Environment-friendly technologies stressed

Islamabad

We need to synchronise our policies, develop and adopt new environment-friendly technologies, and ensure that all our developmental efforts lead to outcomes that are also environmentally sustainable.

This is the message of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the World Environment Day marked on June 5.

In the message, the PM said it was the shared duty of each and every one to care for the environment as a sacred trust to be passed onto posterity.

“In the international domain, Pakistan has already ratified the ‘Paris Agreement’ and, thereby, stands committed to collaborate in global efforts to protect the environment,” he said.

The PM said the World Environment Day was actually a day for serious introspection.

"It is a day to comprehend the true significance of connecting people to nature. The nations all around the world need to carefully review their policies and practices, and try to improve their understanding of how best they could all collaborate to synergistically protect and preserve the common habitat," he said.

The PM said finally, there was a need to earnestly accept that environmental impact transcended borders, and that the non-cooperation of even one nation could become a woe for all others.

He said it was a matter of immense satisfaction that the government of Pakistan was mindful of its responsibilities towards the environment.

“We have ensured that our industrial, infrastructural and associated developmental initiatives are environment-friendly. We have made environmental impact studies a mandatory part of all development projects, irrespective of their size,” he said.

The PM added that the government also recently launched the Green Pakistan Programme across the country in collaboration with provincial and regional governments, the civil society and international development partners.

"This programme is a comprehensive intervention designed not just to preserve our environment, including woodlands and wildlife, but is also aimed at raising public awareness on the crucial requirement for every Pakistani to contribute towards the national effort," he said.

The PM said the prospects of climate change, global warming and environmental degradation endangering the future of the human race on Earth were real – critically real.

“We cannot deny the alarming rate at which glaciers are melting, nor can we turn our attention away from the depletion of the ozone layer,” he said.

The PM further said the visible increase in the frequency of natural calamities, including disastrous rainfall and flooding, in recent times was just one indicator. He said the few denying that reality even today were jeopardising the whole of humanity.