The government must focus to set their policies, priorities, and targets straight
FAISALABAD: Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid has said the Pakistan Climate Change Bill, 2017 has been passed to mitigate environmental threats and prevent future disasters. I think there is more need of will and commitment rather than just passing the bill and resolutions in assemblies. The Khyber-Pakhthukhwa government has set a great example by launching the ‘Green Khyber-Pakhthukhwa’ campaign with the aim of planting eight million trees across the province. Forests are an important part of the global carbon cycle because trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide. By removing this greenhouse gas, forests function as terrestrial carbon sinks, meaning they store large amounts of carbon. Pakistan is likely to produce four times more greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and would need $40 billion to mitigate the effects.
Furthermore, high carbon emission intensity power sources are being used by government, such as conventional fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas, for setting up power houses. There is a dire need to replace these with low-carbon power sources like solar and wind power. The main purpose of Pakistan Climate Change Bill is to allow Pakistan access to global climate finance more energetically. Before getting global climate finance, the government must focus to set their policies, priorities, and targets straight.
Engineer Mansoor Ahmed
Published in The Express Tribune, March 25th, 2017.
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