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Pakistan's rooftop solar generation will for the first time exceed power demand on the country's electrical grid during daytime hours in some major industrial regions next year, a senior government official told Reuters.The outlook reflects a record boom in the country's solar panel installations in recent years that has delivered lower emissions and reduced power bills for some, but also disrupted the finances of debt-laden utilities due to a protracted decline in demand for grid-based electricity. "Pakistan will experience negative grid-linked demand during certain daytime hours because behind-the-meter solar is offsetting grid consumption completely," Aisha Moriani, secretary of Pakistan's climate change ministry told Reuters on the sidelines of the COP30 climate conference in Brazil.While regions in Europe and Australia sometimes experience negative electricity prices due to solar oversupply and low demand, Pakistan would be among the first major emerging markets where rooftop generation could exceed grid-linked demand in major areas entirely for lengthy periods. "Negative demand" is likely in the northwestern city of Lahore, which has some of the country's highest solar penetration, followed by Faisalabad and Sialkot, where industrial areas are driving solar adoption, she said. Power cuts and tariff hikes have pushed Pakistan's 250mn people to accelerate solar adoption and made it the world's third-largest panel importer, with solar's share in generation exceeding its neighbour China.The south Asian nation will see more frequent negative-demand events, especially during bright summer afternoons, industrial holidays and moderate temperature days with high solar output, said Moriani, Pakistan's lead negotiator at COP30. "Pakistan's challenge is not whether renewable energy will grow, it is how fast the grid, regulation, and market design can evolve to keep pace," she said.The south Asian nation is planning to introduce new tariffs for large solar users, as well as changes to fee structures to ensure businesses with panels share equally in the costs of grid upkeep, she said. Pakistan's grid-linked power demand is expected to grow 3-4% this year, slower than historical averages.Next year, consumption is expected to rise more steeply but could be impacted more by higher solar use, Moriani said. The surge in solar use has also pushed Pakistan to renegotiate its LNG contracts with top supplier Qatar and cancel cargoes supplied by Italy's Eni, Moriani said.Pakistan is looking for lower prices, flexible delivery schedules and potentially fewer cargoes, she said. While there were no formal negotiations with Qatar at COP30, the event provided "diplomatic space for engagement with energy ministers and commercial representatives," she said. "The key aim is to align Pakistan's gas import strategy with fiscal space, demand outlook, and seasonal patterns.Pakistan seeks stability and affordability, not expansion of LNG dependency."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tore into nations for their failure to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as Brazil hosted world leaders for a summit ahead of the COP30 climate conference in the rainforest city of Belem. Scientists have confirmed the world is set to cross the 1.5 C warming threshold around 2030, risking extreme warming with irreversible consequences. "Too many corporations are making record profits from climate devastation, with billions spent on lobbying, deceiving the public and obstructing progress," Guterres said in his speech. "Too many leaders remain captive to these entrenched interests." Countries are spending about $1tn each year in subsidising fossil fuels. Leaders have two clear options, Guterres said: "We can choose to lead — or be led to ruin." The COP30 conference marks three decades since global climate negotiations began. In that time, countries have curbed the projected climb in emissions somewhat, but not enough to prevent what scientists consider extreme global warming in the next few decades. The World Meteorological Organisation announced this year would likely be the second- or third-warmest on record, with the temperature average through August being 1.42 C above the preindustrial average, after record heat in 2023 and 2024. "The alarming streak of exceptional temperatures continues," WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said with the report's release. Outside of the conference venue - still under construction ahead of next week's summit start — a small group of indigenous people marched in a circle while singing and urging protection of the world's forests and their people. A flotilla bringing indigenous leaders and activists down rivers of the Amazon Basin to the conference was delayed and would not arrive until next week. During the leaders' summit Thursday and today, about 150 heads of state, subnational leaders and international organisations were due to deliver speeches that would be televised across the world. Missing from the lineup are the leaders of four of the world's five most-polluting economies — China, the United States, India and Russia — with only the leader of the European Union showing up. The US administration has opted to send no-one to the talks, unlike the others. Instead, top US officials were in Greece alongside fossil fuel giant Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) Thursday as it signed a new deal to explore offshore for natural gas. Some said the absence of the United States from COP30 may free countries to discuss action without any one player dominating the outcome. "Without the US present, we can actually see a real multilateral conversation happening," said Pedro Abramovay, vice president of programs at Open Society Foundations and a former justice minister under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula planned to hold bilateral meetings Thursday with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after meeting one-on-one on Wednesday with the Chinese vice premier and leaders from Finland and the European Union. "In a moment in which a lot of people are kind of claiming the death of multilateralism, I think there is a new space for a multilateralism that is not built in a top-down way from powerful countries towards poor countries," Abramovay said. Brazil is hoping the World Leaders Summit will deliver at least $10bn of its overall target of $125bn for its newly launched Tropical Forest Forever Facility, estimating that would be enough to start generating funds for conservation. China, Norway and Germany were expected to announce contributions in Belem, after Brazil offered the first investment and Indonesia matched that pledge. But the United Kingdom, which helped to frame the way the fund works, delivered an early disappointment on Wednesday, disclosing that it would be offering no cash.