Govt to allocate Rs4 bln for E-Bikes

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday said the federal government was allocating Rs 4 billion 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 increase the 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.

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

Moreover, a National Climate Finance Strategy was being prepared that would be finalized by 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.