Sindhi version of national climate change policy launched
Karachi: Speakers representing academia, research institutions, Sindh government and civil society on Tuesday emphasised the need to encourage the youth of universities to take up the issues of climate change through research and focus on threats to natural resources due to climatic variations.
They were speaking at the launching ceremony of the National Climate Change Policy in Sindhi language, jointly organised by the Research and Development Foundation (RDF) and the Oxfam Novib in collaboration with the Ministry of Climate Change, held at a hotel in Karachi.
Federal Secretary Climate Change Arif Ahmad Khan presided over the event.
The speakers advised the universities’ administrations to encourage young cadre to promote research initiatives and help the government and policymakers through pointing out weaker areas, like coast, desert, forest, water resources, wetlands and mountainous areas where communities faced various problems and people were continuously migrating due to the depletion of food sources.
Arif Ahmed Khan, the federal secretary of the climate change department, talked about the causes of increasing temperatures, including emissions, saying industrial revolution was the main reason around the world and Pakistan was the most vulnerable, losing its water resources and forests, resulting in desertification.
He advised the community to take efforts on their own to avoid the impacts of climate change and flood disasters.
He lauded the initiative taken by the RDF and the Oxfam Novib for translating the National Climate Change Policy into the Sindhi language, saying that it would be help enable the local government officials and community to understand it.
Dr Fatah Mari, the chief economist of the P&D, said policies had not been implemented due to poor governance.
Shams ul Haq Memon, the former forest secretary, said it was not only coastal areas but irrigated areas also came under such threats and Karachi and other areas were vulnerable because of receiving warning calls of tsunamis and cyclones.
Environment expert Nasir Ali Panhwar said Sindh was paying a heavy price due to the government’s flawed policies and it was losing its natural assets such as forests and wetlands.
He urged the government to allocate more resources and give a high priority to climate change and to devise an effective policy on climate change and disaster risk reduction.
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