Collaboration among federal, provincial governments, private sector must for tackling climate change: Minister

Islamabad, April 26, 2015 (PPI-OT): Federal Minister for Climate Change, Senator Mushahidullah Khan, has urged the provincial governments to join policy efforts being taken by his ministry to fight deleterious effects of global warming on Pakistan’s socio-economic sectors in the light of policy recommendations made in the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) of the country.

The federal climate change ministry had expedited implementation of the NCCP and has formally approached all provincial including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

“To achieve this, recently we brought together top key representatives from federal and provincial environmental and development departments to discuss process for implementation of the NCCP without further delay. Because, the country direly needs to build up its resilience against escalating frequency in climate change-induced disasters,” the federal minister said in a news statement issued here on Sunday.

This was the first such high-level meeting on NCCP implementation process, chaired by the Federal Minister for Climate Change, Senator Mushahidullah Khan. Mushahidullah Khan said, “Although I commit all-out political support for the implementation of recommendations all over the country made in the NCCP, provincial political leaders have to show the same will to make the endeavours for policy implementation ‘successful’ for the successful implementation of the policy.”

Hammered out in elaborate and extensive consultations with all governmental and non-governmental stakeholders and approved in 2012 by federal cabinet, the NCCP contains some 120 policy measures for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

“Its recommendations include setting up a national climate change commission to coordinate climate change activities and developing monitoring, reporting and verification systems to assess emissions of polluting gases and changes in land use,” the federal minister said. Other measures include, he added, improving the capacity of national universities and institutes working on climate change and developing climate change curricula with focus on disaster risk reduction.

Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan highlighted that increased investment in research for climate change mitigation and adaptation is a major thrust of the NCCP. Among main areas of the research as mentioned in the NCCP include: water conservancy for water, food and energy security, reduction of risks emanating from rise in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, afforestation and wastewater treatment and reuse, he explained.

He also urged the provincial governments to establish climate change sections in their respective provincial planning and development departments for effective collaboration between provincial and federal governments on NCCP and Framework for Implementation of Climate Change Policy (FICCP).

Prepared by the climate change ministry after consultation with all governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, FICCP is an important strategic document for implementation of the climate change policy. “FICCP comprises 50 objectives 136 strategies, 747 actions (short, medium and long term) and four different timelines, which have been prepared with meticulous and careful manner,” the secretary Arif Ahmed Khan told the participants of the meeting.

He further explained that the actions, which have to be taken by the provinces, if taken will make, among others, water, agriculture and livestock, forestry, energy, transport, industry and urban planning climate-resilient.

Since all the actions proposed in the FICCP will have to be implemented in the provinces, which are bearing the brunt of climate change, the provincial governments need to act without further delay in the light of the NCCP and FICCP to boost climate change-resilience of their respective provinces.

“These sectors have been assigned priority for coping with negative impacts of climate change on socio-economic sectors, particularly water, agriculture, health and energy,” Arif Ahmed Khan highlighted. The secretary said further that these are very much at the centre-stage of sustainable development, which cannot be achieved as long as these critical sectors remain climate-vulnerable to climate change.

He said that the entire country, having highly complex biodiversity, is in grip of climate risks. Arif Ahmed Khan counted, “Not only glaciers are rapidly melting, rainfall is shrinking, groundwater is depleting, but also sea-level rises continue to devouring swathes of the fertile lands, posing a great risk of food security and hunger.”

However, tackling all these negative effects of climate change require collaborative efforts at all levels among federal and provincial governments. Failing to which will only lead to rise in country’s climate vulnerability, the federal climate change secretary warned.

For more information, contact:
Muhammad Saleem
Deputy Director
Media and Communication
Ministry of Climate Change
Government of Pakistan
LG and RD Complex, G-5/2, ISLAMABAD
Ph: 051-9245565
E-mail: moccpakistan@hotmail.com
Web: http://www.mocc.gov.pk/