‘LGs’ role in mitigating climate change impacts vital’

LAHORE:Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) in collaboration with Frederick Nauman Foundation (FNF) Pakistan arranged a provincial conference titled "The role of local governments in mitigating climate change and providing a conducive environment" the other day.

A large number of MPAs, officers from the Local Government and Environment departments, academicians, journalists and students attended the event. Col (retd) Mubashir, ex-Mayor Lahore, Tahir Mehdi Advocate, MPA Kanwal Liaqat, Uzma Kardar and Sania Kamran also addressed the conference.

Addressing the seminar, Development Consultant Zubair Faisal Abbasi said that the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events was projected to increase, resultantly there will be increase disaster risk particularly for vulnerable poor and minority groups. He further added that the local government laws in the country had little about climate change adaptation. However, local governments had to play a crucial role in climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Former Mayor Narowal Ahmed Iqbal emphasised on the importance of local governments in adaptation, mitigation, behaviour change and building resilient communities. LGs have an important role to play as we deal with problems such as smog, heat waves and monsoon floods almost every year, he said. He further said that every child born in Lahore will lose over 10 years of life expectancy if Air Quality Index stayed at today’s level and it was the high time to declare climate emergency in Pakistan.

The world was talking about 15 minutes’ cities while in Pakistan our cities were expanding beyond limits, he added. He further added that city planning was a heart of local government and only an empowered and stable LG system can equip our cities, towns and villages to deal with the adverse effects of climate change.