ISLAMABAD: In a bid to freshen its air and cut planet-warming emissions, the Pakistani port city of Karachi will introduce cleaner-running buses powered by a decidedly “unclean” fuel: cow poo.
With funding from the international Green Climate Fund, Karachi will launch a zero-emission Green Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network, with 200 buses fueled by bio-methane.
Locals said the new bus system — due to start operating in 2020 — would help reduce air pollution and street noise, but doubted whether it would have enough buses to resurrect the city’s ailing transport system.
“(Karachi’s) public transport system has totally collapsed and most people have to use online taxi-hailing services (and) auto rickshaws,” said commuter Afzal Ahmed, 45, who works as a medical sales representative.
After management problems forced the Karachi Transport Corporation to fold some two decades ago, Chinese-imported buses running on compressed natural gas fell into disrepair and were taken off the road, worsening public transport woes, he noted.
Malik Amin Aslam, adviser on climate change to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, said the BRT system was the first transport project the Green Climate Fund had approved, and would bring “multiple environmental and economic benefits.” It would not require operating subsidies, he added.
The cheap, clean bus network will cater for 320,000 passengers daily, and will reduce planet-warming emissions by 2.6 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent over 30 years, according to project documents.
The BRT will consist of a 30-km (18.6-mile) corridor that will benefit 1.5 million residents, adding 25 new bus stations, secure pedestrian crossings, improved sidewalks, cycle lanes and bike-sharing facilities.
The Green Climate Fund, set up under UN climate talks to provide finance to developing countries to help them grow cleanly and adapt to a warming climate, will provide $49 million for the Karachi project out of a total cost of $583.5 million.
The other major funders are the Asian Development Bank and the provincial government of Sindh, where Karachi is located.
WASTE ON TAP
The BRT system, to be rolled out over four years, will have a fleet of 200 hybrid buses that will run on bio-methane produced from manure excreted by Karachi’s 400,000 milk-producing water buffaloes, and collected by the authorities.
The project will prevent about 3,200 tons of cow manure entering the ocean daily by converting it into energy and fertilizer at a biogas plant, and will save more than 50,000 gallons of fresh water now used to wash that waste into the bay, Aslam said.
Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, CEO of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Pakistan, a policy think-tank, said calculating the overall impact on the environment was complex, as the buses would be introduced in stages.
Pakistan’s authorities often lack maintenance budgets, he noted, highlighting the risk the buses could break down and not be repaired.
“Pakistan has a history that it does not utilize donors’ project funding at an optimum level,” he said.
But if all goes well, Sheikh said the project, as the country’s first green BRT system, would lay the foundation for “climate-smart urban transportation systems” in other places.
It could shake up approaches to public transport among policy makers and planners, serving as a model for other cities, including Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Faisalabad, he said.
CLEANER AIR
Pakistan needs to launch such projects in big cities to discourage personal vehicle use, thereby easing traffic emissions and smog, and improving air quality and public health, Sheikh added.
He recommended setting a target for 70 percent of the urban population to use public transport.
Another way to ease air pollution would be to import better-quality petroleum fuels for vehicles, he added.
“We are importing low-grade fuel, and our refineries have capacity to refine only third-grade fuel,” he said.
Ahmad Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer, said previous BRT projects in Pakistan’s large cities had not focused on environmental sustainability.
Planners should start connecting transport systems with wider urban development, Alam said.
“We need to introduce transport-oriented urban design by encouraging the use of public transport and discouraging the use of private vehicles to reduce emissions,” he said.
Zia Ur Rehman, a Karachi-based journalist covering civic issues, noted that the Sindh provincial government had run less than 50 buses in the city in the last 10 years, while private buses and mini-buses had dwindled from 25,000 to 8,000.
One reason is that buses were torched during strikes and at times of political upheaval, he said.
The new bus system alone was unlikely to resolve the city’s transport problems, but would be “a short-term relief for commuters and also help in reducing... air pollution,” he added.
Biogas guzzlers: Karachi’s public buses to run on cow poo
Biogas guzzlers: Karachi’s public buses to run on cow poo
- New bus system will start operating in 2020
- Clean bus network will cater for 320,000 passengers daily
How Netflix won Hollywood’s biggest prize, Warner Bros Discovery
- Board rejected Paramount’s $30 a share bid amid funding concerns, sources say
- Warner Bros board met daily before accepting Netflix’s binding offer
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK: What started as a fact-finding mission for Netflix culminated in one of the biggest media deals in the last decade and one that stands to reshape the global entertainment business landscape, people with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters. Netflix announced on Friday it had reached a deal to buy Warner Bros Discovery’s TV, film studios and streaming division for $72 billion. Although Netflix had publicly downplayed speculation about buying a major Hollywood studio as recently as October, the streaming pioneer threw its hat in the ring when Warner Bros Discovery kicked off an auction on October 21, after rejecting a trio of unsolicited offers from Paramount Skydance .
Details of Netflix’s plan and the Warner Bros board’s deliberations, based on interviews with seven advisers and executives, are reported here for the first time.
Initially motivated by curiosity about its business, Netflix executives quickly recognized the opportunity presented by Warner Bros, beyond the ability to offer the century-old studio’s deep catalog of movies and television shows to Netflix subscribers. Library titles are valuable to streaming services as these movies and shows can account for 80 percent of viewing, according to one person familiar with the business.
Warner Bros’ business units — particularly its theatrical distribution and promotion unit and its studio — were complementary to Netflix. The HBO Max streaming service also would benefit from insights learned years ago by streaming leader Netflix that would accelerate HBO’s growth, according to one person familiar with the situation. Netflix began flirting with the idea of acquiring the studio and streaming assets, another source familiar with the process told Reuters, after WBD announced plans in June to split into two publicly traded companies, separating its fading but cash-generating cable television networks from the legendary Warner Bros studios, HBO and the HBO Max streaming service.
Netflix and Warner Bros did not reply to requests for comment.
The work intensified this autumn, as Netflix began vying for the assets against Paramount and NBCUniversal’s parent company, Comcast.
Warner Bros kicked off the public auction in October, after Paramount submitted the first of three escalating offers for the media company in September. Sources familiar with the offer said Paramount aimed to pre-empt the planned separation because the split would undercut its ability to combine the traditional television networks businesses and increase the risk of being outbid for the studio by the likes of Netflix.
Around that time, banker JPMorgan Chase & Co. was advising Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav to consider reversing the order of the planned spin, shedding the Discovery Global unit comprising the company’s cable television assets first. This would give the company more flexibility, including the option to sell the studio, streaming and content assets, which advisers believed would draw strong interest, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Executives for the streaming service and its advisory team, which included the investment banks Moelis & Company, Wells Fargo and the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, had been holding daily morning calls for the past two months, sources said. The group worked throughout Thanksgiving week — including multiple calls on Thanksgiving Day — to prepare a bid by the December 1 deadline.
Warner Bros’ board similarly convened every day for the last eight days leading up to the decision on Thursday, when Netflix presented the final offer that sources described as the only offer they considered binding and complete, sources familiar with the deliberations said.
The board favored Netflix’s deal, which would yield more immediate benefits over one by Comcast. The NBCUniversal parent proposed merging its entertainment division with Warner Bros Discovery, creating a much larger unit that would rival Walt Disney. But it would have taken years to execute, the sources said.
Comcast declined to comment.
Although Paramount raised its offer to $30 per share on Thursday for the entire company, for an equity value of $78 billion, according to sources familiar with the deal, the Warner Bros board had concerns about the financing, other sources said.
Paramount declined comment.
To reassure the seller over what is expected to be a significant regulatory review, Netflix put forward one of the largest breakup fees in M&A history of $5.8 billion, a sign of its belief it would win regulatory approval, the sources said. “No one lights $6 billion on fire without that conviction,” one of the sources said.
Until the moment late on Thursday night when Netflix learned its offer had been accepted — news that was greeted by clapping and cheering on a group call — one Netflix executive confided that they thought they had only a 50-50 chance.
