ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul on Wednesday said education and mobilization of rural women on climate change produces positive impacts on their lives.

Addressing a Sustainable Development Conference 2020 webinar on Climate-Induced Migrations in Times of COVID-19: A Case of South Asian Countries organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here, she said the South Asian countries should collect data on migrations due to climate change.

She added that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries should share statistics highlighting the causes and impacts of climate-induced migrations with the relevant governments and think tanks for further research and real time data based policies.

Zartaj highlighted that the Prime Minister’s Ravi Urban Development Project was the first of its kind initiative which would help protect forests and mitigate the effects of climate change.

She added that recurring floods had increased displacement in the country which affected lives of rural population and vulnerable countries.

The Minister of State noted that the Prime Minister's 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project would also contribute to mitigate adverse impacts of environmental degradation.

In Pakistan, she said preferences of common people, including women were different where the organizations working on climate change needed to collect data and suggest solutions to their problems.

All countries including South Asia needed to work together on climate change as migration was on the rise around the world due to climate change, Zartaj Gul said. She mentioned that groundwater level in other parts of the country, including the desert areas, had drastically dropped and the problems of the flood-affected areas of South Punjab needed to be addressed.