Representatives of provincial governments, Azad Jammu and Kashmir assure to join hands with ministry of climate change to deal with negative impacts of climate change

Islamabad, April 23, 2015 (PPI-OT): Top key representatives of the all provincial governments and Azad Jammu and Kashmir have assured to join hands with the federal ministry of the climate change to deal with negative impacts of climate change and boost country’s climate-resilience.

It was also agreed among the participants of the high-level first meeting of the National Climate Change Policy Implementation Committee (NCCPIC) held here at the climate change ministry that provincial governments will act in support of the federal ministry of climate change for implementation of the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) of Pakistan, which is a viable roadmap for dealing with devastating impacts of the climate change on different socio-economic sectors of the country, particularly water, agriculture, energy and health.

The meeting was also attended, among others, by senior representatives of the Planning Commission of Pakistan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, UNDP, Islamabad-based Global Change Impact Study Centre (GCISC), LEAD –Pakistan, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF – P).

Some important decisions were taken at the meeting.

It was decided that all provincial governments including A and JK government shall establish and notify provincial climate change policy implementation committees with additional chief secretaries (ACS) development as their respective chairpersons; the provincial government shall report to the climate change ministry their progress “on priority policy actions as proposed in the national climate change implementation framework” within next 30 days; each province shall send their respective blueprints/plans to show how they will implement the short-term and priority policy actions together with financing mechanism; the provinces shall send climate change adaptation and mitigation project proposals by no later than May 5, 2015 forwarding on to the Green Climate Fund (Operating entity of the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established in 2010) for consideration before; forest wing of the federal climate change ministry shall produce forest-related Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) to boost country’s forest sector for tackling climate change impacts.

The climate change ministry also proposed that climate change sections should be established in the federal planning commission and provincial planning and development departments for smooth coordination between the federal and provincial governments on climate change-related matters.

Earlier, while chairing the meeting, Federal Minister for Climate Change, Senator Mushahidullah Khan, said that federal government alone cannot cope with vagaries of the climate change. All provincial governments and AJ and K government have to be on the same page for this purpose.

The minister stressed upon the private sector to come forward in this national fight against climate change.

“Because, there are many countries in the world which are successfully reducing their climate-vulnerabilities and the private sector have played a vibrant role in this regard,” the minister argued.

Similarly, the private sector in Pakistan need to be vibrant for boosting government’s efforts aimed at tackling country’s climate-vulnerability, he added.

Secretary Ministry of Climate Change, Mr. Arif Ahmed Khan, said that a Framework for Implementation of Climate Change Policy (FICCP) has been hammered out by the climate change ministry after consultation with all governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, which 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.

All the actions proposed in the NCCP 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 National Climate Change Policy to boost climate change-resilience of their respective provinces.

“These sectors have been assigned priority, because these are very much at the centre-stage of sustainable development, which cannot be achieved as long as these critical sectors remain climate-vulnerable,” the secretary cautioned.

The Director-General (Environment and Climate Change) of the climate change ministry, Mr. Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta highlighted that solutions to cope with climate change very much exist. These need to be tapped.

Mr. Bhutta particularly emphasised on need for boosting adaptation in all socio-economic sectors of the country to sustain climate change-induced disasters, which have shown increasing frequency in the country, particularly floods, escalating glacial melt, heavy rains, depleting groundwater, changing river flows and an altered monsoon pattern, which has become less predictable.

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/