Plan set to seek $40 billion for adaptation of climate change

Ministry of Climate Change sets an ambitious plan of seeking some $40 billion from international community and donors working for adaptation and mitigation of the climate change to reduce carbon emissions in the country by 20 percent. An official of the ministry told Business Recorder here on Monday that the government had been effectively pursuing its case at the international forums as Pakistan was ranked the seventh most vulnerable country to climate change.
Pakistan's current carbon emissions are estimated to be around 405 metric tons, but the ministry fears them to increase to 1,700 metric tons in the next 15 years due to development projects and economic growth under China Pakistan Economic Corridor. He, however, admitted that it was not easy to get funding from the donors as the ministry had to convince them through viable projects aimed at cutting carbon emissions. Green Climate Fund and other international sources of funding on climate change would be tapped as the country cannot deal with adverse impacts of the climate change on its own.
Meanwhile, the government has also started working on setting up of Pakistan Climate Change Council to deal with issues of climate change and environment following the passage of Climate Change Act from the Parliament.
The subject of environment was devolved to provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment; therefore the federal government is facing numerous issues in implementation of some international pacts and conventions. He said the federal government would take the lead role in climate change adaptation and mitigation after establishment of the climate change council and sufficient funds would also be released for the purpose to all four provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.
The climate change council will be headed by the prime minister while all four provincial chief ministers, federal and provincial ministers for climate change would be its members. The council will also have 30 other members and 20 of them would be non-official ones, including representatives of commerce and industry, scientists, researchers, technical experts, educationists, and representatives of non-governmental organisations working on issues of the climate change.
The Climate Change Authority will also be established to implement the government's policies and recommendations to deal with adverse impacts of the climate change. The authority will be responsible to establish a close liaison with all federating units to ensure implementation of all international pacts and UN conventions on the climate change.