The Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) during a high-level consultation in Islamabad called for a government-led climate finance platform with strong provincial ownership and meaningful community participation to help Pakistan unlock funding for a just energy transition. Experts, policymakers and development partners joined the two sessions of the roundtable discussions on strengthening policy credibility to mobilize climate finance and embedding equity into energy transition framework.
Country Platforms Hub senior adviser Dr Crispian Olver said that successful country platforms were the government-owned rather than donor-driven and should pursue long-term sectoral transformation. Drawing on South Africa’s experience, he said that regulatory reforms helped mobilize an $8.5 billion concessional finance package that unlocked nearly $100 billion in private investment while bringing around 10 gigawatts of new private electricity generation online within two years.
SDPI Research Associate Nismah Rizwan said the global climate finance gap continues to widen, with at least $6.5 trillion needed by 2030 and around eight trillion dollars by 2035 to keep the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target within reach. She noted that Pakistan’s Climate Prosperity Plan identifies a country platform as its primary implementation mechanism. Experts warned that fragmented policies, weak alignment between climate and fiscal commitments and a shortage of bankable projects continue to limit Pakistan’s ability to attract climate finance.
Thomas McEwan from the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) stressed that strong government ownership, empowered lead ministries and institutional coordination were essential for successful country platforms. He said that financing targets must be translated into measurable project pipelines. Hadika Jamshed of the NDC Partnership said an ongoing water-energy food nexus initiative has identified nearly 3,000 potential projects from provinces and was narrowing them down to priority investments.
Opening the second roundtable, Engineer Ubaidur Rehman Zia, head of SDPI’s Energy Unit, said that repeated policy reversals, including the shift from net metering to net billing for solar consumers, have weakened investor confidence. He said that electricity tariffs have risen by around 150 percent, largely due to capacity payments under existing power purchase agreements. Other speakers emphasized that climate finance must ensure meaningful community participation, protect vulnerable groups and deliver equitable outcomes.
Concluding the consultation, SDPI research fellow Dr Khalid Waleed said the Sustainable Development Policy Institute would submit its recommendations to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination to help shape Pakistan’s proposed climate finance platform. The Sustainable Development Policy Institute has been organizing regularly a series of sustainable development conferences since 1995.
GREEN ENERGY PARTNERSHIP
Pakistan and Denmark launched a government-to-government Strategic Sector Cooperation (SSC) program to accelerate Pakistan’s clean energy transition by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU), signed in Islamabad by Power Division Secretary Dr Fakhr-e-Alam Irfan on behalf of Pakistan and Denmark’s Ambassador to Pakistan Maja Dyros Mortensen on behalf of the Danish government in the presence of Federal Minister for Power Owais Ahmed Khan Leghari. The signing ceremony formally marked the launch of the program.
The government-to-government partnership would deepen bilateral cooperation in the energy sector, with Danish experts providing technical assistance to Pakistan’s federal energy institutions to accelerate the country’s transition to green energy and strengthen national efforts to tackle climate change. The program would be jointly implemented by the Danish Energy Agency under Denmark’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities, the Embassy of Denmark in Islamabad and the Power Division in Islamabad.
It would support low carbon development through technical assistance, institutional capacity building, knowledge sharing and awareness initiatives while helping Pakistan implement its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in a cost-effective manner. Under the agreement, Denmark would provide technical expertise in three key areas, including long-term energy planning, integration of renewable energy into the national grid and improving energy efficiency in the industrial sector.
The initiative would also strengthen the technical and institutional capacity of key energy organizations, including the Independent System and Market Operator (ISMO), National Grid Company, National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA), National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), Power Planning and Monitoring Company (PPMC) and the Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB). The program was based on the success of the Danish Energy Transition Initiative implemented between 2021 and 2025, under which Pakistan received technical assistance, conducted study visits to Denmark and organized annual green tech events in Karachi and Lahore to promote knowledge exchange, long term energy planning and the adoption of sustainable technologies.
