Minister urges action to halt glacial melt

LAHORE:

Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Musadik Malik has said that carbon emission is causing melting of glaciers, rising of temperature and floods.

"Forty million people have been displaced due to four floods, out of which 50 per cent are children of school-going age," Malik said in his key note address on "Living with Floods in Climate Change" at a local hotel in Lahore.

The minister noted that 20 million children could not attend school because of this displacement. He stated that the country's GDP grows at a rate of 3 to 4 per cent, but a flood in the past alone caused losses equal to 9.8 per cent of the country's GDP, wiping out years of economic progress.

"Two countries on our border emit 40 per cent of the world's carbon, whereas Pakistan emits less than one per cent."

He maintained that 10 countries emitting nearly 75 per cent of the world's carbon were receiving 85 per cent of global green financing.