Coping with climate change: Minister seeks provinces’ support

ISLAMABAD:

Federal government has sought provinces’ support to cope with issues related to climate change.

While chairing the first meeting of the National Climate Change Policy Implementation Committee (NCCPIC) last Friday, Mushahidullah Khan also sought support of the private sector to extend a helping hand to fight the devastating impacts of climate change.

“Many countries in the world have successfully reduced their climate vulnerabilities with the help of the private sector,” the minister said.

The climate change ministry had invited secretaries of the federating units and representatives of different ministries to attend the NCCPIC meeting, and except for the secretaries of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhawa, the secretaries of other provinces failed to show up.

According a sources, though representatives of all federating units have assured the climate change ministry to help deal with impacts of climate change to improve the country’s resilience, they shied away from making a solemn commitment.

Representatives of the planning commission, ministry of foreign affairs, UN’s World Meteorological Organisation, UNDP, Global Change Impact Study Centre, LEAD –Pakistan, World Wide Fund for Nature and others were also present.

The participants agreed that provincial governments will support the ministry in implementing the National Climate Change Policy to deal with the impacts on water, agriculture, energy and health, among other areas.

It was decided that all provincial governments including that of Azad Jammu and Kashmir will set up provincial climate change policy implementation committees headed by additional chief secretaries to implement the policy.

Some participants argued that senior bureaucrats have tight schedules and would hardly allocate time for matters related to climate change, saying provincial directors-general or secretaries of environment departments should head such committees.

It was also agreed that the provincial governments should report to the climate change ministry within 30 days their priority actions they would take regarding implementation of the framework.

It was also decided that the provinces will send climate change adaptation and mitigation project proposals by May 5.

The forest wing of the federal climate change ministry will produce forest-related nationally appropriate mitigation actions to boost the country’s forest sector to tackle climate change impacts.

The ministry also proposed that climate change sections should also be established in the Planning Commission and its provincial counterparts for coordination between the federating units.

Climate Change Ministry Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan told the meeting that a framework for the implementation of the climate change policy has been hammered out after consultation with stakeholders to implement the policy.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2015.