ISLAMABAD: The National Climate Rapid Response (NCRR) brief has urged the senate, national assembly and joint parliamentary committees on climate change, water, national food security to take urgent steps to reduce climate impact without any failure.
Development Communications Network (Devcom Pakistan) launched the National Climate Rapid Response Executive Brief on Saturday.
It stated that damage to climate barriers has gone beyond the red alert. Strangely, it seems the cartels and mafias have surged up over and above the government authority.
It said urgent steps shall be taken for local corrective measures to stop the local deforestation, water degeneration, over-harvesting of underground water, and change in the land-use of green and agricultural land.
The NCRR executive brief has highlighted the human insecurity indicators have gone up the red point but the authorities are playing slow.
They shall come up with a rapid response agenda under their jurisdiction areas and take strict action against the cartels and mafia. Only parliamentary committees can push the agenda forward if they are sincere to their core of hearts and duty-bound, it added.
Devcom-Pakistan Executive Director Munir Ahmed said the objective of the executive brief is to urgently highlight the fast rising human security challenges and inaction of government authorities. Through this brief, the parliamentary committees are urged to push climate action forward more vigorously, he said.
Talking about the environmental degradation and climate change governance in Pakistan, WWF-Pakistan Director General Hammad Naq Khan said “Pakistan is in the midst of a climate crisis. Currently, we are facing an intense heatwave across the country that threatens livelihoods, food security and collective well-being.”
“We are seeing regular occurrences of glacial lake outburst floods. Episodes of riverine flooding, part and parcel of our landscape, are being exacerbated by global warming. Moreover, biodiversity is also at risk as can be seen with the recent fires that devastated parcels of the precious chilghoza forests in Balochistan. In recent years, we have witnessed intense storms affecting our urban areas and a return of locusts to Sindh and Southern Punjab; events that researchers link to the climate crisis.”
“Meanwhile, environmental degradation continues to affect our natural environment and our communities. The quality of the air we breathe is degraded, our waterways are polluted, and the land is degraded by improper disposal of solid and hazardous waste. “
Hammad Naqi suggested concerted efforts based on already available policies and plans. The Environmental Protection Act of 1997, later adopted by the provinces post the 18th Amendment, needs to be followed in letter and spirit.
The Climate Change Policy 2012 (revised 2022), and its associated implementation framework (2014-30), is similarly well placed in terms of addressing the challenges discussed above.
He said climate change is water change and in this regard, the National Water Policy of 2018 offers key avenues for effective policy up-take. In the same vein, effective implementation of the National Flood Protection Plan (IV) will be key to ensure that we are well prepared to address the challenges posed by flood episodes.
