RUDA validates methane capture at Lahore's Mehmood Booti dumpsite
Two international assessors spent three days at the 13-million-ton site, and the report now goes to the US-based VEERA registry under the Paris Agreement.
The Ravi Urban Development Authority (RUDA) has validated methane capture at the Mehmood Booti dump site in Lahore, the first solid-waste methane mitigation project in Pakistan, as it moves to claim carbon credits and Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) from the site's conversion into an environmental park.
The validation report will be submitted to the US-based VEERA registry under Articles 6 and 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, RUDA said on Friday. The authority said the work is aligned with the Pakistan Climate Change Act 2017, the Pakistan Climate Change Policy 2021, the National Adaptation Plan 2023 and the National Clean Air Policy 2023.
Two internationally accredited validators, Sergio Rodrigo Santano and Anne-Sophie Benedicte Judith Zirah, spent three days assessing the roughly 13 million tons of waste under the site's green cover. They carried out physical inspections, mapped the site's boundaries and took measurements under greenhouse gas protocols, and trained RUDA's technical staff in monitoring, verification and reporting (MVR).
Ahad Yousaf, RUDA's director of climate change, handled the technical coordination, ground surveys, boundary mapping and greenhouse gas footprint calculations, the authority said.
RUDA chief executive Imran Amin credited the authority's climate change and engineering teams and tied the project to the Punjab chief minister's environmental programme. He described the dumpsite's progress from "waste to wonder" and on to "wonder to windfall". Minute Mirror reported that Amin also said RUDA wants to develop Ravi City into Pakistan's first carbon-neutral riverfront city, and that revenue from carbon markets would be reinvested in environmental projects.
Minute Mirror reported that methane has more than 80 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and that RUDA is the first public sector organisation in Pakistan to reach this stage of generating carbon credits from municipal solid waste.
RUDA's other work includes flood protection structures, river training and floodplain management, river rewilding for biodiversity, large-scale afforestation for carbon sequestration, and a biogas pilot for methane reduction planned for all 91 villages in its jurisdiction. The authority is also building wastewater treatment works using engineered plants and nature-based wetlands.
How the reports differ
Business Recorder reported that RUDA had begun validating the methane capture mechanisms, while Minute Mirror said the country's first validation process had been completed, a difference over whether the work is under way or finished. Business Recorder named the second validator as Anne-Sophie Benedicte Judith Zirah, while Minute Mirror called her Anne-Sophie Benedicte Judith. Minute Mirror alone reported methane's warming potential compared with carbon dioxide and Imran Amin's stated aim of a carbon-neutral Ravi City.
Two UN reports warn 1.5C overshoot will irreversibly damage Earth's ice
The studies say glaciers, sea ice and frozen ground face impacts that cannot be undone, and call for action to keep warming inside the Paris Agreement limit.
Lahore tops global pollution list as reported readings diverge
IQAir placed Lahore first among world cities on Friday, with Pakistani outlets giving figures of 352, 360 and 458, and Karachi sixth at 170.
SMEDA signs ICMA, DigiKhata deals to widen small-business credit
The two arrangements, signed in Lahore, target better bookkeeping and bank readiness as the government seeks Rs2.2 trillion in SME financing by June 2028.
Punjab CM announces Blind Dolphin Resort at Taunsa Barrage
The site covers more than 120 kanals on the Indus in Kot Addu, with cottages, boating and a mosque, beside the endangered river dolphin's habitat.
Punjab repatriates 143,474 Afghan nationals, home department says
More than 400,000 search operations across the province led to 803 cases against landlords who rented to undocumented foreign nationals.
LHC rejects foreign ministry report on two PTI workers held in UAE
The court summoned the official handling the file after finding the ministry's response fell short of its September 14 order to decide the representations within 15 days.
Punjab sets November 7 release for Classes 9 to 12 syllabus
Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat says PECTAA has nearly finished the revised syllabus, which covers secondary and higher secondary students sitting next year's board exams.
Fake court fee tickets in Punjab allegedly cost exchequer Rs1.5bn
UrduPoint reports several arrests in the case but names no suspect, no investigating agency and no court where the tickets were used