Climate change: Govt starts collaboration with other S. Asian states

LAHORE: Pakistan has started collaborating with other South Asian countries to share knowledge, resources and strategies to forestall impending adverse effects of climate change, said sources.

They said officials from the ministry of climate change and the ministry of aviation have recently attended an executive level meeting in Thailand. The director general of meteorological department also attended the meeting on impact-based forecasting to avoid human and material loss in the region out of climate change phenomenon.

According to the sources, the meeting participants have agreed to target three main areas including heavy rains/floods, heat wave and thunderstorm/lightening. They have agreed to improve data sharing on these three counts besides imparting training to the weather forecasters. The training would focus on the areas like vulnerability, exposure and risk assessment out of three phenomenon.

They said Pakistan has agreed to share the facility of Institute of Meteorology and Geo-Physics Karachi to impart training to the regional forecasters from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives. The World Meteorological Organization has agreed to fund the training programme the courses schedule will be shared with the regional bodies in the next meeting due in the month of February.

The sources said the meeting has also agreed to set up a regional meteorological Centre in Islamabad in the future. The WMO would assist the government is setting up this centre. The World Bank is also assisting the South Asian countries in equipping them with state-of-the-art tools to measure accurate weather conditions to deter the impeding effects of climate change in the region, they added.

It may be noted that Pakistan is ranked 8th most vulnerable country to have severe adverse impacts of climate change. According to Global Climate Risk Index 2021, Pakistan suffered losses of $30 billion due to floods last year (2022). These floods were induced by climate change. In addition to financial losses, 30 million people became homeless.

Prime Minster Kakar’s announcement in current COP28 in Dubai to introduce Seven Year Programme, namely “Recharge Pakistan” with $77.8 million fund in the form of grants including $66 million from Global Climate Fund, and $5 million from USA Aid, to protect from adverse effects of climate change definitely augurs well.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023