Climate change: Pakistan has to learn from China’s experience: PCJCCI president

LAHORE: Wang Zihai, President Pakistan China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) said on Thursday during a think tank session that Pakistan has a lot to learn from China’s experience in addressing climate change issues. China has come a long way in its fight against climate change and environmental degradation, and Pakistan will benefit from China’s experience including the use of new techniques to counter climate change at home. Pakistan will take a leaf out of China’s book on the successful greening of degraded grasslands and deserts, he added.

Ehsan Choudhry, Senior Vice President PCJCCI said that the region has over 5,000 large and small glaciers and more than 100 lakes, which jointly make up the world’s largest fresh water reservoir. But Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries facing the risks of climate change including the melting of glaciers; it is high time for Pakistan to seriously value its natural resources to combat the negative impacts of climate change. Pakistan has had short-term strategies to tackle the issues like climate change. Every government wants a policy or project, which can be completed within its tenure. But it would not work in the case of the environment. It requires a 30-50 years policy to tackle these issues. He said that recently we have witnessed a very dreadful incident due to the outburst of Shishper Glacier in Hunza. Pakistan has the highest number of glaciers outside the polar region and many are losing mass due to high global temperatures.

We should deploy a proactive approach rather than a reactionary one. We usually react to a disaster once it has happened, instead of preparing ourselves beforehand. The proactive approach of preparedness and foresightedness will save much time, money and lives. Sarfaraz Butt, Vice President PCJCCI said forests have been destroyed in Pakistan over the last 60 to 70 years, and the government has launched several green initiatives including the 10 billion tree Tsunami programme to minimize the influence of global warming. But we should have to seek help from the Chinese model so that we can properly cope with this misery.

Salahuddin Hanif, Secretary General PCJCCI said that it is pertinent to mention that the country has been experiencing severely hot conditions for the last two months — March and April. Notably, April 2022 turned out to be the hottest month in the last 61 years. Pakistan is a multi-threat country in terms of climate change vulnerability. It needs to do preventive measures to protect the environment, and the local communities from the ravages of climate change.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022