Govt aims to cut emission, allocates Rs4bn for e-bikes, Rs2bn for energy efficient fans

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb said Friday that the federal government was allocating Rs4 billion to promote electronic bikes and Rs2 billion for rolling out energy-efficient fans in the country to cut carbon emissions from the transport sector and increased energy consumption.

The finance minister, in his speech unveiling the Federal Budget 2024-25, also said that Pakistan was facing adverse impacts of climate change and the government was working on initiatives to promote climate mitigation efforts.

Senator Aurangzeb added that the leading efforts of the government to address the climate crisis included the establishment of the Pakistan Climate Change Authority intended to implement the mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Moreover, the National Climate Finance Strategy was being prepared that would be finalised by October 2024 that would help devise strategies to bring global climate finance to Pakistan which would help undertake initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, the former banker said.

The Senator further announced that a national digital climate finance monitoring dashboard would be established to maintain data related to climate finance received from global financing facilities.

"Gender and climate budget tagging has been done in government’s budgeting and accounting system that would help in policy making and implementation in these sectors," the 60-year-old added.