Daily Times

Federal Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rehman, on Wednesday stressed on collaborative efforts to deal with multifaceted impacts of climate change and urged investors to invest in climate resilient development projects.

She was addressing inaugural session of 6th edition of ‘The Future Summit’ held in Karachi under the theme of ‘Prepare for Disruption’ for discussing challenges being faced by Pakistan and deliberates upon the future footprint and required readiness to deal with them.

Sherry Rehman highlighted that Pakistan was facing multifaceted issues like terrorism on borders, economic challenges and above all serious implications of climate change and multi-pronged strategies besides investment of billions of dollars were required to deal with the situation.

She termed record breaking rains and floods as a wakeup call from nature which affected millions of people and a vast area of the country and said that nothing was going back to be normal as it was not a business as usual.

Pakistan as well as South Asia and even the entire world had not to make any mistake it could happen again and destruction would come again and again as if one echo system fails it is followed by the other one, she noted.

The world was passing through an accelerated phase of warming with rising temperatures while Pakistan from last three years was the hottest place on planet in summer, she observed adding that on the other hand river Indus has been the 2nd most plastic chocked river in the world with prevalence of 38 million metric tons of plastic every year.

It is a non-traditional risk to overall economy, she said quoting a country report by the World Bank that pin pointed serious consequences of climate change for Pakistan and short, medium and long term measures required to deal with the threats.

Concept of climate change resilience was closely associated with development now and both could not be separated anyway, she stressed adding that climate resilience measures in all the relevant sectors ranging from education and awareness to preparedness and mitigation required huge investment of $348 billion by 2030. The ministry of climate change was working on comprehensive policies in the regard as well while our plan was declared as a model of hope at international forums, she added. The minister said that industries and business entities either large or small ones contributed over 70 percent in pollution over the last 100 years and now businesses have to take the lead in mitigation measures as well.

The government realized that eradication of impacts of climate change could not be done in vacuum and all the stakeholders including the government had to respond well in time, she reiterated and urged investors to invest in climate resilience and development projects. The businesses, while working in partnerships and joint ventures, should contribute in measures for net zero Pakistan, promote green financing, properly report SDG compliance, adopt recycling protocols, discourage extended use of plastic, be transparent in carbon footprint, invest in sustainability and impart awareness, she further urged.