PRIED carries out evidence-based and actionable research on economic, social and environmental effects of policies, plans and projects being pursued by Pakistan’s and federal and provincial governments as well as its multilateral and bilateral development partners in the energy and climate sectors. We collect, collate, clean and analyze both primary and secondary data to use it in research reports, policy/project briefs and other knowledge products which, in turn, are used for policy advocacy and policy debates seeking people-centered changes in them. We have successfully conducted multiple research studies on topics as diverse as the social, economic and environmental impacts of coal mining and coal-based power generation on local communities in Thar, financial hurdles that green financing faces across Pakistan, the potential of mini and micro grids in unelectrified areas and the solarization of high loss electricity feeders in Karachi.

Since its inception, PRIED has been engaged with communities affected by policies, plans and projects in the energy and climate sectors, particularly in Thar region where coal development has been going on since 2012-13. We are also collaborating strongly with national and international groups working on the confluence of energy and climate. While we help communities in Thar to mobilize themselves and make themselves head at the national and international forums, we have partnered with other like-minded organizations to set up two major networks in Pakistan: Alliance for Climate Justice and Clean Energy (ACJCE), a network that works on energy transition and climate justice, and Pakistan Renewable Energy Coalition (PREC) that advocates for energy transition. We are also part of the Asian People’s Movement for Debt and Development (APMDD) and the Global Clean Energy Network (GCEN).

PRIED has played a seminal role in the setting up of the Parliamentary Forum on Energy and Economy, a cross-party group of parliamentarians dedicated to addressing the energy-economy nexus from a public interest perspective. We also regularly engage with policymakers, policy implementers and Pakistan’s multilateral and bilateral development partners. We arrange public events, seminars, consultations and in-person meetings with the representatives of the parliament, government and development partners to facilitate and promote policies that ensure equitable, sustainable and just developments in the energy and climate sectors, with a particular focus on the well-being of the marginalized communities. We also write letters to the representatives of the government and multilateral development banks, critiquing their policies, plans and projects in the energy and climate sectors.

PRIED has trained more than one hundred journalists and content creators on how to report about energy transition and climate justice from a public interest perspective. We have also partnered both with traditional news outlets and news startups to help them publish contents on topics ranging from rooftop solar to coal phaseout. This engagement has helps us develop media literacy and public awareness about our areas of work, shifting the public discourse from fossil fuels towards a just energy transition. It has also helped us build a Pakistan-wide informal cohort of journalists who regularly conduct investigative reports on issues usually ignored by newsrooms. These issues include -- but are not limited to -- the environmental, economic and social impacts of energy policies, plans and projects and the role of multilateral developments banks in them.