With the  launching of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in 2015 the energy requirement in Pakistan for the projects related to CPEC has multiplied resulting in greater dependence and indebtedness to friend China, which does not care about the UN climate conference members caution against the use of coal for generating energy in Pakistan. 

Two hundred countries, who attended the United Nations climate conference on December 16 in the Polish city of Katowice adopted a universal rule book for implementing the 2015 Paris agreement to limit the rise of global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius.  The Paris agreement comes into effect in 2020.

One may recall that during the Paris conference coal was mentioned as a big source of emission of carbon.  Many countries have begun avoiding coal projects for this reason.

Developing countries, which depend on coal based power are slowly moving to clean energy in a committed manner but Pakistan is going to be an exception if it continues to depend on China, according to experts.

In Pakistan coal consumption is very high.  It is used on a large scale by industries, railways defence and in homes. There are coal fields in Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan.

Coal mining is considered to be the oldest industry of what is now Pakistan.  Here the coal is of lignite to sub bituminous type which contains a high percentage of ash and sulphur.  It is generally liable to spontaneous combustion.  The Thar coal field in Sindh is the seventh largest field in the world.  Its lignite coal has poor energy efficiency  with high carbon emission.

Coal produced in Pakistan does not meet the country’s energy requirement.  Its energy demand is about 19000 MW but it can generate only about 15000 MW hence, import of this commodity. 

With CPEC Pakistan has been directing work on at least nine coal-based energy projects in this country.  While the world is gradually abandoning use of coal to reduce emission of carbon in the atmosphere China is engaged in working on coal based CPEC related energy projects in Pakistan at the cost of $35 billion. 

Incidentally.  China has given a loan to Pakistan equal to this amount to be spent in connection with CPEC.  In the final analysis, China will spend this loan on projects which benefit it many time more than they do to Pakistan – the ultimate indebted country.

This loan of $35 billion given to Pakistan with much fanfare is being spent on coal-based energy technology which in other parts of the world is fast being discarded in favour of solar and wind energy.  A series of large coal-based power stations will pollute the environment and drag Pakistan deeper into the debt quagmire.

About $35 billlion are being invested in 19 energy projects of which  about three-quarters will be coal-based.  What makes China Pakistan choose coal to generate energy is the easy availability in Pakistan.  China will extract 19 million tons of coal till 2030. 

It is taking a special interest in coal discovered in Thar (Sindh) in 1992.  The reason for this interest is said to be the declining coal reserve in China.  It may want some part of the Thar coal.

The Thar coal is estimated to be 175 billion tonnes.  It is expected to give 3.8 million tonnes a year when fully operational and help generate 660 megawatt of power.  China and Pakistan have launched a joint venture called  Sindh Agro Coal Mining Company (SACMC) and invested $1.9 billion in the Thar mine and plant project.

This project has made lives of villager their livestock and their agriculture miserable.  It is water intensive.  Underground rivers have been diverted turning pastures into a salt lake French news agency AFP, reporting from Islamabad, quotes some Thar villagers bemoaning: “It is complete chaos” and the (diverted) water has attracted mosquitoes, which spread disease”. 

The authorities have thought of a plan to train some 694 local villagers in mining on payment to work for the Chinese.  This scheme is named “Khush-hal Thar” (prosperous Thar). This training and money given to them will certainly not restore their water supply and ecology.  It is said the water problem will worsen when the rain water now stagnating in ponds dries up. 

This reminds one of the acute water shortage in parts of Baluchistan caused by CPEC related construction work.  In fact, mass cutting of trees and digging of land in connection with the CPEC have begun to show on weather but Pakistani experts give all other reasons for it except the CPEC activities.

Pakistan spends between $12 billion $ 20 billion on energy imports – something which is beyond its capacity.  The CPEC has added to this burden.  Pakistan will have to import coal worth more than $2 billion a year for 30 years to fuel coal-based imported projects for the CPEC.

More and more people in Pakistan are getting disillusioned with the vigorously mouthed sloganeering: the CPEC is a game-changer. If some Pakistanis believed that their all-weather friend was moved by altruistic passions  towards them, they must disabuse themselves of this belief before it is too late. 

The Army and its minions, the Islamists, support the CPEC not so much for economic as for security reasons.  Their sense of security gets malicious satisfaction from the route of the CPEC which trespasses on Indian territory of Gilgit-Baltistan. 

In this trespassing they see Chinese reaffirmation of its commitment to Pakistan against India. 

But a section of the Army men believes China is using Pakistan for its own security imperatives, notably by building the deep water port of Gwadar.  They complain Chinese sell Pakistan “garbage” in the name of weapons.  (Col. David O Smith’s “The Quetta Experience – A study of attitudes and values Within the Pakistan Army”. 

Articles in Pakistani newspaper have begun to write that the CPEC is part of the problem because of the rise in imports of machinery and equipment. 

Thus, imports from China have shot up to $12 billion while Pakistan exports to China hardly add up $ 3 billion. 

Import of machinery has also created the need to import fuel, that adds to the already hefty energy imports bill.  But that is only one problem China’s domestic problems are also being shared by Pakistan part of the CPEC arrangement. 

China’s coal reserves are declining, its food deficit in growing, its arable land  is eroding, its livestock is diminishing and so is its fisheries.  China has shown interest in acquiring up to 51 percent of the voting shares /control in Pakistan Fauji Foods Ltd.

It also wants to invest in Pakistan agriculture.  It has pursued Pakistan to grow new varieties of hybrid rice particularly sticky rice which is not Pakistan’s staple food.  An article in Dawn asked; “what does it mean for Pakistan’s own food security? Boosting agricultural yield and reducing losses in the food supply chain are clearly required for Pakistan, but as exports grow and more land is brought under water-intensive rice cultivation what will happen to our local food needs”?

If you can tolerate an eccentric’s vision of Pakistan in the next decade, China is dangling a game-changing carrot before it to drive it to its doom. A massive programme to burn coal to produce energy for CPEC related projects will destroy Pakistan’s climate and consequently its economy and of course its image.