Biomass to Bioenergy – A Market Analysis of Pakistan

Abstract

Bioenergy currently is the largest source of renewable energy worldwide. In Pakistan, modern bioenergy is not utilized to its full extent. If utilized fully, bioenergy can help Pakistan become secure in terms of energy, add to economic development and help in mitigating climatic changes. Being carbon neutral, bioenergy can help achieve Pakistan’s intended nationally determined contribution in the United Nation’s Conference of Parties (COP) 21. However, to realize such goals there is a need understand the underlying situation of the bioenergy market of Pakistan and policy development to pave way for a sustainable bioenergy deployment, without endangering food security, land usage, biodiversity, and water resources. To better understand the bioenergy market of Pakistan, this study aims to analyze and evaluate the recent bioenergy policies in the first part. For analysis and evaluation, frameworks have been developed, which can be used in the future as well in analyzing the policies and gauging their impact on bioenergy development. The second part of the research work performs comprehensive strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis of the bioenergy generation in Pakistan. To substantiate the results of SWOT analysis a questionnaire was shared with stakeholders in the energy sector. The study found that the policies over time have improved and different incentives are provided to investors in the bioenergy sector, still, there are internationally proven policy options that are not being adopted by policymakers in the country. Secondly, the development of bioenergy in the last two decades is encouraging but the contribution to the overall energy mix is a very small fraction. Moreover, the SWOT analysis concluded that bioenergy potential is the greatest strength, and weaknesses include lack of infrastructure. The analysis has been compared with the opinion of energy experts to substantiate objectivity of analysis. It was found out that expert had a similar opinion with that of the analysis. Furthermore, the study suggests concrete recommendations for future considerations to enhance the efficacy of policymaking and bioenergy deployment in Pakistan.