Moving to environmentally friendly and cost-effective brick kilns in Pakistan

Subscribe

Pakistan has approximately 20,000 brick kilns. Many are located around urban areas and contribute significantly to air pollution. Pakistan’s brick sector is highly unregulated and uncoordinated but is responsible for 1.5% of Pakistan’s Gross Domestic Product. 

Traditional brick production in Pakistan consists of hand-made bricks which are baked in Fixed Chimney Bull's Trench Kilns, the most widely used brick firing technology in South Asia. This is one of the most polluting ways to produce bricks and is responsible for many social and environmental problems including air pollution, climate change, cardio-respiratory diseases, land use impacts and deforestation. 

Different types of kilns and fuels make it difficult to accurately identify the make-up of air pollutants emitted by the sector, but they likely include sulfur oxides, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide (CO2), forms of particulate matter (PM) including black carbon, and additional compounds released by burning coal and other fuels. 

The Environment Protection Department, Punjab (EPD, Punjab) and National Energy Efficient Conservation Authority (NEECA) is working with the All Bricks Kiln Owners Association of Pakistan to introduce environmentally friendly and cost-effective brick kiln technology. The project is facilitated by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). 

Pakistan is a focus country for the CCAC’s Bricks Initiative  which promotes and creates enabling environments that achieve substantial reductions of black carbon and other emissions from the sector and transform it into a healthier, more profitable, and socially responsible industry. 

The Environment Protection Department, Punjab (EPD, Punjab) and National Energy Effficient Conversation Authority is working closely with the All Bricks Kiln Owners Association of Pakistan to introduce environmentally friendly and cost-effective brick kiln technology.  

Objectives

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s Bricks Initiative is the only global initiative bringing together brick producers, experts, and public policy officials to achieve substantial reductions of black carbon and other emissions from the sector and transform it into a healthier, more profitable, and socially responsible industry. 

Coalition partners are working to: 
   

  • Increase scientific knowledge, improve technology and develop policy through global and regional expert groups 
  • Strengthen the local technical innovation capacity of producers and other actors in the sector 
  • Engage and advise policy makers on policy reform to modernize the sector 

What we're doing

Pakistan is working with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and ICIMOD to train brick entrepreneurs about new cost effective and scalable kiln technologies and production improvements. It is also helping Pakistan start a skill development programme for brick workers.

The training programme educates brick workers on: 

  • the shortcomings of existing technologies and practices and their impact on revenue, climate, agriculture and health 
  • the cost-effective technology solutions for cleaner brick production, its benefits and best operating practices 
  •  and cleaner brick firing practices, including practical training on zig-zag kiln firing practices. 

The training provides participants the opportunity to discuss issues and challenges and learn from the experiences of early adopters. Read more about the training


Related documents

Project updates