The Asian Development Bank report finds that the 10 gigawatts of new coal-fired power generation capacity being developed under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will substantially increase greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbate climate change issues. Ash handling and disposal from coal plants will also have negative environmental impacts. Currently over 60% of Pakistan's electricity comes from fossil fuels like coal, gas, and furnace oil, which contributes to high greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation. The ADB itself is providing $900 million in funding to a new 600 megawatt coal plant in Jamshoro, Sindh.

1. CPEC coal-based power plants
to damage environment: ADB
Written By: Amin Ahmed
Published on: 4 February 2018
Publisher: Dawn Newspaper Prepared by: Rida Zamir
Student of economics
Jinnah University For
Women

2. ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank says that the
upcoming 10 gigawatts generation capacity under the China-
Pakistan Economic Corridor which is expected to be
commissioned before 2019, will increase greenhouse gas
emissions substantially that will worsen the climate change
mitigation concerns

3. ash handling and disposal
problems will also
exacerbate negative
impacts on the
environment
an evaluation report of
the power sector of
Pakistan released by ADB.
future increase in fossil-
fuel power generation will
contribute to climate
change and environmental
degradation.

4. Utility
• Currently,
more than 60
per cent of the
utility
electricity
generated in
Pakistan
Generate
• That come
from fossil
fuel-based
generation,
including gas,
coal and
furnace oil.

5. level of dependence on fossil fuels
• sector’s operational inefficiencies with high
technical losses
low generation efficiency impact
the environment
• contributing to climate change due to high
greenhouse gas emissions.

6. The ADB is itself helping fund a
600MW super critical coal-fired
power plant in Jamshoro, Sindh
The agreement for the
$900 million project was
signed in March last year.

7. The CPEC initiative
aims at promoting
bilateral and regional
construction
there are various
coal-fired,
hydropower, solar
and wind-power
projects under
construction,
approximately 10GW
of generation
capacity is expected
to be commissioned
before 2019,

8. A review of ADB’s assistance to Pakistan’s power sector
shows the bank approved $7.13 billion during 2005 and
2017
• After a lull in ADB support for about five years, the first ADB power
sector operation was $37 million private sector loan to the New Bong
Escape hydropower project in November 2005
Since then and up to 2017, ADB has approved 48
operations, including 28 sovereign guaranteed loans, 11
non-sovereign operations and nine technical assistance
projects, amounting to $7bn, of which $0.7bn was non-
sovereign operations financing.

9. Pakistan’s power sector
challenges calls for
achieving the outcomes of
increased reliability of
power supply
share of clean energy,
procurement/payment
transparency, access to
affordable electricity,
supply and demand-side
efficiency
competitiveness among
power producers, in
addition to reduction in
subsidization, circular debt,
technical and commercial
losses

10. For achieving these
outcomes, ADB
could support
Pakistan’s power
sector at three levels:
legal and regulatory
framework;
governance and
capacity
development; and
investment in power
sector infrastructure.
The nature of ADB
assistance should be
synchronized with
the needs of the
power sector, and in
close coordination
with other
development
partners’ support.
A broad range of
assumptions and
risks underlie this
theory of change,
which are closely
related to the
country’s changing
political and
economic landscape

11. Circular debt, the chronic shortfall
between cash inflows and outflows for
power sector participants, is the singular
symptom of several problems that
underlie Pakistan’s power sector’s
performance.
• The extensive demand-supply capacity gap of over
5GW in the past decade until recently has led to
frequent load shedding and prompted consumers to
invest in and rely on captive back-up generation,
report says.

12. CONCLUSION