Champion for Nature
It is with great pleasure to announce that Pakistan, a country that remains resolute in the fight against climate change and global warming, will be awarded the title of ‘Champion for Nature’ at the 48th annual World Economic Forum meeting to be held between 23-26 January 2021. The acknowledgement not only highlights Pakistan’s current sustainable endeavours, such as the Billion Tree Tsunami, the creation of national parks, and the ban on plastic bags but also hints at the country’s future vision for a Clean and Green Pakistan. However, the fight against climate change is by no means that easy, and while a battle may have been won, the ultimate war still rages on.
A major flaw still remains — the authorities have facile knowledge about the climate crisis as a whole. Therefore, it is vital to understand the paradigms of climate change in its entirety, if one stands a change at being resilient against it. It is time to stop thinking and treating single catastrophes such as erratic monsoon seasons, the recession of the Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya glaciers, more frequent and intense floods, and decrease in the already scanty forest cover as events in themselves. Rather, all these phenomena need to be thought of as a collective event or consequence, brought about by the abstract concept of climate change. In fact, it is not just Pakistan, but many governments around the world are using a conventional mindset to try and fight against the rather modern and unprecedented threat of extinction.
A small tweak in the way we think about the problem changes the whole dynamic, and while it is important to tend to such natural disasters one realises that collective action is desperately required. Else, all other initiatives will be futile. Here, the annual WEF meeting will be the perfect platform for the PM to push for change at a global scale. While it is too early to crown Pakistan as a victor, the award brings about a much-needed encouragement that may perhaps prove to be a driving force for the authorities to push even harder.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 5th, 2020.
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