Climate change ‘key national security issue’

Islamabad
A conference titled ‘Climate Change & Energy Security’ was jointly organised by the Department of International Relations at National Defence University, Islamabad, and Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF). Academicians and policy experts on climate and energy presented their intellectual positions and findings on the nexus between climate change and energy security with their special focus on Pakistan’s vulnerability to climate change, says a press release.
The conference was inaugurated by Director General ISSRA, Major General Noel Israel. He said climate change and energy security is becoming very critical to the national security and wellbeing of Pakistan. Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climatic threats and facing severe energy shortfall both affecting the socio-economic development of the country. He pointed out the real challenge for Pakistan is to meet its energy needs without damaging the environment and the planet earth. To start with, General Israel stressed the need to ponder upon the idea of renewable energy sources and conservation of energy to manage energy needs, economic growth and environmental degradation.
In his keynote address Dr. Qamar-ur-Zaman Chaudhry, former director general Pakistan Meteorological Department and UN-WMO Secretary General’s Special Advisor on DRR and Climate Change, highlighted the importance of climate change as one of the top priority global agendas and a great challenge for humanity in the 21st century. Highlighting the major facets of climate change, Dr. Qamar argued that the future direction of energy resources development must be aligned with the upcoming constraints imposed by the global climate regime. Dr Qamar also emphasised the importance of efficiency and conservation in energy consumption and resort to a balanced energy mix in future energy development plans.
Mirza Hamid Hassan, former secretary Water and Power, presented his views on the ‘Interplay of Climate Change and Energy Security in Pakistan’. He drew the attention of the audience towards the threat of constraint on power generation as a consequence of climate change. He argued that climate change will have impacts both on the supply and demand side of energy sector. He emphasised the importance of building water reservoirs, environment friendly building designs and expansion of nuclear power sector to overcome the challenges posed by climate change on energy demand and consumption.
Dr Shaheen Akthar of National Defence University, in her presentation titled ‘Harnessing renewable energy resources of Pakistan’ focused on response mechanisms available to Pakistan. She argued for the exploitation of Pakistan’s renewable energy potential through construction ‘run of the river’ hydro power projects, wind farms as well as creating a balanced energy mix through utilisation of solar, geothermal and bio fuel resources. Dr Shaheen also highlighted the existing policy gap in the utilisation of ‘Green Climate Fund’ created by the advance industrialised countries to help developing countries for adaptation and mitigation of effects of climate change. To avail the facility, Pakistan has to come up with sellable projects and enhance its capacity to get share from the global fund.
Dr Muhammad Khan, head of the IR Department at NDU, focused on the need to consider various energy corridors in the region. He stressed the need to materialise Pak-China energy corridor option to mitigate the challenges Pakistan is currently facing in the event of energy shortage. Dr Gulfraz Ahmad, former federal secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources substantiated the correlation between nation’s wealth and energy resources. Dr Ahmad put special emphasis on conserving energy in order to strike a balance between socio-economic growth, energy and environmental issues.
The conference was concluded with vote of thanks by Prof. Dr. Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, Dean FCS at the National Defence University, Islamabad.