PM urges unity on climate change to save future generations

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the world to collaborate and join hands to fight climate change as a united goal.

The prime minister was giving a video statement to the fourth Austrian World Summit in Vienna on the invitation of former California governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The prime minister warned that polar ice was melting fast and temperatures are rising globally, any negligence towards the climate change can put the future generations in danger.

“If the world does not take notice now, I am afraid we will be endangering our future generations,” the prime minister said. adding that around twenty years ago, the topic of climate change was taken with scepticism but today it has become a harsh reality.

He said Pakistan realized about a decade ago that the glaciers that flow into its rivers and ultimately feed the population are melting at a much faster pace.

The prime minister, shared his vision about conserving biodiversity and the steps taken by Pakistan to fight climate change. He said his government has now set a target to plant ten billion trees for a green Pakistan.

He mentioned the ‘cruel face’ of climate change for the world in shape of record temperatures in Siberia, ice-melting on poles, rising temperatures in Europe, unprecedented fires ravaging Australia, cyclones and hurricanes.

He recalled that his political party when came to power some seven years ago in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province, set and achieved the target of planting one billion trees there.

He urged the world to collaborate and join hands to fight climate change.” It is time for the world to take action against climate change as a united goal,” he said.

World leaders who addressed the event included Federal President of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen, Presidents Slovakia and Croatia, Executive Vice-President of European Commission Frans Timmermans, and former United States Secretary of State John Kerry along with founder of Austrian World Summit Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Those who spoke through a video statement included the UK’s Prince Charles, Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez, and the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

The Austrian World Summit in four years has become the largest environmental gathering in the world, providing a platform for global decision makers committed to preserving a healthy planet and decarbonising the economy by 2050.