The concept of resilience is a fundamental feature of mankind. The Cambridge English Dictionary defines resilience as “the ability to be happy, successful, again after something difficult or bad has happened.” Likewise, the Oxford dictionary describes it as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. This term is in the spotlight due to climate change. Consequentiality, adaptation, and resilience to a changing climate are now considered essential for sustainability.
On January 9, Pakistan and the United Nations co-hosted the ‘International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan.” The aim of this conference was multifaceted: Firstly, to bring the international community together so that they can reaffirm their solidarity with the flood-affected people of Pakistan. Secondly, to identify the needs of the affected population for resilient recovery, and thirdly, to undertake the rehabilitation and reconstruction of damaged infrastructure in an adaptive and resilient way. The unique features of this conference are the commitment of the government and interprovincial representation. The theme of the conference revolves around a two-pronged approach. The first approach is to launch “4RF”, this approach reflects the ‘Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework’ for the flood-affected population. This framework is a systematic process that involves the institutional, financial, and implementation arrangements not just to ensure the effective utilization of flood-related aid but also the mobilization of indigenous resources. The second approach is to build a long-term road map for national harmony, policy coordination, and the charter of climate resilience for climate crises.
Climate change is a reality, and it is here to stay. Unchecked, centuries-long industrial development has a price, which we are now paying in the form of environmental degradation and climatic calamities.
Climate change is a reality, and it is here to stay. Unchecked, centuries-long industrial development has a price, which we are now paying in the form of environmental degradation and climatic calamities. However, the nature of these calamities is not governed by the principles of justice. For instance, the countries with the largest share of the carbon footprint are not the most affected in terms of climate change. So, there is a need for climatic justice to ensure that the industrial nations of the world, which have the largest share in emissions, should pay for the losses and damages of climate change. This factual juncture is not being realized, not at the international level or the national level. Thus, there is a need to develop a charter of climate resilience at the national level, through which we can push for the implementation of this charter at the global level. There are the following initiatives that are the need of the hour:
Firstly, the top priority of the government should be the rehabilitation and rapid recovery of the affected population. Moreover, the government of Pakistan is required to highlight its successful ‘International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan’ in a way that makes climate resilience more acceptable among the masses and not in a political capital-building way. The essence of resilience is needed to understand, and this essence can be explained through this Chinese quotation. “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Therefore, the foreign aid that has been pledged by the international development partners and financial institutions should also be utilized for capacity building than just an instrument for brick and mortar. Capacity building in this regard is the formulation of a curriculum and training workshops that specifically focus on climate resilience, approaches to mitigation and adaptation. A practical example of such training is the recently held full-day workshop arranged by Sustainable Development Policy Institute on Low Emission Analysis Platform, this modelling tool has the potential to forecast various emission scenarios. Experts around the globe acknowledged the event and stressed the importance of modelling software which potentially connects the academia to policymakers and brings the textbook theoretics of climate change, emission mitigation, and adaption to the policy framework.
Secondly, international development partners and masses are required to understand the gravity of climate change and climatic injustices. Pakistan is not a ‘serial beggar’, in the context of climate change, Pakistan is suffering from the deeds that are not committed by the people of Pakistan. Its share of Pakistan in global emissions is less than one per cent, but it is the most vulnerable country in the world. Thus, the climate resilience conference is not the donor’s conference but it’s the retribution in terms of losses and damages due to climate change induced by industrial countries. The people of Pakistan are also required to understand the bigger challenge that is knocking right on our doors. The issue of climate change is not an issue of just this year, over time this issue is going to be worse, the only way is to make ourselves more resilient and convert this chaos into an opportunity for building back better. This is not possible without the development of consensus on the charter of climate resilience, all the stakeholders, government, political parties, academia, policymakers, public sector organizations, private sector, and civil society can jointly form a common front to compel the industrial world to mitigate emission, ensure climatic justice, and train people of Pakistan for an inclusive and resilient Pakistan.
The writer is associated with SDPI as an energy consultant. He can be reached at khalidwaleed @sdpi.org and tweets @Khalidwaleed_