By By M Farhan Zaheer
He was speaking at the first corporate summit on climate change organised by the Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD), Pakistan in collaboration with leading corporations, government bodies, academia and research bodies at the Defence Authority Club.
He said that the ministry of environment intended to introduce 8,000 CNG buses to help protect environment along with many other projects in the country. He also urged businessmen to provide their input to the ministry.
The federal ministry of environment can only formulate policies; its implementation depends on provincial governments, he added. The minister urged the developed world to support under-developed countries for overcoming the problems of climate change because the developed world is more responsible for the deterioration of environment.
He at the same time thanked Robert Gibson, British Deputy High Commissioner, for supporting environment protection efforts in Pakistan.
Environmentalists pointing towards to the global climate change and responsibilities of the corporate sector said it was the major threats to security and prosperity of the world in the 21st century.
“The climate of business has changed, so must the business of climate,” said Dr Adil Najam, renowned environmentalist from Boston University underlining the need of collective efforts towards energy efficiency in the corporate sector.
He urged the corporate sector to cut carbon emissions by improving energy efficiency.
India and China are efficiently dealing with their energy needs; every new coal power plant in China is more efficient then the operational coal power plant in the United States. Similarly, Denmark used to be the fastest growing destination of the world in wind energy, but now it is India.
He added that $500 billion out of $700 billion of Obama administration are related to climate change, which shows how serious the world is about the development of infrastructure for better environment.
Syed Mustafa Kamal, City Nazim, Karachi said environment protection efforts in his tenure included sewage water treatment before dumping it in the Arabian Sea and controlling plastic bags.
“There is an utter ignorance about environment in our society. People don’t know what they are contributing in polluting environment,” he said. “Usually when we try to handle problems; people say ‘this is not our problem’, but this time no one should dare say this, as climate change is already affecting every human being.”
Waqar Malik, President, Overseas Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) said that global warming is causing two extremes at the same time i.e. floods and droughts.
He added that 170 multinational member companies of OCCI would take all possible steps to conserve environment.
Robert Gibson, British Deputy High Commissioner said one country cannot tackle environment alone. Local action is not enough, it must be backed both by regional and global cooperation. “We must think global, act local. We must think global act regional. We must think global and act global,” he firmly said.
Though Pakistan ranks 135th in countries contributing carbon dioxide emissions in the world, it is likely to suffer disproportionately from the climate change. According to a recently published index, Pakistan ranks 12th on the list of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, Gibson said.