Pakistan is showing fresh interest in tackling climate change under new leader Imran Khan, after a period of favoring coal.

At this month’s U.N. climate talks in Poland, Pakistan promised to move away from coal investment and ensure climate-resilient growth. This was a departure from the previous government’s preference for fossil fuel energy, and in line with the “green political will” of new Prime Minister Imran Khan, according to his climate change advisor Malik Amin Aslam.

At the COP24 negotiations, Pakistan also became one of the first developing countries to commit to reviewing its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to global climate action before the Paris Agreement starts in 2020. Announcing this at the talks, Aslam, head of Pakistan’s delegation, said the revised NDC would include measures the new government had initiated, which will strengthen Pakistan’s efforts to reduce planet-warming emissions.

Its programmes include the “Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Project” that was designed by Aslam and first implemented in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Now the federal government under Khan, who took office in August, has launched a nationwide 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project.

Aslam said Pakistan’s willingness to “develop along a different pathway and become an enabler of the new transition economy” was demonstrated by the $120 million it has spent on planting and protecting trees so far. It plans to use a further $1 billion of its domestic resources to expand forests over the next five years.

Aslam said the current government is also committed to capitalising on Pakistan’s large potential for wind, solar and hydropower, as well as utilising nuclear energy. “More than 365 small run-of-the-river hydro projects have been set up in the north,” he said in his speech at COP24. “In the transport sector, with catalytic Green Climate Fund financing, Pakistan has finalised a multi-million-dollar zero emission bus metro system for the city of Karachi operating on cattle waste-generated biogas,” he added.

COAL NO LONGER KING?

Environmentalists had criticised the weak NDC document Pakistan initially submitted under the Paris Agreement. It projected a four-fold increase in emissions by 2030, noting the rise could be reduced but only with international assistance. Hammad Naqi Khan, director general of WWF-Pakistan, said the NDC reflected the desire of the previous government to explore the potential of coal as an energy resource.

Under Khan’s predecessor Nawaz Sharif, the government announced half a dozen coal power plants that are under currently construction. Two – at Sahiwal and Port Qasim with generation capacity of about 1.3 gigawatts each – are now operational, using imported coal.

While the new government cannot undo the coal power plants being built or already up and running, Aslam said the government would continue “strict monitoring” of their environmental impacts. It is also working to revoke a “criminal cap” on the amount of renewable power provinces can feed into the grid (50 megawatts each), which he said was aimed at boosting the use of coal and gas.

“We are in the process of removing this unholy subsidisation of coal and will be definitely focusing on renewables – wind, solar and hydro,” Aslam told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the climate talks.

WWF’s Naqi Khan welcomed the news from COP24, noting that Pakistan’s previous NDC had lacked an ambitious plan to bring more renewables into the energy mix, as well as a solid commitment to avoid fossil fuel power plants.

A new report released by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis this December noted that renewable energy, including wind and solar, is now the cheapest form of new electricity generation in Pakistan.

BACK IN THE GAME

Pakistan may have sent a small delegation to COP24, but the negotiators were able to highlight the country’s vulnerability to climate change and engage more effectively with the global process, observers said. Pakistan was elected Vice President and Rapporteur of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC, giving it a key role in the organisation of the talks in 2019. It also secured seats on five other technical bodies to regulate climate action and financial flows.

Pakistan’s re-engagement with the climate change negotiations comes after several years of being sidelined, said Shafqat Kakakhel, board chair of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad. “It was a Pakistani negotiator, Ambassador Jamsheed Marker, who was responsible for putting the F for Framework into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and Pakistan was always known for its principled stance. But since 2012, Pakistan has not been a significant player at these negotiations due to the absence of skilled negotiators,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

That situation seems to have been reversed with a revitalised delegation led by Aslam, who is also global vice president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. According to Aisha Khan, head of Pakistan’s Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change, “Aslam’s understanding of the subject gives him an edge and the ability to represent Pakistan’s case convincingly.”

With Pakistan now forced to cope with worsening floods, droughts, heatwaves and melting glaciers, Aslam said the new government is working on a shift towards climate-resilient agriculture, plus an initiative to utilise the Indus River floodwaters for ecosystem restoration. “I must emphasis that these actions and initiatives go much beyond our NDC and are happening in spite of the expected external financial flows not materialising,” he said in his speech at the climate talks.

In its original NDC, Pakistan said it could lower its projected greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20 percent in 2030 if it received international climate finance of around $40 billion. Now it says it will revise the figures in its NDC once it has calculated all the emissions to be saved from its new green projects. “Pakistan must take action on the ground for the sake of its own people,” Aslam said.

By Rina Saeed Khan

Sometimes the opportunity for innovation is in plain sight. Have you ever considered how much is spent in real estate to feature picture-perfect views and install crystal-clear glass windows – only to have occupants miss those amazing views due to the heat and glare that also comes through?

Window coverings are purchased at an additional cost due to the discomfort of the individuals inside and the well-intended benefits are lost. Look around any major city, and you’ll notice that roughly two-thirds of building windows are permanently covered with blinds or shades. It defeats the whole idea of using windows in the first place. What if there was a better way?

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After all, it hasn’t always been like this. For most of history, humans have lived in harmony with the outdoors; remember, we are originally an outdoor species. But over the course of history, we’ve found a way to create our own shelters, as a way of separating us from the elements and to protect ourselves. First came walls, doors, roofs and floors. Then we discovered that melting sand could make sheets of glass – a solid material you could see through. Windows were not always accessible to everyone in the early days and were indeed a source of luxury and pride for those who could afford them.

Now a staple of modern architecture, glass has kept some of its magical allure – creating a barrier to the outside world, yet still inviting in the views and natural light to lighten even the darkest of rooms. Recently, we’ve seen bigger and clearer windows appearing as the demand increases for a better connection to the outdoors. But this, “Also creates issues in terms of heat and glare – the building gets inefficient … and people are uncomfortable thermally and visually and then you are using blinds and shades to control the light,” says Dr. Rao Mulpuri, CEO of View, Inc. and a member of YPO.

“My colleagues wake up each day believing in something that no one else believes yet. This common purpose and mission is what binds us together and enables us to create real change.” 

Based in Silicon Valley, View manufactures a new generation of smart windows that let in natural light and views and enhance mental and physical wellbeing. View’s customers include Century Link, Overstock, FedEx, WeWork, Facebook, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Regeneron and Kaiser Permanente across 35 million square feet of buildings space with another 35 million in progress. The company has also made great progress bringing smart windows to airports with installations at San Francisco International Airport, Boston Logan International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Charlotte Douglas International Airport. And in June 2018, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport announced they had awarded a contract to View to install smart windows in all DFW’s passenger terminals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1ZI80-_feU

“While dynamically changing glass technology, that adjusts itself to light and heat is already 50 years old, it never managed to move past small applications, such as transition sunglasses, car rear-view mirrors, and some airplanes. Up until ten years ago, when View stepped in, it was an elusive technology that didn’t lend itself to large-scale use in real estate. We have developed a self-tinting smart window, powered by a sophisticated intelligence engine that responds intuitively to outside conditions, day or night,” says Mulpuri.

“Someday, every window will be smart,” muses Mulpuri. “Today, every communication device is mobile, yet landlines ruled only a short few years ago. Likewise, there’s no reason to install windows and then cover them up to the detriment of the occupants’ health and wellness.” The company has yet to come across a customer who says, “I love my blinds”.

The real estate industry is the largest in the world, to the tune of $10 trillion globally, but surprisingly, it’s also the slowest moving – partly due to risk aversion found within its ranks. Mulpuri recognized that technology advancement was the biggest disruptor of the past 100 years and wondered why real estate construction was lagging so far behind. The 21st century is not kind to slow-moving industries – think video stores, camera film and cellphones with keyboards. Mulpuri believes View’s mission is to not only make the simple window better, but to also transform the entire real estate industry. One of Mulpuri’s mentors and friends, Fred Smith, the CEO of FedEx, is keen on reminding his employees, “If you don’t like change, you will hate extinction.”

View currently holds more than 700 patents after ten years of development and an investment of around $1 billion – a hefty price-tag for staying true to their dream of developing technology that will enable smart glass to work at scale.

Aside from eliminating the need for blinds and reducing a building’s energy costs, Mulpuri is most excited about the substantial health benefits View’s windows bring to occupants. A recent HBR article  revealed natural light is the #1 office perk, and supports a research study by Cornell University Professor Dr. Alan Hedge who found optimization of natural light in an office significantly improves health and wellness among workers. In fact, this research revealed that workers in View Dynamic Glass office environments reported a 51% drop in eyestrain, a 63% drop in headaches and a 56% reduction in drowsiness.

Like most disruptive companies, success is usually a combination of great product and fearless, big thinking. Considering the advice he would give young leaders, Mulpuri believes that picking things that really mattered would be paramount. “Work on something game- changing, because then the journey becomes worth it. You’ll attract great talent and like-minded people and that powerful combination of talent, commitment, and upward spiral of creating something new will make it worthwhile. My biggest advice? Attempt bigger.” 

www.viewglass.com

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The world’s largest 3-D printed reef was submerged on 11 August at Summer Island in the Maldives, in what is hoped could be a new technology-driven method to help coral reefs survive a warming climate.

The artificial reef, assembled with hundreds of ceramic and concrete modules, was submerged at Summer Island’s ‘Blue Lagoon’ – a sandy part of the lagoon, where the resort hopes to create a new coral reef ecosystem.

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The project started in a lab in Melbourne, Australia, where industrial designer Alex Goad of Reef Design Lab used sophisticated computing modeling to design reef structures similar to the coral reefs found naturally in the Maldives. 

A large 3-D printer whirred away for 24 hours to print moulds of the reef structures. These moulds were cast in ceramic – an inert substance, similar to the calcium carbonate found in coral reefs. The ceramic moulds were shipped to the Maldives, and filled with concrete on the beach at Summer Island. 

220 ceramic, concrete filled moulds were then slotted together, like a giant LEGO set, to create the new reef. 

The new reef sits in seven metres of water, close to the resort’s existing coral nursery. Fragments of coral from the nursery are being transplanted onto the 3-D reef, where they will grow and colonise the structure. 

As Alex explains: “3-D printing technology helps us to develop more innovative ways of protecting coral reefs. The technology allows us to mimic the complexity of natural reef structures, so we can design artificial reefs that closely resemble those found in nature. We hope this will be a more effective way of growing and restoring corals.”  

In a year or two, when the corals have grown over the 3-D reef, the resort hopes to have a new, natural looking reef, teeming with fish and marine life. 

If the 3-D printing technology proves more successful at growing corals than existing coral propagation methods, it could be a novel way of helping coral reefs survive a warming climate. 

The Maldives is one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations. Rising sea temperatures pose a grave threat to the world’s coral reefs, and mass bleaching events are becoming more common and more severe.

Summer Island Maldives has implemented a number of recent environmental initiatives, including the adoption of solar energy, a ban on the use of plastic straws, phasing out imported drinking water, and coral conservation projects.

Summer Island Resort Manager Mari Shareef explains: “Projects like the 3-D printed reef are popular among guests, who like that we protect our environment. And it’s not only for the guests. Our staff, most of whom are Maldivian, want to protect their environment. Ultimately, we want to help promote a culture of environmental stewardship, not just at Summer Island, but across the Maldives.”

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