Energy crisis as catalyst |
IN September 2025, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared a climate emergency. Most ministries ignored it. The government lurched from one fiscal crisis to the next, eyes fixed on the IMF programme, ignoring the energy transition the country desperately needed. Then came March 2026.
The US-Israeli war on Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, and the consequences for Pakistan were immediate and brutal. Prior to the announcement of the ceasefire, petrol had jumped by about 20 per cent in a week. LNG shipments had collapsed from around 12 a month to a trickle. The government had announced a four-day work week, closed schools, and told cricket fans to stay home. Inflation had spiralled, and political stability frayed. This should not be surprising. This is the price of inaction.
The climate emergency declaration was not merely an environmental statement: it was an economic one. Energy security, macroeconomic stability, inflation and climate resilience are the same problem wearing different faces. Pakistan had six months between the prime minister’s announcement and the outbreak of war to begin building structural buffers. It did not. What the government has offered since are ad hoc austerity measures and conservation campaigns — necessary, but narrow and unsustainable. School closures do not build nations. A four-day work week does not build an economy.
By August 2025, Pakistan had imported nearly 50 GW of solar panels; solar now accounts for around 20 to 25 per cent of total production. Citizens led this revolution, not government. And government responded by slowing solar adoption via taxes to protect grid inefficiencies. The PM declared a........