More than half of all the people in Pakistan are without access to a reliable and affordable supply of energy, especially in rural areas. In urban areas, the inefficient use of energy, especially by the manufacturing industry, strongly hinders economic competition and growth.

Pakistan has neither the basic political or institutional conditions nor the all-important promotion tools, incentives or technical qualifications it needs to harness its energy sector’s potential for generating renewable energies and securing energy efficiency. Pakistan’s energy sector is institutionally fragmented, making it more difficult for the government to implement measures effectively. The country lacks a national strategy for the sustainable supply and use of energy.

Furthermore, renewable energies (RE) and energy efficiency (EE) are not adequately mainstreamed in industry or in private households.

Working on a mandate from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), GIZ is assisting Pakistan’s partners in the energy sector to develop political directives and implementation strategies to promote renewable energy use and raise energy efficiency, whereby special account is taken of gender-specific concerns. Key components of technical cooperation include using climate protection tools (including the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), promoting the ESCO concept (Energy Service Companies) and designing financing models.

The inputs are geared to the medium and long term and aim, on the one hand, to bring electricity to rural regions by introducing renewable sources of energy. On the other, they aim to make more productive use of the energy available, so as to improve income. German support has been particularly successful in raising energy efficiency in the textile industry, having introduced an energy management system (EnMS) that has sustainably increased energy supply.