THE National Energy Conservation Policy (NECP), approved by the Cabinet in November last year, sets guidelines for energy conservation in all sectors to achieve energy security. Based on the limited experience and expertise available in the country, the policy prioritises sectors in this order: transport, industry, buildings and households, agriculture and power.

The policy also identifies key initiatives and instruments in the following areas: legislation and regulatory framework; public awareness, training, education; making energy conservation an integral part of the energy policies; institutional strengthening and capacity building; public-private-civil society partnerships; energy service companies. The policy also suggests an implementation mechanism and its monitoring.

What happened since November 2006? The National Energy Conservation Centre, the so-called ENERCON, put together an action plan and sent it to the ministry of environment. Among the many problems of ENERCON to be discussed later, a critical one is that from an autonomous body it has been downgraded to an attached department of Ministry of Environment, whose own capacity leaves much to be desired.

The ministry is managed by globe-trotting generalist- bureaucrats, who sit as heads of a large number of small donor-funded projects in almost every field of environment. Their initial ineptitude allowed these projects to be donor-driven.

Now the donors, led by UNDP as the manager of Global Environment Facility, are so used to leading that any semblance of local ownership by experts is subverted in league with the generalist bureaucrats. They like to sit on all committees and enjoy veto power in all decisions.

By chance the ministry got the mega project of Clean Water for All. The issues of capacity apart, the issues of integrity are so crucial that a former secretary of the ministry himself requested the top man in authority to shift the project to another ministry, which turned out to be the ministry of industries.

In a ministry like this, one cannot expect much for an attached department like ENERCON. The action plan sent by it for the approval of the minister did the rounds of all manner of desks for months and was returned by a section officer with a one -line remark that it should be on the pattern of the National Environment Action Plan (NEAP). No comment on what was wrong with it and no reason why NEAP is such a superior document!

If the leisurely implemented pleasure-trip driven NEAP prepared by the UNDP is their ideal, then God help environment. For it will apply to National Sanitation Policy, National Forestry Policy and a couple of others. As one can see, the ministry has too many policies for its size and an inclination to jet-setting. Small wonder, when you read an official piece on environment, such as a chapter in the Medium Term Development Framework or the Economic Survey, it is long on words and short on actionable projects and programmes and their funding. The reason is that these are cut-and-paste jobs from the innumerable consultants’ reports commissioned almost every other day.

In the last mid-year review, the little amount in the PSDP projects, the ministry was allocated was slashed by one-half by the Planning Commission for poor implementation. After the ministry was gutted in a fire blamed on the Lal Masjid zealots, the statement issued by the ministry did not hide its glee in announcing that the records of all PSDP projects had been completely burnt.

End of the story? Nothing to do! Not quite. Now they have all moved to the ENERCON building and have pushed its officers and staff to its remotest corners. The only library on energy conservation is now the office of an additional secretary. The librarian has resigned and the books are disappearing. The committee room is occupied by a minister.

One might feel they would now think more seriously about the implementation of Energy Conservation Policy. Well, till the writing of this article, nobody from the ministry has yet contradicted impressions from newspaper reports and articles that the need for an energy conservation policy has already been recognised officially.

What it proves is the ministry’s lack of awareness that the world over, awareness is half of the energy conservation business. Next week I will dwell on what is happening in the world and what is Pakistan missing by leaving energy conservation to environment ministry alone. There are many players in the field who have failed to get their act together in this vital investment in a sustainable future.

Dr Pervez Tahir, is a former chief economist, Planning Commission and Professor of Economics at the GC University, Lahore. E-mail: perveztahir@yahoo.com.