Preserving environment: Power, transport, agriculture sectors told to curb carbon emissions

The minister said that emissions could be curbed if the world made greater use of low-energy technologies


Our Correspondent April 02, 2015
Khan said that focusing on these major sectors would provide the greatest opportunities to reduce emissions and improving resource efficiency. He said that building competitive green industries was at the heart of sustainable development. PHOTO: AFP

ISLAMABAD:


The power, transport and agriculture sectors in particular need to play their due roles to mitigate the impacts of carbon emissions.


This was said by Climate Change Minister Mushahidullah Khan at a “National Consultative Workshop on Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)”, at a local hotel on Thursday.

Khan said that focusing on these major sectors would provide the greatest opportunities to reduce emissions and improving resource efficiency. He said that building competitive green industries was at the heart of sustainable development.

The consultative workshop was organised by the Ministry of Climate Change in cooperation with the World Wide Fund for Nature, International Institute for Sustainable Development  and Leadership for Environment and Development, Pakistan.

“Globally, the industrial sector is a major source of man-made carbon emissions, along with the power-generation sector. Shifting towards renewable and environment-friendly alternative sources of energy from fossil fuels, can make the industrial sector environment-friendly and economically-sustainable,” the minister said.

He urged industries to play their role and cooperate with the government.

The minister said that emissions could be curbed if the world made greater use of low-energy technologies for electricity generation and industrial production.

Climate Change Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan said that major industries accounted for six per cent of Pakistan’s total green house gas (GHG) emissions, while the energy sector accounted for more than a quarter of total emissions.

“There is a pressing need to find ways to contain these emissions or to at least slow down their rate,” he stressed. Proposing measures for mitigating country’s carbon footprints, the secretary said that there was a need for incorporating economic incentives to promote emission-reduction by upgrading industrial processes and technologies, preparing voluntary.

Director General (Environment & Climate Change) of the climate change ministry, Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta, gave a detailed briefing about the INDCs and its importance.

The international community is heading towards finalisation of a legally binding outcome in Paris this year. Furthermore, countries have been invited to forward INDCs. Parties to the Convention agreed in Warsaw in 2013 to “initiate or intensify preparation of their intended nationally determined contributions” so that they can be forwarded well in advance of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Paris in 2015.

He said that the INDCs would largely determine whether the world achieved an ambitious 2015 global agreement and was set on a path towards a low-carbon, climate-resilient future.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3rd, 2015.

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