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Renewable energy solutions for Punjab’s industrial sector: evaluating the NAMA approach in Sialkot City, Pakistan

Pakistan’s energy sector is in crisis. Inadequate electricity supplies cost the country US$14 bn annually and some 11,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operate at just 60% of capacity. In 2015, Pakistan’s Ministry of Climate Change and the Punjab Power Development Board asked the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) to assess whether a Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) would be an appropriate tool to support renewable energy solutions for Sialkot in the Punjab, one of Pakistan’s most emblematic industrial hubs of mainly export-oriented industry. For example, the factories of Sialkot supply 40 million footballs a year, rising to 60 million in World Cup years – an estimated 70% of the global production of hand-sewn footballs. To facilitate exports, Sialkot has had its own customs office since the mid- 1980s, and in 2007 the city opened an international airport.