Najam in Natura on the Future of Coal
Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was interviewed for a recent article on the future of coal, emphasizing that Pakistan should refrain from further developing coal-fired power plants.
Najam was quoted in an August 30, 2019 article in Natura entitled “Is the Government Doing Enough?”
From the text of the article:
This fourfold increase in emissions is to meet the country’s to energy requirements. However, this can further expose Pakistan to extreme weather events and climate experts are worried. Dr Adil Najam, Dean, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University and lead author of the third and fourth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) commented on the situation and said, “Developing coal fired power plants is a bad idea for Pakistan because it is an outdated and dying technology. Renewables are a good idea because this is the dominant energy of the future, even the present.”
Dr Najam also lamented the developed world for not fulfilling their obligations. “The tragedy is that without them doing so, particularly on international assistance, developing countries like Pakistan will find it very hard, maybe impossible, to meet their own targets,” he said. He also expressed disappointment that Pakistan has not taken enough steps with regards to climate change adaptation to address heatwaves in Karachi, droughts in Thar and floods in Chitral.
Adil Najam is the inaugural dean of the Pardee School and was a former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore Pakistan. Learn more about him here.