Pakistan has a serious shortage of reasonably priced energy which is affecting the rate of growth of the economy and causing hardship to the people across the country. At the same time, the country is short of foreign funds with which to buy oil and gas from the outside.
It has abundant reserves of low-quality coal buried in the deserts of Sindh. Using this resource for producing electricity would go against the developing global consensus which is setting targets for reducing the consumption of fossil fuels. This reduction is needed to reduce the amount of global-warming gases that mankind throws into the atmosphere.
Global warming is hurting Pakistan by increasing the melting of ice from the mountain tops from which most Pakistani rivers draw water. A time will come when sharply reduced water in the Pakistani rivers would lead to the desertification of the country.
In a study done by the World Bank decades ago, it was suggested…
