Concept of afforestation: Expert urges govt to plant more than a trillion trees

ISLAMABAD: PML-N MNA Rumina Khursheed Alam has said that we should go for the concept of urban forestation to counter headways in the metropolitan cities and youth can be instrumental in raising awareness in this campaign.

Ms Rumina was speaking at a seminar on “Youth-driven climate action,” organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute here on Tuesday.

Ms Rumina said that we should go for water pricing and water consumption meters to regulate the use of water and to ensure water governance and water waste management.

Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI, said that we are standing at the crossroads and should be optimistic about our future. He said in his first speech as Prime Minister, Imran Khan talked about social sector development such as addressing malnutrition, illiteracy, climate change, corruption and inequality. He said if we want to end inequality and reduce disparities, we have to give preference to the sustainable food production, food consumption and sustainable economy. Demand-driven policy change is important to attain economic and environment sustainability, he concluded.

Dr Pervaiz Amir, an expert on climate change policies, said that youth is a significant portion of our society that can bring positive change in near future. To cope with dire consequences of climate change, our youth must understand and bring fundamental change in their daily life style. He said that we as a nation and especially youth must change our habits of eating and should learn the concepts such as sustainable food production and consumption.

He said to tackle the future challenges of climatic change, we may need to plant more than a trillion trees throughout the country, and at least need to build five new climate smart and sustainable cities to accommodate the growing youth bulge and population. Mass participation and especially the ownership of youth can materialise the dream of safer, greener and sustainable Pakistan, he added.

Arif Goheer from Global Change Impact Studies Centre said the young are bearing the brunt of climate Cchange. He said that climate change impacts will be further extreme in near future. He said that our universities and institutions have fragmented research which could not offer concrete and sustainable solutions. There is a need to provide our youth a unified and undisputed research agenda, he said adding that in the developed world youth is empowered and engaged in the policy-making.

Yasir Dil Nawaz, former President Pakistan Youth Climate Network, SDPI said that though our younger generation is highly energetic and motivated, there is a need to build their capacity on technical front around issues on environment and climate change.

Shakeel Ramay, Director China Study Centre, SDPI said that youth is more than half of the population of Pakistan and yet neglected in the policy discourse. He said that young generation needs to be taken on board as real stakeholders on critical issues of society, economy and environment.