Daily Times

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal has said that Asian countries will have to work together to transform it into a strong region.

Addressing as guest of honour here at Asia’s Energy Transition Summit on Sunday, he was of the view that energy use would determine the climate change that is a very important global issue. “We have suffered a lot due to climate change,” he said.

Ahsan Iqbal said that Asia accounts for 50 per cent of the world’s population and it will soon account for more than half of the world’s GDP, asserting that Asia is also a major center of energy consumption.

Federal Minister said that environmentally-friendly energy projects are implemented in Pakistan and an environment-friendly policy was also adopted to generate electricity through coal. “We have to innovate in our projects. We also have to see how the investment for these projects will be received and we need to bring many changes in our policies for creating an environment that facilitates investment and further development in the energy sector.”

He said, Asian countries will have to work together, citing that some countries are rich and some are poor, everyone must work together to improve Asia. Cooperation is essential for the betterment of the region: if all these things are implemented, Asia can become a stronger region.

Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal said, “Our target is to achieve green energy. We want everyone to have access to affordable, environmentally friendly energy.”

LUMS Energy Institute (LEI) in collaboration with Pakistan Renewable Energy Coalition (PREC) has arranged the three-day summit to facilitate discussion on transition to renewable energy. Leading energy experts, researchers, civil society activists, policymakers and parliamentarians attended the event. The event was aimed at highlighting the need for coordinated efforts across Asia to mobilise finances for a transition towards renewable energy, a move away from fossil fuels and improving energy efficiency and conservation.

The key objectives of the summit were to review and analyse the progress made in Asia on energy transition and align Asia’s energy transition initiatives with the key targets set at COP28, especially the tripling of renewable energy, doubling of energy efficiency and moving away from fossil fuels in a decisive and definitive manner.

The summit also helped in providing real-time insights and solutions to explore a viable pathway to scale up renewables and gain from the global energy transition.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Planning Development and Special Initiatives Ahsan Iqbal said on Sunday that combination of knowledge and strategy was imperative to face challenges of the modern times.

Addressing the annual alumni convention at Jamia-tur-Rasheed here, he said that Islam had started an era of knowledge and Holy Quran was revealed on Last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), which proved the importance of knowledge. He said that Holy Quran provided a complete code of life. He said it was very unfortunate that Muslim Ummah rank very low in world index of knowledge. He said, “A country with a population of 10 million has made 2 billion population of Muslims helpless. We see daily on television that how Israel is inflicting violence on Muslim population.” Ahsan said that it was high time to think over it what had made a country with 10 million population so powerful. The minister said, “We are lacking in knowledge and implementation.” There was a time when Muslims were ruling in almost all fields of life, but after decline of Baghdad and Muslim Spain, things changed, he recalled. Biggest challenge was to bring back Muslims towards knowledge and research, he added. The minister said that incompetent persons always cause failure, and to be dependent on western countries was not the right approach at all. He said that successful nations always emerge from peace and stability, adding that chaos and weak financial resources lead to further problems.