Govt committed to engage youth in climate action

Islamabad : The government is well aware of the fact that engaging the youth in climate improving activities is vital to transform the country towards a low-carbon and climate resilient future, said Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on Saturday.

Addressing a cycling rally here, he said that over 60 percent of the country’s population was below the age of 30 while 29 per cent was ages between 15 and 29 years.

"However, we cannot achieve sustainable climate through various initiatives as long as the youth bulge is not engaged in such activities," he added.

The cycling rally was organised here under the theme ‘Cycling for Green Pakistan’ by a local organization of young students in support with the climate change ministry.

The participants pedaled their cycles from the Rose and Jasmine Garden.

It was attended by a large number of youth people and representatives of various governmental and non-governmental organizations including teachers and researchers.

The SAPM said that various initiatives had been launched by the government as a part of the Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision for Clean and Green Pakistan (CGP) programme, wherein the youth were being actively engaged.

He highlighted that the CGP programme was being implemented to make cities environmental-friendly and climate-resilient with the help of 120,000 youth volunteers, which had been registered with the programme since its launch last year in November.

“I strongly believe that such a huge youth population of the country have an increasingly strong social and environmental awareness; hence, motivated to play their part in transforming our country as a whole towards a low-carbon and climate resilient future,” Malik Amin said.

He pointed out that human-caused activities globally including the use of fossil fuels, deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices, soaring use of coal for energy purposes over last several decades contributed to global warming, which made global economies, particularly in developing countries, highly vulnerable to adverse fallouts of climate change.

The SAPM these negative impacts of climate change had fast led to decline in the availability of nutritious food and clean water to millions of thousands of people worldwide including Pakistan, and destroyed ecosystems and living environments.

Consequently, today millions of the people faced malnutrition, hunger, diseases, and migration to safer places, rendering youth particularly vulnerable, he added.

“Given the backdrop, we must realise that it is high time that youth populations are made part of the programmes and activities related to climate change, low-carbon energy, climate smart agriculture and particularly raising public awareness, so that they will effectively pedal the global climate action towards climate-resilient future,” he remarked.

Given the reason, he continued to work closely with youth-led and youth-focused organizations around the country. Besides, many youth organizations are being empowered through the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme, Clean Green Pakistan Programme, Recharge Pakistan Programme, Protected Areas Initiative to join government’s adaptation and mitigation actions, which will help enhance their effective participation in climate change policy decision-making processes.