Govt allocates Rs4b for e-bikes, Rs2b for energy efficient fans

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday said the federal government was allocating Rs 4 billon to promote E-bikes and Rs 2 billion for roll out of energy efficient fans in the country to cut carbon emissions from transport sector and increased energy consumption.

The Finance Minister in his speech unveiling the Budget 2024-25 said Pakistan was facing adverse impacts of climate change and the government was working on initiatives to promote climate mitigation efforts.

Senator Aurangzeb said the leading efforts of the government to address climate crisis included establishment of Pakistan Climate Change Authority intended to implement climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Moreover, National Climate Finance Strategy was being prepared that would be finalized till October 2024 that would help devise strategies to bring global climate finance to Pakistan which would help undertake initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, he added.

The Minister further announced that a national digital climate finance monitoring dashboard would be established to maintain data related to climate finance received from global financing facilities.

“Gender and climate budget tagging has been done in government’s budgeting and accounting system that would help in policy making and implementation in these sectors,” the Finance Minister said.