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Energy access is not only crucial for economic growth but also important for any strategy to improve the health and social welfare of a nation. Afghanistan’s energy industry is in poor condition due to many years of war and negligence. Despite international agencies’ support and energy policies adopted in the last few years, Afghanistan has no universal access to power. Besides, the residences suffer from an irregular distribution of power supply. There is a growing gap between demand and supply, and the current predictions of demand do not show reality due to hindered economic growth. Afghanistan’s domestic power transmission is limited, which must be extended for the country to enjoy a stable and sustainable energy supply. Sustainability and security of Afghanistan’s power sector would rely on its ability to become self-reliant in power generation. Overall, the objective of this paper is to summarize the current energy status of Afghanistan and to identify energy opportunities for self-sufficiency and challenges in various aspects of energy sources. To meet energy demand, Afghanistan can develop its autochthonous hydrocarbon and renewable energy resources. By improving its domestic energy potential from natural resources, Afghanistan can fulfill its primary energy requirement. Further, along with policy formulation, appropriate and planned implementation of renewable energy policy, energy efficiency targets, and strategies, Afghanistan can reach energy self-sufficiency goals with socio-economic development.

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Air Pollution is an escalating problem worldwide fuelled by increasing anthropogenic activities, speedy development, rapid industrialization, transportation, superfluous use of fossil fuel consumption, increasing global power needs, etc. Also the diverse meteorological factors influence our environment to a great extent. Population explosion has led to remarkable increase in vehicular population. The use solely depends upon the lifestyle of the citizen. Any change in the lifestyle has a remarkable effect on the air we breathe. A comprehensive database for pollution levels from the year 2006 to 2010 was analyzed for a main traffic intersection and a non-traffic area in Delhi (India). The paper asserts that pollutant concentration levels on weekend are lower than those on weekdays (increase on Sundays with respect to weekdays is CO 2.98 times, PM2.5 1.18 times, NO 1.62 times, NO2 5.76 times, SO 2 1.27 times and O 3 1.15 times). The pollution levels have been found to attenuate on public holidays and weekends. Pollution can hence be related to the weekly cycle of human activities. Pollutions due to vehicular emissions on roads, rails, air or water all serve as major sources of pollution. Hence, viably possible solutions for pollution control can also be achieved by controlling the magnitude of traffic flow on roads.

Buildings are significant consumers of energy and producer of greenhouse gases worldwide, and serious efforts have been put into designing energy-efficient buildings. Significant technological advances have been achieved in developed countries; however, advances have rarely been adopted in developing countries like Afghanistan. Such trends emerge from the lack of research in designing energy-efficient buildings to local conditions, practices and materials. This research focused on building energy modelling and simulation to evaluate the energy performance impact of different shading and orientation. The research design follows a case study over an actual seven-storey multi-apartment residential building in the city of Mazar-I-Sharif, Afghanistan, using primary field data and dynamic simulation. Findings demonstrated that neighbouring structures have a positive correlation with a cooling demand. Meanwhile, south is the optimal orientation to face the building's glazed façade, saving up to 7.4% of cooling and 9.7% of heating energy. Moreover, movable shading devices installed on the building's openings in the summer season reduce the building energy load up to 19%, with a total energy cost reduction of AFN. 188,448 ($2447.37 US) annually. The study underlines the vast research scope in customizing building designs to Afghanistan's climatic conditions and other developing countries, thus contributing to buildings’ sustainability.