ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is taking stringent measures to combat the multi-dimensional adverse impact of climate change which not only has made the country a victim of natural disasters but also posed a serious challenge to its agricultural sector, Minister for Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said.
Climate change is affecting Pakistan from up north to down south with melting glaciers in the north and cyclonic activity as well as cloudbursts over the main cities in the south including the commercial hub of Karachi located at the coastline of the Arabian sea, Aslam said in an interview with Xinhua.
“Pakistan is a country which is seriously affected by climate change. It is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change and the changing weather patterns are creating serious problems for Pakistan […] Our glaciers are melting fast, our monsoon patterns are shifting the timing and the frequency of rainfall, and it is shifting so fast that our agriculture cannot adapt to it.”
Facing the adverse effects of the hostile weather patterns which have put stress on the economy of the country, Aslam said that Pakistan has decided that “it will not choose to just be a crying victim on the climate arena, but we want to be a solution provider.”
He said the government has started the 10 billion trees programme and “we have already planted 1 billion trees out of that 10 billion.”
The tree-planting initiative has also enabled the country to create a large number of green jobs, including 100,000 jobs created during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Aslam said, adding that the job creation improved the livelihood of the locals, showing that “if you invest in nature, nature always pays you back. It’s not a one-way investment.”
Besides working rigorously to increase the forest cover, a warning system has also been launched by the country to get a beforehand knowledge of glacier bursts, he said.
The minister said that Pakistan is also moving ahead to achieve the goal of switching 30 percent of the country’s vehicles to electric by 2030 to address the rising pollution, and plans to unveil and display locally made electric vehicles on World Environment Day falling on June 5.
Aslam said that China is a great example for his country to learn about environmental protection measures because by taking steps to protect the environment, the Chinese government has shown that development without environmental protection measures is not sustainable.
“The Chinese example shows that they took protective measures to control the climatic hazards by taking useful steps. The leadership of both Pakistan and China have a vision of making the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor a sustainable future for this whole region by making it a green corridor,” he said.
