LAHORE: Various civil society organizations and political parties have announced to hold "Pakistan Climate Justice March" on Monday (tomorrow) from Lahore Press Club to Aiwan-e-Iqbal in the provincial metropolis.
Representatives of these organizations made this announcement while addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club (LPC) on Saturday. Speakers included Ahmad Rafay Alam, Farooq Tariq, Irfan Mufti, Rai Ali Aftab, Hina Shahid, Saima Zia and others.
They claimed that COP-26 failed to take any solid and essential steps for tackling the environmental challenges faced by the world. It could not collect US 100 billion dollars for annual environmental finance while our Prime Minister Imran Khan did not attend the moot despite all his concern for the issue.
Ahmad Rafay Alam said though 19 countries vowed to end their coal-fired electric plants after 2022, it is a fact that big global companies producing electricity from coal had already entered into agreements for next six years.
He said these agreements should be cancelled at the earliest. He said China had also announced not to produce electricity from coal and Pakistan also followed the suit but projects producing electricity from coal, gas and oil are still working.
Speakers said that new coal-fired power projects should be stopped at the earliest while ongoing projects should be closed in phases. They said producing electricity from gas and oil is also dangerous to the environment. They said all projects of producing energy from fossil fuels should also be abandoned immediately.
They said it was embarrassing that the second biggest city of the country had been declared the second most polluted city of the world despite all the tall claims made by the present government including billion tree projects. They also called for stopping work on River Ravi Front project claiming that it would further add to pollution of Lahore.
Winding up their discourse, they said that participants of the march would also present their environmental justice manifesto on November 08.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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