Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) in collaboration with United Nation Industrial Development Organisation (Unido), Lahore Chambers of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) and the Ministry of Environment (MoE) conducted a workshop for creating awareness for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The workshop on carbon trading was at the LCCI to promote this area among private sector businesses, government departments and international scholars, says a spokesman of the Board here on Wednesday.
PBIT has taken this initiative of educating business people from the agriculture, steel, and other industry on the opportunity of gaining carbon credits in the international carbon trading market. Because this topic is often ignored, Pakistan has ranked low on the international trading and lags significantly behind China and India.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation - made this awareness event possible and also had their key representatives at the event - has been championing the cause for cleaner technologies and through this workshop witnessed the germination the mass impetus for green awareness in Pakistan.
The option of utilising Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was on the agenda of the conference, which is an initiative of Kyoto Protocol through which developed countries can reduce the emission of green house gases (GHG).
The Kyoto Protocol represents an opportunity for developing countries like Pakistan for addressing environmental issues while capitalising on the economic benefits of the protocol. The size of the global carbon trading industry is over USD 64 billion.
Pakistan has yet to maximise benefits of Carbon Trading (CT) in terms of technology and resource inflow. This Carbon Trading Workshop is one of the initiatives for capacity building along with strengthening of Clean Development Mechanisms set up in the country that may help in creating conducive environment for the efficient functioning of the domestic environment market.
The event was chaired by the Punjab Minister of Industries and Prisons Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, and consultant to Chief Minister Punjab on economic affairs and CEO/Vice Chairman Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) Pir Saad Ahsanuddin who emphasised that PBIT is proactively supporting businesses that qualify for carbon trading and that anyone can get facilitation from the one window of PBIT, which will interface with all other government departments on behalf of the business.
The options to harness this extra revenue through clean technology has been discussed at lengths with the valuable input of prominent personalities like Malik Amin Aslam Khan, the former Minister of State for Environment, Bikash Pandey director of Winrock International, Shafqat Kakakhel, Deputy-Executive-Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Pir Saad Ahsanuddin, CEO and Vice Chairman of PBIT, Fazal Abbas Maken, Secretary, Commerce and Investment Department, Punjab among others.