Household solar revolution: how ordinary Pakistanis rewired the power system from their rooftops

At the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Pakistan’s climate minister told a story that belongs not to a government scheme but to ordinary households. Dr Musadik Malik said Pakistanis decided on their own to put solar panels on their roofs — waiting neither for a state programme nor for foreign aid. Fed up with expensive bills and unreliable grid power, house after house turned its rooftop into a small power station, and those small decisions added up to a new, decentralised electricity system across the country.

$12bn saved — and one villager’s gamble
Malik said rooftop solar had saved Pakistan about $12 billion in LNG and gas imports, though he gave no timeframe for the figure. He illustrated the shift with a villager, Karamat Ali, who sold 12 buffaloes and cows to buy rooftop panels because he saw solar as more reliable than grid power and unpredictable fuel prices.

What comes next: batteries and the grid
Panels alone, the minister said, will not finish the job. Pakistan now needs battery storage and better grid connections so poorer communities can benefit too. He urged international partners to send climate finance directly to households rather than letting it be absorbed by bureaucratic processes, and to design support around what families actually need. He also cited figures for the Loss and Damage Fund — $40 billion in needs, $800 million in commitments and $400 million collected — and said none of the money had yet reached people affected by disasters.