Experts support clean, green recovery for better future

Islamabad : Participants of a special webinar on ‘World Earth Day, climate crisis and the road to Glasgow’ have asked developing countries to undertake enhanced global and regional cooperation that plays critical role in responding to growing challenges emanating from climate change.

The Webinar was organised here by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in connection with the World Earth Day.

Director Climate Programme, World Resources Institute-India, Ulka Kelkar, said that this year, the earth day was precedented by the pandemic, locust attack and a devastating super cyclone in India and Bangladesh. The challenge for South Asian countries is to develop a low-carbon infrastructure to rely on for a sustainable growth in the future and they need technologies for their climate adaptation and for taping on their renewable energy resources.

She stressed that the implementation of the climate action will have to happen at local and sectoral level and thus, local stake holders need to be supported. Likewise, the climate change budget and climate change finance need to be trickle down to the local level, she added.

Dr Saleem-ul-Haq, Director, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka, lamented that no tangible action was seen in the past 25 years to respond to the climate change. He emphasised that the SAARC platform and the regional research think tanks working on climate change should join hands for crafting a regional climate action plan for a better and sustainable future.

Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI, said that the earth day is being marked again amidst the pandemic and signifies the need of a greater preparedness. He was of view that the developing countries need to come up with a collective agenda and push the greater emitters for low carbon initiatives.

“The clean and green recovery and growth in the developing countries could be made possible only with the help of the developed countries and by creating a green climate fund,” Dr Suleri said and added further that the road to Glasgow should be coming up with our own indigenous agenda for clean and green recovery.

Climate scientist Dr Fahad Saeed was of the view that there is need to translate the climate change science into local languages to make it more effective at the local levels. He suggested that we need to strike a delicate balance between ambitious climate action as set by the developed countries and to ensure a sustainable economic growth.

Dr Imran Khalid from SDPI said that climate change is a reality and we need concrete and tangible steps to cope up with its impacts.