Climate change a chronic condition, says minister

Islamabad: Climate Change is not a short-term disease. It is a chronic condition, which will not disappear in few months or years. The future of our children and their children in the world will be determined by climate change. We have to make sure that they have good quality of life and strong and sustainable economic growth.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan during the concluding session of three-day Science-Policy Conference on Climate Change here on Thursday. The minister said the ministry had taken a number actions against climate change especially the enforcement of the Pakistan Climate Change Act, 2017.

"We hope that the first meeting of the National Climate Change Authority will be held in a month. We are keen to operationalise the Act," he said. The minister said some other initiatives included the New Forest Policy, Prime Minister Green Pakistan Programme and Declaration of Astola Island, first Marine Protected Area of Pakistan. He said he had directed the wildlife department to formulate the first Wildlife Policy of Pakistan.

"We have taken steps to strengthen the Global Change Impact Study Centre and all other partners for organizing successful International conference and hope to organize many more such conferences in Pakistan," he said.

Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Sartaj Aziz also addressed the event and said efforts were being carried out to tackle climate change through different projects. "We should work on climate change through partnership of China," he said.

Sartaj Aziz said climate change was a reality. "Pakistan is a witness to its adverse impacts. In the last 20 years, the country has been hit by recurrent and devastating floods, recurrent heat waves, a prolonged drought, erratic weather patterns leading to lowered agricultural productivity, emergence of new diseases, and the looming threat of desertification due to the recession of the Himalayan glaciers," he said.

The conference was organised to enhance scientific understanding of the changing climate and associated impacts on socioeconomic sectors, develop policy recommendations to address the challenges affecting Pakistan's development, promote coordination among researchers and institutions working on different aspects of climate change in Pakistan and facilitating their collaboration with international scientists and experts engaged in similar research activities and sharing of knowledge and best practices on adaptation strategies, including capacity building of national institutions and experts.

It was attended by more than 700 delegates representing International and national research organisations, academia, government, media, law, parliamentarians and civil society.