Cut in green gases: Team formed to outline steps

Conference of the Parties is going to held in Morocco to discuss adaptation measures

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has constituted a team of experts to outline the steps for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

The team will formulate the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) for mitigation and adaptation to tackle climate change issues.

At a meeting on Thursday, the Ministry of Climate Change deliberated upon a preparation plan in formulating timely and researched based INDCs ahead of its submission to the Conference of the Parties (COP-22), which is going to be held in Morocco from November 7 to November 18.

The meeting chaired by  Climate Change Minister Zahid Hamid was also attended by French ambassador Martine Dorance, Moroccan ambassador Mustapaha Salahdine, representatives of the Punjab Environmental Protection Agency, the UNDP, the Ministry of Water and Power, the Ministry of Finance, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National University of Science and Technology, Quaid-i-Azam University, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

“The team would help identify where we stand and what efforts are required for mitigation and adaptation to cope with climate change issues,” the minister told the participants.

Last year before the COP-21, Pakistan had submitted its action plan to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat without making any specific commitments after missing the deadline and it was strongly criticised by local climate change experts. The country, however, has committed to reducing its emissions to the extent possible in the wake of the work on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project which may lead to a rise in greenhouse emissions significantly.

“We have to learn lessons from COP-21 to actively participate in COP-22. It is a big gathering with a participation of officials, the private sector, civil society and all stakeholders. Pakistan has signed the Paris agreement and taking initiatives for its implementation,” the French ambassador said.

The ambassador of Morocco said that “We have formulated a steering committee having experts to organise and take care of arrangements of the COP-22.” He said that they were expecting significant participation from Pakistan in the conference.

INDC deputy head of experts’ team Dr Bilal Anwer gave a presentation on a research under way on the INDCs preparation in Pakistan. “We have taken 2015 as a base year to calculate INDCs because a lot of economic activities took place from 2012 to 2015”.

“We are also analysing mitigation potentials for different sectors and some areas of mitigation included in INDCs such as improving irrigation through the lining of canals and strengthening risk management system for the agriculture sector,” Anwar said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2016.