Climate change threat

Speaking at the 2011 Global Urban Forum on "New Energy, New Technology, Smart City and Sustainable Development" in Beijing the other day, Pakistan's Ambassador Masood Khan recounted how Pakistan is beginning to bear the brunt of climate change "in the form of glacial melting, floods, and droughts" - something scientists have been warning of for a while.
Underscoring the gravity of the impending threat, he talked of the devastation Pakistan suffered last year due to the worst-ever floods in eight decades that affected some 20 million people, spread over 160,000 square kilometres. Although Pakistan itself produces negligible levels of greenhouse gas emission, it is directly affected by industrial activity in neighbouring India and China, the world's fastest growing economies.
It is not the industrial activity alone, though, which is responsible for causing such abnormal weather conditions. The Pak-India military stand-off on the Siachin glacier - started by India in 1984, when it surreptitiously moved its troops there - is also to blame for upsetting nature's balance there. This Himalayan glacier is the world's highest battlefield (India boasts having built the world's highest helipad there) for a long-running conflict. Siachin is of no strategic value to either nation, but a substantial drain on their respective budgets. Hence, while the Composite Dialogue process was on, Pakistan proposed that the glacier be demilitarised.
The proposal seemed to be making headway - although New Delhi came up with some conditions of its own - when the Mumbai bombings occurred, bringing the entire dialogue process to a grinding halt. Needless to say, a phenomenon like global warming does not recognise geographical boundaries. Both countries, indeed, the global community, is at risk of facing extreme weather events if something is not done soon to resolve the Siachin issue.
And, of course, the world's developed nations as well as the rapidly rising ones like China and India need to stop haggling on carbon emission cuts, and arrive at an agreement to make substantial reductions in their respective emissions. Notably, China has invested heavily in clean energy technologies for fossil fuels, emerging as a leader in the field.
It is also paying a lot of attention to green technologies. Pakistan has much to gain from its friend as it plans to exploit its vast coal reserves to meet its energy requirements. As it is, coal happens to be the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions. But it is also a fact that fossil fuels have fed the industrialised nation's economic growth.
Even now, half of the US' electricity is produced by coal-fired plants. Hence developing countries like Pakistan are within their rights to follow the same path to development. But it does not have to be as dirty and pollution-ridden as in the case of most other countries. While looking to exploit its coal energy potential, Pakistan must try as far as possible to use clean technology.