Context:
Pakistan has the highest urbanization rate in Asia with 37% of its population residing in urban areas in 2020 and growing by 2.7% annually. This rapid urbanization has created a demand for 700,000 housing units annually. In Pakistan, private housing alone is responsible for 23% of the total energy consumption resulting in approximately 28 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. The building sector consumes more than 50% of the total electricity consumption in the country.
Recognizing the imperative for reform, the Pakistan Government is actively pursuing the development of environmentally compliant living and working spaces. This endeavor is particularly relevant considering rising energy costs, which makes the adoption of energy-efficient measures/practices in the construction sector even more attractive.
Goal:
The program focuses on environmentally friendly solutions for the construction industry. Transitioning from Pakistan's inefficient construction practices necessitates a comprehensive approach, involving sustainable building materials, energy-efficient construction, and material recycling.
Key Interventions:
• Support federal and provincial governments in developing recommendations on political, legal, and/or regulatory front to transform the construction sector for policy implementation.
• Support in the development of a roadmap for sustainable construction of new buildings, with input from relevant stakeholders (political, private sector, and civil society partners).
• Support in improving access to data and information by creating an evidence-based, digitalized database on sustainable construction of new buildings, accessible to government, private sector, and civil society stakeholders. This will facilitate data availability and informed national discussions, drawing from international experiences in construction sector transformation.
• Support development of life cycle assessment of new buildings.
• Capacity building of public and private sector stakeholders on the legal, political and regulatory framework, along with adoption of roadmap and use of digitalized database on sustainable construction of new buildings.
• Support pilot initiatives to demonstrate the feasibility of selected measures that can pave the way for a construction sector transformation in Pakistan.