “Wind Corridor of Sindh, Pakistan”. Apart from these projects, Pakistan has also started many Hydropower projects in collaboration with China.

Pakistan also started many coal-based projects with China for energy production. On the other hand China has reduced coal investment at its home because of air pollution and degradation to environment, but ironically invested almost 25 billion USD worldwide in coal projects between 2007-2015. Around 141 countries are responsible of 82% of GHG emissions and Pakistan and China are included in them. In November 2016, Lahore (City of Pakistan) faced a severe form of smog due to Coal-based industries in near Punjab of India. Then one can imagine how much it would affect the whole climate of Pakistan due coal energy projects in its home country.  No doubt, Pak-Cheen (China) friendship is at its peak, but there is need to think on Pak-Environment Friendship. Countries need to understand that reduction of coal-based projects in home country but continue investment in it on the other countries would not solve the problem of environmental degradation and pollution because smoky air does not follow the rules of boundaries and borders of countries.

Save environment and creating jobs are parallel to each other. International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) published an annual report and declared that 9.8 million people were employed in renewable energy sector around the world in 2016 with 1.1% increase over 2015 (Trends of employment in renewable energy sectors are shown in Figure 1 below).

Major renewable energy jobs are accounted in countries of China, Japan, Germany, India, USA, and Brazil. Renewable energy jobs are likely to increase about 26 Million people by 2050 around the world. Apart from men, women are also contributing their major role in the growth of renewable energy developments and sustainable goals. Renewable Energy Report on July 14, 2017 showed that women make up to 32% of jobs in wind energy industry, and are making difference in USA. So we can conclude, that investment in sustainable business goals always bring best opportunities for the society and nation and their shared environment.

“The events of heat waves, floods and glaciers melting have been extreme during past some years due to global warming caused by continue emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHSs)”, Petteri Taalas, the head of World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said in November 2016. These intense events have affected our natural wonders in the world and caused a permanent destruction, MSN report of August, 2017.  Are we humans responsible for these events or it is just a wrath of our Mother-Nature? With the considerations and concerns that we – with The Planet Earth – have entered into an era of environmental consequences of Climate change and Global Warming, which was considered a figment of imagination some decades ago, recent Paris Accord brought the nations together, rich or poor, to combat the climate change, signed by 195 countries with the agreement to submit their GHGs emissions inventory after every two years in order to check and balance the emissions. We, being humans, possess a very confused and complex nature. First we convert our green spaces into concrete jungles and smoke industries, and when we realize the destruction caused by us, we use our major capital resources to make green land with trees again. Why humans always care the things when it’s gone? World’s biggest organizations along with developed countries have already taken the initiative a long time ago to protect the environment in the name of Climate finance (also major objective of Paris Accord). The World Resources Institute defined the Climate Finance as the “flow of funds to promote the activities to reduce the GHGs and to help the poor society to adapt and mitigate the climate impact”.

Pakistan, despite a lowest emitter of GHGs, is drastically under the influence of environmental consequences and is listed 22^nd in Climate Change Vulnerability Index 2016 (CCVI), which ranked it as “Extreme Risk.” Many people lost their homes and lives due to extreme floods, heat waves and Mini cyclone during past some years in the country. For Pakistan, being a developing country, it is very difficult to reduce the damaging effects of climate changes with the limited resources when the country already facing internal issues for instance, terrorism, energy crises, food security, and poverty. In order to reduce the risk of climate changes major funding bodies like Adaptation Fund, Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) are helping the Pakistan as climate finance for green infrastructure and technology transfer. Among these GCF is crucial to mitigate and adapt the climate change as it the main channel with the help of which finance in allocated and it approved 36 million USD to country. These funds are given to country to mitigate and adapt the climate change through planting the trees, increase the levee of river banks to avoid the floods and glacial lake outburst flood, and to cut the emission of GHGs through green technologies.

UN launched REDD+ in 2009 to make economic flow for the developing countries to maintain and manage their forests. Under this initiative the countries can avoid the deforestation in order to reduce the emissions. In Pakistan, REDD+ strategic implementation was approved in February 2017 to stop the deforestation especially of indigenous species, and for the implementation of REDD+ activities, Pakistan will be granted 3.8 Million USD. On the Governmental level of Pakistan, there has been started many renewable energy projects in Pakistan in order to mitigate the environmental effect and to meet the energy need with the help of China under CPEC.

“We have single mission: to protect and hand on the planet to next generation,”Francois Hollande- Former President of France

How much we are sincere with our fragile ecosystems of Mother Nature and to hand on its precious services and resources to next generation?

In 2009, The House Energy and Commerce Committee (USA) introduced an act called American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) also know as Waxman-Markey Bill or “Energy Bill”, a cap-and-trade bill, approved on 26^th June, 2009 by House of Representatives but was never brought to Senate for further discussion and vote. Critics had been started prevailed before brought to implementation because it needed to shift the whole technology to cap the GHGs emissions. After thoroughly consideration this bill seems more political policy than climatic agenda, because in this way Energy and Commerce Committee would be industrial and economic regulator as well as tax collector, which could ultimately leads to energy crisis because the bill do not consider the demand of energy in coming year. We are in desperately need to make the Eco-Friendly as well as Investors-Friendly policies, without capturing the whole industry that would threat and discourage the new investors of country. This bill is keep sparking in USA every year but settled down due to critics but  another cap-and-trade bill, resembling to this, already exists under the Kyoto Protocol known as Carbon credits that allow the limited amount of emission of GHGs as Assigned Amount in the form of given quota of emissions to countries. Great encouragement are required to mitigate the effects of Climate change as the population is increasing with increased energy and industry demands and the other major problem is that polluting industries are still polluting the environment

According to the report of BBC of August 8^th, 2017, it was investigated that large amount of one GHG is emitting from the location of Italy that was measured by the Air Monitors in Switzerland, but Italian report, submitted to UN, declared only tiny amount of substance being emitted. On the other hand the level of emissions from China and India submitted are also so uncertain.

Corruption and climate change are often considered parallel to each other. Both effect the poor but done by powerful people. According to Transparency International (TI), the rich governments provided almost 30 billion USD, between years of 2010-2012 to fund the different projects in developing countries either to adapt of mitigate the impact of global warming and climate change. The corruption by upper level of government and institutions leads to the poor infrastructure of country and make it more vulnerable to disasters.  Unfortunately the managing structure in Pakistan to climate change is under threat. The annual Corruption Perception Index of 2016 ranked Pakistan number 116 of 176 countries indicating the country “High Level” of Corruption. The recent event took place in the country of disqualification of Prime Minister of Pakistan has left the country instable with many doubts of Corruption. However, the Government of Pakistan, ironically, acknowledged that loss of trees by Timber Mafia has a serious threat and this is increasing our degradation cost with the passage of time. So serious governmental authorities and considerations are required in order to save the environment. On the other hand the initiative to avoid the deforestation by REDD+ in amazing but several critics have also generated which agued its policies as threatened, manipulative and conflicted with the arise of many questions like who will be the owner of forest land and who will be the responsible of consequences that would result after implementation of REDD+? Forests cannot make as private ownership because local people are connected to particular forest. Save environmental policies always bring more questions with less implementation. Another big challenge faced by climatic finance team and highlighted in the report UNEP 2015, is that, 5.7 Trillion USD are required by 2020 for the investment of green infrastructure but the investment is only 360 billion USD, so there is a big difference of money requirement.

So our Global single mission to protect our mother is under threat along with Paris accord due to dodgy data submitted to UN, insincere intentions, and bare policies without implementation, critique and Corruption. These threats are much bigger than Trumps intention to withdraw Paris accord. But the good thing is that the Non-environmental organizations also taking part in eco-agenda and Santander Group (Spanish Banking Group) have already financed 5200MW of renewable energy projects.

Along with Pakistan, Somalia, Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, Maldives, Chad are some countries that are under threat of climatic change. Conditions are not very much better in Maldives due to rise of sea level with the passage of time. In order to mitigate and adapt the impact of global climate change education, training camps and awareness of local community is very important with the climate finance so they could understand and evolve the better ways to survive and protect on their own. Involve the local community and seek their help is really important because they are the actual stakeholders of the climatic project.

A survey was conducted of around 150 people of community members residing near the river in City Lahore, Pakistan. It was identified that perhaps the illiterate people do not have the idea of environmental terms but they observe the major changes in their climate and that’s why community showed a keen interest in rehabilitation of their surrounding environment and expressed their higher willingness to pay for its rehabilitation. Because they know that how much important is environment in which they are living.

No doubt those developing countries are in urgent need of funding, but the use of proper funding can be achieved by accountability, trust and also involvement of community. Lay man needs to know what is going on with their environment.

Why there is a need to shift the industries according to the proposition of ecology and sustainability in contemporary world?  This question formulated a diversion of Industrial Revolution into Environmental Revolution.  It is our obligation to behold the services of technology that has changed our living standards, but it has also concocted the era of environmental destruction. Both revolutions are driven by technologies but the content that separates these two revolutions is, that the environmental revolution will attain our and future generation’s needs by making peace with the Nature. Environmental revolution and industrial revolution are parallel to each other in a way that both are dependent on the shift of conventional energy production to renewable energy sources that can cope up with business investment as well as with the environment, that why it is named as Green Solutions. The World counted 13.2% of total primary energy supply from renewable sources in 2012, and is prognosticated to increase at least 26% by 2020, according to report of IEA Medium-Term Renewable Energy Report 2015.

But the question is, How much Green is Green?

“I’ll support a clean energy target – if coal is included,” Barnaby Joyce, an Australian Politician (the guardian 13 July, 2017)

The world spends almost 1.7 trillion (USD) each year on fossil fuels for energy generation. Perhaps currently, it is considered sustainable sources of energy but we will deprive of these sources one day with long lasting damage to environment and the emission of dangerous green house gasses (GHGs) into the atmosphere. According to National Geographic 2015, since the end of nineteenth century the temperature of earth has risen by an average of 0.85. With this fact fossil fuels will play more significant role in increasing the temperature of atmosphere. Although we are polarized by boundaries of different countries but the one thing that connects us all is Nature-yet disconnected to it. So there is no such thing like Clean-Coal, and your support can suffocate the future. Because burning coal is not the local matter, although a global issue.

In comparison renewable sources of energy are clean and are have a competitive business market in growing days. International communities are backing up the renewable energies through Paris Accord 2015, and to reduce the emissions, around 200 countries signed this pledged. There are so many developing countries that have also started working towards the green energy solutions for example Pakistan and India. Pakistan, being a developing country, has signed many projects of renewable energy to meet their need in future under the umbrella of CPEC. This country has been a victim of load shedding since so many years and energy production is the major focus under CPEC project and is expected to invest approximately 33 billion (USD). Around 10,400 MW of electricity are scheduled for production by March 2018 as “Early Harvest” Projects in China Pakistan Economic Corridors (CPEC). Pakistan has taken a good initiative by constructing Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park-world largest solar park- near Bahawalpur City with the help of Zonergy Company of China with the generation capacity of 1000 MW.

According to an article of USA, it has estimated that jobs in solar energy sectors are increasing 12 times faster as US economy. During 2012-2015 the employment growth rate in fossil fuels was 4.5%, in comparison, during that period, clean energy jobs had 6% rate. Energy and Employment Report 2017 of USA suggested that renewable energy industries employ more people than fossil fuels. These jobs pay high amount of salaries to both professionals and manufacturer workers. So the right places to invest are in clean energies than fossil fuels. They are renewable, sustainable, eco-friendly and lasts long.