Climate-focused body needed to mitigate negative impacts

Islamabad : There is a need to set up a Climate-focused National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to mitigate and cope with the negative impacts of climate change in the country.

The interaction with relevant experts and data about the impacts of global warming and climate change collected by those who are working on the ground revealed that the situation is turning from bad to worse and needs immediate measures to protect the masses from natural disasters.

The heatwave in the summer season and torrential rains in the ongoing monsoon season have set alarm bells ringing. The climate change task force may not be able to yield the desired results. So there is a need to establish a Climate-focused NCOC that can ensure a coordinated response from the federating units.

The experts maintained that NCOC can also ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to address the impacts of climate change and appropriate coordination takes place that builds political consensus in the country.

This would require relevant provincial and national bodies to come together to develop a common action plan to address the internal impacts of climate change.

Furthermore, the NCOC would spearhead the implementation of Pakistan’s National Determined Contributions under the Paris Accords because some of these efforts would need provincial buy-in. Almost 10 billion rupees have been allocated to the ministry of climate change under the 2022-23 national budget, a decrease from the 14 billion rupees in 2021-22.