Daily Times

Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam on Thursday unveiled that a process has been initiated for rolling out an over-arching and viable national adaptation plan for boosting the countries climate resilience.

The announcement has comes only six weeks before the country will host the landmark World Environment Day, which is celebrates globally every year on June 5th, the PM’s aide said while addressing an online Project Inception Workshop regarding launching of the National Adaption Plan Process held here on Thursday, said a press released issued here today.

Hosted by Pakistan, the theme of this year’s World Environment Day on June 5th is ‘Ecosystem Restoration’.

The National Adaptation Plan process initiated today would be looking to build on these existing nature-based approaches, which include the Ten Billion Trees Tsunami Program, the Ecosystem Restoration Fund, and the Recharge Pakistan initiative, Malik Amin Aslam told the participants from Pakistan and other countries associated with UN Environment Programme and UN-backed Climate Adaptation Fund that like other counties,

He emphasised that given the back drop Pakistan also views the national adaptation plans as one of the most important mechanisms for adapting to climate change impacts and resilience against the disasters.

“However, we hope that country’s national adaption plan, to be formed in consultation with relevant national and international stakeholders, would help reduce the country’s vulnerabilities to climate impacts by creating comprehensive medium- and long-term plans, including the integration of adaptation measures into national policy,” said the PM’s aide Malik Amin Aslam.

He emphasised that “Pakistan is already bearing the brunt of climate risks while it contributes less than 1 percent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, every year the country keeps on climbing up the ladder of climate vulnerability, Malik Amin added.

According to the long-term German Watch index, Pakistan has remained constantly among top 10 climate vulnerable countries each year since 2010.

“It is imperative for the developing world, which are more vulnerable to climate change, to plan their development with climate change in mind.This is what the National Adaptation Plan process seeks to achieve in Pakistan,” he stressed.

Launched formally on March 25 at a virtual event, the two-year USD 2.7 million project would be funded and technically supported jointly by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Green Climate Fund, said Dr Mazhar Hussain, climate change ministry deputy secretary and National Adaptation Plan coordinator.

The ministry official said further that the event was organised successfully, which was attended by dozens of high-level representatives of government ministries, academia, the private sector and key members of Pakistani government.

The climate change official Dr Mazhar Hussain highlighted that Pakistan would be tapping into the National Adaptation Plan process at a full pace and its outcomes to boost the adaptation elements of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), a central aspect of the 2015 Paris Agreement and national roadmap to cut climate altering carbon emissions.

Meanwhile, Malik Amin Aslam said that Pakistan has well-thought plans to submit its revised Nationally Determined Contributions before the upcoming UN climate change conference to be held this year in Glasgow.

“The National Adaptation Plan process is accordingly being aligned with the NDCs to ensure coherent implementation,” he told the online participants.

Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, stemming from its dependency on climate-sensitive sectors, such as agriculture, water, and natural resources.

Since international climate negotiations began in 1990, global greenhouse gas emissions, that have paced up global warming have spiked by 62 per cent over last 30 years,” Jessica Troni, Head of the Climate Change Adaptation Unit at the UN Environment Programme, recalled.

“This shows us why adaptation must be seen as a core approach for tackling the climate crisis,” she said.

Lauding Pakistan’s efforts for preparing the national adaptation plan, the UNEP official hoped the plan would heighten the country’s capacity to promote adaptation at all levels of governance.

The process initiated today for making national adaption plan of Pakistan would lead to the establishing of a system for generating and sharing adaptation, knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned, she hoped.