Roundtable discusses climate change challenges for Pakistan

Pakistan should not bear the brunt for climate change alone as it cannot afford to halt development or increase its cost manifold for mitigation purposes. The country contributes only 0.08 per cent of carbon emissions in the world for more than last two decades but suffers drastically from climate change being one of the eight top most affected nations.

This opinion was unanimously agreed upon by experts participating in a roundtable titled ”Pakistan and Climate Change: Challenge and Response”, which was jointly organized by Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad and Riphah Institute of Public Policy (RIPP).

The roundtable was addressed by Dr Qamar-uz-Zaman, Senior Advisor, LEAD Pakistan, and former VP, World Meteorological Organization as the main speaker while Mirza Hamid Hasan, Member IPS-National Academic Council and former Secretary, Water & Power. Other speakers included Professor Dr Anis Ahmad, Vice Chancellor, Riphah International University, Khalid Rahman, Director General, Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad, and Dr Rashid Aftab, Director, Riphah Institute of Public Policy. It was attended by a number of environmental scientists, policy advisors, students and activists.

The experts and participants agreed that Pakistan should focus on the prevention and adaptation aspects of climate change instead of mitigation as it will cost heavily on its development requirements.

It was also highlighted that since climate change was a cross-sectoral issue, the responsibility to face its challenges cannot be handled by a single ministry of climate change at the federal or provincial level. Instead, every ministry, department and agency should develop an environmental or climate change policy of its own keeping in view their respective scopes.