US/Pakistan Cooperation on EVs to Be Highlighted During Visit

WASHINGTON — Assistant Secretary Geoffrey Pyatt, of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, will tour a U.S.-supported electric vehicle lab as part of a humanitarian visit to Pakistan this week.

Pyatt’s visit comes in the wake of a devastating monsoon season in the South Asian nation during which months of unprecedented flooding between June and October of last year killed at least 1,739 people.

According to the State Department, the assistant secretary will stress the U.S. commitment to ensuring Pakistan’s sustainable energy future by promoting cooperation on regional energy security and the clean energy transition through the U.S.-Pakistan Green Alliance.  

While visiting Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, he will tour the Lahore University of Management Sciences Electric Vehicle Labs to highlight technological advances made through this cooperation. 

The Energy Institute at Lahore University of Management Sciences, also known as LUMS, was established in November 2018 to serve as a think tank, center of technical excellence, knowledge network and capacity-building ground for Pakistan to create a renewable-rich future for itself in the most sustainable and cost-effective way possible.

These efforts are complemented by those at the University of Engineering and Technology, in Peshawar, Pakistan, which serves as home to the U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy.

Its mission is to support Pakistan’s economic development by strengthening the relevance and responsiveness of university products, including applied and policy research and skilled graduates, to the needs of the public and private sector. 

In particular, the center seeks to encourage and empower women engineers and researchers to actively participate through equal opportunities.

While in Pakistan, Pyatt will lead a U.S. delegation at a U.S.-Pakistan Energy Security Dialogue in Islamabad, and participate in a roundtable with women leaders in energy there.

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