The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) partnered with Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) joined hands to support ESCAP’s Energy Division (ED) in the implementation of the development account project on “Evidence-based policies for the sustainable use of energy resources in the Asia and the Pacific” with the implementation in Pakistan. ESCAP also took Ministry of Planning, development and Reforms of Pakistan which was the designated counterpart in the country.

SPDI acted as the local partner institution for implementation of the project agreed jointly with international consultants from China. The international consultant had visiting fellow status at SDPI.

In Pakistan, the ESCAP’s project focused on capacity building of policy makers in energy modelling techniques. That fully addressed the need to integrate more quantifiable evidence in the country’s energy sector outlook, policy and planning through sharing of best practices, international experience and lessons learned. For this to happen, involvement from both Federal and Provincial entities was important to take forward a holistic and inclusive approach.

The project undertook a short initial assessment of the general outlook of achieving the National Determined Contributions (NDC) commitments and the energy sector’s contribution. This initial assessment combined with an assessment of the current capacities in modelling and developing scenarios formed starting point of the project. Avenues were identified for the required capacity development activities. Participants were trained and based on their skills, development refined and further developed the initial report on the scenarios to achieve Pakistan’s NDC commitments. It was therefore, an interlinked sequence – one session of training followed by a joint revision and refinement of the outlook paper. A final output report that explores the potential of the energy sector and potentially its sub-sectors such as solar, wind, biomass, small hydropower and efficiency in achieving NDC commitments. Final paper is now expected to highlight policy recommendations for the energy to achieve Pakistan’s NDC commitments and will be presented in a symposium very soon.