ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has introduced the country’s first carbon market policy, Radio Pakistan reported on Monday, with the aim to achieve climate targets and implement action costs effectively.
To cement Pakistan’s commitment to participation in the new global carbon market, the country’s Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination (MoCC&EC) marked Nov. 16 as the Pakistan Pavillion’s “Carbon Market Day” and also organized a high-level event on carbon markets at the UN COP29 climate summit. Nearly 200 governments agreed on the framework that sets up a centralized global mechanism with clear rules and procedures for countries and companies involved in carbon credit transactions.
Carbon markets are carbon pricing mechanisms enabling governments and non-state actors to trade greenhouse gas emission credits.
There are two types of carbon markets, compliance and voluntary. In compliance markets such as national or regional emissions trading schemes, participants act in response to an obligation established by a regulatory body. In voluntary carbon markets, participants are under no formal obligation to achieve a specific target. Instead, non-state actors such as companies, cities or regions seek to voluntarily offset their emissions, for example, to achieve mitigation targets such as climate neutral, net zero emissions.
“The policy aims to foster investments in the energy, agriculture and forestry sectors,” Radio Pakistan said. “Through these carbon markets, businesses will be encouraged to adopt eco-friendly technologies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Global investors and organizations have been invited to collaborate in Pakistan’s carbon market, the report added.
Under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (PACM), developing countries can host emissions reduction and removal projects and trade the resulting carbon credits internationally as a means to generate new revenue streams and unlock investment in ambitious climate action.
“Adopting this policy is only part of the many ongoing carbon market readiness efforts. With the support from the USAID, World Bank, the German government, the , UN Environment Program, and Global Green Growth Institute, we are developing carbon market regulations, integrating carbon market in our new NDC, assessing new sectoral potential, and developing a pipeline of carbon market projects,” Aisha Humaira, Secretary, MoCC&EC, said in a statement.
The new guidelines aim to establish a clear regulatory framework for governing both voluntary and compliance carbon market activities in Pakistan, following international requirements and good practices.
As per the website of the UN Environment Program, Pakistan’s “Carbon Market Policy Guidelines” outline a cohesive strategy and authorization criteria, which prioritizes investment in resilience and climate change adaptation, and works closely with provincial governments.
“While these guidelines offer cultural and geographical nuance for each province’s differential needs, they set stringent quality control criteria, thus ensuring high-quality project development with substantial co-benefits. Finally, countries will experience a competitive and cost-efficient framework that emphasizes fairness in benefit distribution,” the document says.
A number of project opportunities have already been identified on the basis of which the government of Pakistan intends to initiate dialogues on Article 6 collaboration, the UN added.
Pakistan introduces country’s first carbon market policy
https://arab.news/8f4q3
Pakistan introduces country’s first carbon market policy
- New guidelines will establish regulatory framework for governing both voluntary and compliance carbon market activities in Pakistan
- Carbon markets are carbon pricing mechanisms enabling governments and non-state actors to trade greenhouse gas emission credits
Indian border villagers want recompense for damages in Pakistan clashes
- Villagers in border areas return home after military conflict
- Residents seek compensation for damaged homes, livelihoods
JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan are maintaining a ceasefire that ended four days of intense military clashes, but many in the Indian-administered part of disputed Kashmir are demanding compensation for damages from cross-border firing.
Hundreds of villagers evacuated their homes as the rivals targeted each other’s military installations with missiles and drones, killing about 70 civilians, after New Delhi struck what it called terrorist camps across the border.
Many returned to find their homes destroyed or roofless.
“Where will we go with our kids? We don’t have anywhere to live and anything to eat,” said Roshan Lal, from the village of Kot Maira in Akhnoor in the district of Jammu, about 7 km (4 miles) from the de facto border.
The shelling had left his home uninhabitable, the 47-year-old added.
“I want to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for justice,” he said. “We need compensation for the damages.”
In the nearby village of Pahari Wala, farmer Karan Singh said he buried seven cattle in his field, while his family are living in makeshift shelters.
“I left the village when the conflict began,” he said. “We don’t have a place to stay.”
In Salamabad, a border village in the Kashmir Valley, shelling injured Badrudin Naik and his six-year-old son, but both returned home after five days.
“I am happy to return,” he said. “But my house is damaged. My two uncles’ houses were completely destroyed. We want a permanent peace as it is we on the border who suffer more.”
Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan, which both rule part of Kashmir, but claim it in full, have fought two of their three wars over the region and engaged in several smaller clashes over the decades.
Teams have fanned out in the region to assess damage to homes, shops and other facilities, said a senior local government official, who sought anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.
“Today our teams have gone to the areas which were affected,” he said, adding, “The government will decide the amount of compensation.”
On Monday, Modi warned Pakistan that New Delhi would target “terrorist hideouts” across the border again if there were new attacks on India. Pakistan denies Indian accusations of supporting militants who attack India.
Standing in front of the cracked wall of his Pahari Wala home, Joginder Lal said Modi should ignore US President Donald Trump, who announced the ceasefire, saying Washington had played a role in halting the fighting.
“We want to take full revenge against Pakistan,” the 60-year-old added.
Former Pakistan PM Khan’s sons urge Trump administration to play role for father’s release
- Khan has been in jail for nearly two years on a slew of charges he says are politically motivated and has frequently agitated against the Pakistani government over a host of issues
- His sons urge any government that supports ‘free speech and proper democracy’ to join the call for their father’s release, appeal to influential people to ‘create a bit more noise’
ISLAMABAD: The sons of former prime minister Imran Khan have urged United States (US) President Donald Trump and the international community to help free their jailed father, appealing to “people of influence” to press for his release.
Khan has been in jail for nearly two years on a slew of charges that he says are politically motivated. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has held frequent protests demanding his release and frequently agitated against the Pakistani government over what it says were rigged general elections in Feb. 2024 and a campaign to subdue PTI supporters since his ouster from the PM’s office in April 2022.
Pakistani authorities deny Khan’s allegations, accusing the ex-premier and his party of leading violent anti-government protests in the past, particularly in May 2023 and Nov. 2024. On May 9, 2023, frenzied mobs across the country carrying flags of Khan’s party attacked government and military installations, while a protest in Nov. to demand Khan’s release killed four troops during clashes, officials say. The PTI denies instigating followers to violence and accuses the military and its political rivals of resorting to rights abuses against its supporters. They both deny the charges.
During a rare interview, conducted by entrepreneur, business influencer and citizen journalist Mario Nawfal, Khan’s sons, Kasim Khan and Sulaiman Khan, spoke about the alleged “suppression of democracy” in Pakistan, a lack of basic facilities for Khan in his prison cell. They said he was being kept on “trumped up charges,” and called on the Trump administration and the international community to press Islamabad for his release.
“Anyone who looks into it a little can kind of see that,” Suleiman said. “In terms of a message to the Trump administration, we’d call for any government that supports free speech and proper democracy to join the call for our father’s release, and especially the most powerful leader in the world.”
The former cricket-star-turned politician, who was believed to have been brought into power by Pakistan’s powerful military, fell out with the generals. His party accuses the military, which has ruled Pakistan for nearly have of its history and holds sway in politics even when not in power, of colluding with Khan’s rivals to keep him out of politics. The military and Khan’s rivals deny this.
In Dec. 2024, Khan’s party held negotiations with the government to ease political tensions in the country. However, talks broke down in Jan. after the PTI pulled away, accusing the government of not fulfilling its two principal demands of forming judicial commissions to investigate the 2023 and 2024 protests. The government rubbished the PTI’s allegations, accusing the party of “unilaterally” abandoning talks without waiting for the government to respond to its demands.
Sulaiman said there was a tradition of “dynastic politics” in Pakistan, dominated by two main parties, and his father wanted to break away from that tradition.
Khan’s elder son, Kasim, said they just wanted the international community to see what had been going on in Pakistan and “hopefully take action.”
“We’d love to speak to Trump or try and figure out a way where he would be able to help out in some way because at the end of the day, all we are trying to do is free our father, bring democracy in Pakistan and just ensure his basic human rights,” Kasim said.
The calls from Khan’s sons for his release came a day before the hearing of a petition in the Islamabad High Court seeking Khan’s release on parole, which was filed by his party’s chief minister in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Besides speaking with Nawfal of their time with Khan and family interactions, Sulaiman also appealed to “people of influence” around the world to speak for their father’s release.
“I think that would be huge, just to create a bit more noise because it’s definitely gone a bit quiet recently,” he said.
“We would love people to reach out to us if they have some influence or potential to help with this situation.”
Pakistan sees minimal fiscal impact from India standoff as economists estimate billions in losses
- Economists warn prolonged conflict could deter investment in both India and Pakistan
- Estimated total losses reach $80-90 billion, with 20 percent borne by Pakistan and the rest by India
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s finance ministry said on Tuesday the recent four-day standoff with India will not have a significant fiscal impact, as analysts estimated that the conflict cost both countries losses of around $1 billion per hour.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after a deadly April 22 attack on Hindu tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, which killed 26 people. India blamed Pakistan for the assault, an allegation denied by officials in Islamabad, though it still led to one the worst military confronts between the two nuclear-armed neighbors in decades.
A ceasefire was announced on Saturday by US President Donald Trump, following four days of fighting and intense diplomatic efforts led by Washington. However, the military confrontation, by then, had disrupted stock markets, led to airspace closures, escalated defense spending and caused economic losses amounting to billions of dollars.
“The current standoff with India won’t have a large fiscal impact on Pakistan,” Khurram Schehzad, adviser to the finance minister, told Arab News.
“It can be managed within the current fiscal space, with no need for a new economic assessment,” he added.
Schehzad said Pakistan’s economic resilience was evident from a new record at the Pakistan Stock Exchange, which on Monday posted the highest single-day gain in over 26 years, surging by 10,123 points or 9.45 percent, significantly surpassing the losses recorded last week following the Indian strike.
“Pakistan’s measured and responsible response, in both its narrative and actions on the ground, has caught investors’ eye, alongside the potential positive spillover effect of a possible settlement in the US-China tariff issue,” he added.
Arab News reached out to the defense ministry and Pakistan’s military media wing for official estimates of the conflict’s cost, but did not receive a response by the time of filing this story.
Meanwhile, economists said the recent military standoff inflicted heavy financial losses on both countries, with combined costs approaching $1 billion per hour.
“The recent conflict, over an 87-hour period, I think cost about a billion dollars an hour for both countries,” economist Farrukh Saleem told Arab News.
He estimated total combined losses of between $80 and $90 billion over the four-day period.
“About 20 percent of that was incurred by Pakistan and a good 80 to 85 percent by India,” he added.
Saleem said daily economic losses from the conflict, including stock market declines and other impacts, amounted to around $20 billion per day, with Pakistan losing up to $4 billion and India as much as $16 billion per day.
“I have tried to put things together. If this conflict had continued for 30 days, my estimate is that both countries would have lost a good $500 billion, with over a $400 billion loss for the Indian economy,” he added.
Explaining India’s higher losses, he noted that each Rafale fighter jet costs around $240 million, while Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder or J-10C jets are priced between $20 and $25 million per unit.
“BrahMos, for instance, the Indian ballistic missile, costs $3 million apiece. If, for example, 10 units are used in a day, that amounts to $30 million in a single day,” he said.
Dr. Ali Salman, Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute of Market Economy (PRIME), an Islamabad-based independent economic policy think tank, said the conflict had disrupted economic sentiment and affected investor confidence.
“Certainly, investors would not like to come into countries, whether India or Pakistan, if they are in a constant war-like situation,” he told Arab News.
He emphasized that prolonged conflict would push people in both countries deeper into poverty, noting that one in four poor people in the world lives in India or Pakistan.
“We have 27 percent of the world’s poor in just these two countries, and I believe that we need to come out of the military context and go into an economic context,” he added.
Another economist, Shakeel Ramay, said every war has an economic dimension and that the conflict had imposed a heavy financial burden on both economies.
“Pakistan’s military expenditure over the four-day conflict, including jets, artillery and missiles, amounted to around $1.5 billion from the national budget, by my estimate,” he said, adding that this was significant, especially as the country continues to face economic challenges.
“The good thing is our economic activities continued without interruption, retail markets operated smoothly with no shortages and trade routes remained open, all indicating that the direct economic cost was minimal,” he added.
Pakistan Stock Exchange surges over 1,000 points amid ceasefire optimism
- The KSE-100 index gained 1278.15 points or 1.09 percent and closed at 118,575.88
- Stocks rallied after President Trump announced ceasefire between nuclear-armed neighbors
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) gained over 1,000 points on Tuesday, driven by investor optimism over ceasefire talks between Pakistan and India boosting regional stability, analysts said.
The KSE-100 index gained 2,769 points to reach 120,067.12 during intraday trading before settling at 118,575.88, up by 1,278.15 points or 1.09 percent from the previous close of 117,297.73.
Pakistan’s stocks had rallied after US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced a ceasefire between nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India.
Both states had exchanged missile, drone and artillery strikes last week amid surging tensions.
“Stocks closed higher as investors weigh Pak-India ceasefire talks fostering stability and the foreign minister’s assurance on thin fiscal impact of conflict,” Ahsan Mehanti, the Chief Executive Officer of Arif Habib Commodities, told Arab News.
Pakistan Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had also told Reuters in an interview on Monday that the conflict would not have a large fiscal impact on Pakistan. He described the standoff as a “short duration escalation” with minimal fiscal impact, saying it can be “accommodated within the fiscal space which is available to the government of Pakistan.”
Mehanti added that rupee stability, upbeat global equities, and a surge in global crude oil prices also played a catalytic role in the bullish close at the PSX.
Head of Intermarket Securities Raza Jafri highlighted that the KSE-100 was holding its levels following yesterday’s massive rise.
On May 12, Pakistani stocks rose more than nine percent, the highest single-day gain in decades, according to analysts, following a ceasefire with India and the approval of a $1 billion tranche by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which Pakistan is expected to receive today as part of a larger $7 billion bailout agreement.
“The energy sector continues its rebound — on hopes of circular debt clearance — while news reports of a possible construction package (low-income housing units and mortgage financing) saw the Cement sector rally,” Jafri added.
Pakistan says won’t let India stop its water, hopes Trump will help resolve Kashmir issue
- Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations, with disputed Kashmir being a flashpoint between the two for decades
- India suspended key water treaty with Pakistan amid tensions over an attack in Kashmir that escalated into a military conflict last week
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar has said that Islamabad will not let India stop its share of water under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and expressed hope that US President Donald Trump will resolve the Kashmir issue between the neighbors, following a ceasefire between them after last week’s military conflict.
India and Pakistan last week attacked each other with fighter jets, missiles and artillery fire, in worst fighting between them in more than two decades that has killed more than 70 people on both sides.
The fighting, which came to an end on Saturday after the US brokered a ceasefire, had erupted amid heightened tensions between the neighbors over an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that India blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad denies involvement.
In an interview with Britain’s Sky News channel, Tarar said since things were moving forward after the ceasefire between the two nations, Pakistan was looking forward to the resolution of its concerns, including India’s suspension of the IWT.
“India has not stopped the water yet and they don’t have the capacity to stop that water,” he said on Monday. “We obviously won’t let India deny the right of water to our people.”
India announced suspending the 1960 World Bank-brokered treaty, which ensures water for 80 percent of Pakistani farms, a day after the April 22 attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 tourists.
The IWT grants Pakistan rights to the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab — for irrigation, drinking, and non-consumptive uses like hydropower, while India controls the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej — for unrestricted use but must not significantly alter their flow. India can use the western rivers for limited purposes such as power generation and irrigation, without storing or diverting large volumes, according to the agreement.
Last week, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the treaty would remain in abeyance, signaling deeper diplomatic rifts between the two nations as they traded fire across several cities.
“The fact is that there have been fundamental changes in the circumstances in which the Indus Waters Treaty was concluded,” Indian Foreign Secretary Misri was quoted as saying by NDTV on Thursday.
He said there is now a need to “reassess the obligations under that treaty.”
But Tarar believed Pakistan’s case on the agreement was “very strong,” adding they would wait to see how things unfold.
“At this point in time, the water is flowing normally and there is no stoppage,” he told Sky News.
Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations and frequently accuse each other of fomenting militancy in the other’s territory.
Kashmir, which has been divided between Pakistan and India since their independence from Britain in 1947, has been a flashpoint for decades, with the neighbors having fought two of their three wars over the region. Last week’s military conflict also originated from tensions over an assault in the disputed region.
Asked about details of the ceasefire, Tarar said many countries had been speaking to both Pakistan and India, and President Trump had been “pivotal” in securing the truce.
He hoped the US president would also help bring together the two nuclear-armed neighbors to resolve the enduring conflict in Kashmir.
Trump “has made things abundantly clear because he wants a resolution to major issues between us, between India and Pakistan,” Tarar said.
“And he has specifically mentioned Kashmir that he would like to settle.”
On Sunday, Trump said he would try to work with both India and Pakistan to see if they can resolve their dispute over Kashmir.
“I will work with you both to see if, after a ‘thousand years,’ a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, referring to India and Pakistan.
But India has for years insisted Kashmir is a bilateral issue and not allowed any third-party mediation.
In his first address to the nation since last week’s conflict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made clear that militancy was the only issue he wanted to discuss with Pakistan.
“I will tell the global community also, if we talk to Pakistan, it will be about terrorism only,” Modi said on Monday.
