Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Friday was informed that climate change posed a greater security threat to Pakistan than terrorism because it could affect temperatures, environment, economy and the future policies of the country.
Climate change experts expressed these views at a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change that was held at the Parliament House with Dr Hafeez Ur Rehman Khan Drishak in the chair. The committee was informed that climate change could trigger severe disruptions with ever-widening consequences for local, regional and global security. Droughts, famines and weather-related disasters can claim thousands or even millions of lives and exacerbate existing tensions within and among nations, fomenting diplomatic and trade disputes. Already, there was growing evidence that climate change was affecting the life-support systems on which humans and other species were dependent. And its impact was arriving faster than many climate scientists predicted.

Briefing the committee, Ministry of Climate Change Secretary Syed Abu Ahmad Akif said that people should be educated about climate change and it should be made part of the curriculum. He said that a spell of heavy rains would start from the end of May or in the beginning of June and warned that it would be an unusual spell. Though Pakistan was not producing environmental problems, it was affected by actions of other countries like India was responsible for melting glaciers, he said. He suggested that customs duty on imported wood should be decreased to stop tree felling in Pakistan that was leading to deforestation. The prices of liquefied petroleum gas might be decreased so that people can be stopped from using wood as fuel. In Pakistan, only five percent of the area is under forests, which is lowest in the world. He called for expansion of forests in the country.

Akif said that floodwater was a blessing, but it should pass through natural channels. He said that floodwater would add to the fertility of land and China had tried this technique. He said that deputy commissioners should be assigned monitoring and reporting of deforestation in their areas.

Legislators said that there was no forestation across the country and agricultural land was being converted into housing societies. They regretted that no serious effort was made to stop deforestation.
Ministry of Climate Change Inspector General (Forests) Syed Mahmood Nasir said there had always been confrontation between politicians and forest officials. If tree felling is not stop immediately, he said, climate change would aggravate the situation. The government has formed a forest policy and it will be presented to the cabinet soon. He said that 2010 floods totally changed the forests in Sindh and this change came as a blessing for the province.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa climate change officials apprised the committee of the linkages created by the provincial government between the forest officials and the academia. They said that Pakistan had been divided into nine ecological regions and seven of these regions were situated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Therefore, they said, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was more sensitive to climate change. The provincial government initiated the one billion saplings project and 175 million saplings have been planted so far under this project. The project was launched on November 14, 2014 and Rs 3.4 billion have been spent on it so far. Under this project, saplings of 42 species were planted in various areas suitable for their growth. In order to keep the environment clean, the officials said, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would soon pass a law banning production of plastic bags.
The committee was informed about various steps taken by the federal as well as provincial government to stop deforestation. The committee discussed the latest flood situation in northern areas and steps taken by the government for rehabilitation of the affected people. The committee was informed that the rain spell from March 9 to April 27 claimed 264 lives and damaged 3,017 houses.
Lawmakers Malik Ihtebar Khan, Chaudhry Khalid Javaid Warraich, Salman Hanif, Muhammad Moeen Wattoo, Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, Shahnaz Saleem, Khalida Mansoor, Kiran Imran Dar, Nighat Parveen Mir, Shah Jahan Baloch, Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan, Naeema Kishwer Khan and Zahid Hamid attended the meeting.