Coordinator to Prime Minister (PM) on Climate Change, Romina Khurshid Alam has urged the Pakistan Climate Change Authority (PCCA) to play its role to ratchet up collaboration and cooperation among various federal and provincial governmental orgnisations for achieving climate resilience, environmental sustainability and lowcarbon development goals.
Presiding over the 2nd meeting of PCCA held here, she said, ‘Driving the Pakistan’s longterm sustainability and climate resilience actions is inevitable for ensuring that the country is better prepared to cope with the present and the future exacerbating impacts of climate change in various socioeconomic sectors, particularly agriculture, water and energy,’ according to an official statement issued here on Friday.
Romina Khurshid Alam said the Authority, which has been established at the federal level, has been entrusted with an crucial responsibility of achieving the climate resilience, environmental sustainability and lowcarbon development goals by spearheading the country’s response to the growing threats of climate change, coordinating efforts across sectors and implementing policies that promote climate resilience through various evidencebased policy measures.
She noted that lack of collaboration and cooperation among federal and provincial government organisations for implementing longterm and shortterm national climate change policy measures for coping with the adverse fallouts of climate change has only increased the climate vulnerability of not only various socioeconomic sectors but also infrastructure, lives and livelihoods of the people.
However, she called upon the PCCA to strengthen its role and pace up efforts to bring together all federal and provincial organisations and national and international nongovernmental organisations together through enhanced collaboration and cooperation for implementation of the national climate change policy for protecting the country and its people from aggravating climate risks, particularly floods, heatwaves, sealevel rise, shifting rainfall patterns and paced glacial melting.
The PM’s climate aide urged the authority to develop national programmes for climate adaptation for reducing the impacts of floods, droughts, and rising temperatures and mitigation programmes for cutting down greenhouse gas emissions through sustainable practices and renewable energy projects and actionable lowcarbon development plans.
She also put emphasis on unprecedented significance of raising public awareness about the effects of climate change and engaging communities in climate action.
‘Raising public awareness about impacts of the climate change and possible adaptation and mitigation measures vital for equipping them with the skills and knowledge to combat climate challenges. And, role of media, educational institutions is key to enhanced the public awareness,’ Romina Khurshid remarked.
During her welcome remarks, Aisha Humera Chaudhry, Secretary Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, stressed upon need for the unified approach at the national level to tackle climate challenges.
She said recent devastating floods, heatwaves glacial melting due to rising temperatures in Pakistan’s north indicate that the country is grappling with increasingly adverse socioeconomic consequences of climate change, positioning it among the most vulnerable countries globally.
‘With a rising frequency of extreme weather events, particularly devastating floods, extended droughts, paced glacial melt, and rising temperatures, Pakistan’s socioeconomic stability and environmental sustainability are under mounting threat,’ the climate change and environmental coordination ministry’s secretary highlighted.
The Global Climate Risk Index consistently ranks Pakistan among the top ten most affected countries by climaterelated disasters. This urgent situation requires a coordinated, robust response at both the national and international levels.
As an agrarian economy, the country’s farming sector is highly sensitive to rapidly changing weather patterns. Unpredictable changes in rainfall patterns and the increasing intensity of droughts and floods are devouring crop yields, threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers and exacerbating food insecurity and rural poverty in the country.
Earlier, the PCCA members engaged in stocktaking of the status of the implementation of the national climate change policy measures and reviewed the progress of the policy mitigation and adaptation actions.
They also deliberated upon possible measures to boost coordination and cooperation across various federal and provincial government organisations, institutions and sectors, ensuring a unified approach to tackling climate challenges being faced by the country.
The meeting participants also agreed upon the need to pace up coordination and cooperation for enhanced implementation of the national climate change policy and aligning other climate change adaptation and mitigation measures proposed in policies, plans, and strategies of other federal and provincial government organisations for unified coping response to growing climate change impacts.
Meanwhile, Romina Khurshid Alam assured her allout support to PCCA for unified and effective coping response to climate risks, achieving climate resilience and environmental sustainability goals.
