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National policy on environment change being finalized: President
ISLAMABAD, Oct 20 (APP): President Asif Ali Zardari Wednesday said that National Policy on Climate Change based on incentives driven initiatives to increase afforestation and contain the adverse impact of climate change in Pakistan is in final stage of its preparation. The government has involved all the stakeholders including farmers, foresters, local communities, the private sector, the students and the general public in the formulation of the climate Change policy, he added.The President was talking to Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Chairman UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), who called on him here at the Aiwan-e- Sadr on Wednesday.
Hameedullah Jan Afridi, Federal Minister for Environment, M. Salman Faruqui, Secretary General to the President, Malik Asif Hayat, Secretary to the President, Muhammad Javed Malik, Secretary Environment, Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar and other senior government officials were also present during the meeting.
Briefing the journalists, Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar said that the President while speaking to Dr. Pachauri called for establishing cooperative relationship between institutions in Pakistan and Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) particularly for climate modeling and projections of impacts of climate change.
The President said that climate change is often seen as a development issue, but for developing countries like ours it is a matter of our survival.
Environmental changes threaten the food, water, energy and health security of many of us in the South Asia region, the President said and added that it poses a direct and serious threat to sustainable development in our part of the world.
The spokesperson said that the President stressed for enhanced efforts by the SAARC towards environment-friendly approaches and technologies to make South Asia a world leader in low carbon emissions and technologies
The President during the meeting urged the SAARC countries for following up on the SAARC Summit of April 2010 particularly in respect of effective regional programmes in early warning, preparedness and management.
He said that “we, the countries of South Asia, share common concerns of development in the region due to climate change”.
The President said that environmental changes have not only affected lives of billions of poor people in the region but even our very existence is challenged. “We need to take up this challenge as an important opportunity for change”, he added.
The President said that despite the fact that Pakistan contributes minimally to global emissions, yet it is faced with severe climate change impacts including sea level rise, extreme weather events, melting of glaciers and droughts and floods besides stress on Pakistan’s agriculture and livestock.
The President said that the impacts of variability of monsoons has come as a hard reality for Pakistan this year, as massive floods brought widespread devastations across the country.
The President said that Pakistan being one of the early signatory of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has undertaken a number of steps to address the issue of climate change that includes setting up of Task Force on Climate Change, establishment of Prime Minister’s committee on climate change and development of national policies on environment, forestry energy conversation and drinking water.
The President said that the International Conference on Climate Change and Development to be held this month in Pakistan in collaboration with the United Nations holds great significance to combat the challenges of climate change.
The spokesperson said that the President urged South Asian countries to take a unified position to persuade the industrialized nations to meet their commitments on emission reduction as this is in our collective interest.
The President said that Pakistan believes in adopting a regional approach to address the common development issues that arise from climate change and assured that Pakistan will continue to play an effective role in implementing the decisions taken at SAARC Summit Thimpu in April this year.
Courtesy www.app.com.pk