LAHORE: The World Wildlife Fund for Nature-Pakistan held a consultative workshop on Thursday to address the issue of the climate change beyond 2020 by gathering valuable feedback on targets within the nationally determined contributions and identifying the opportunities for its successful revision, says a release.

The aim of the session was to serve as a platform for five sectors, namely agriculture, energy, forestry and land use, industries and waste, to share knowledge and experiences on initiatives related to climate change mitigation and to create ownership and endorsement for the proposed plans of action.

During his opening remarks, Muhammad Khan Ranjha, the member Production, Planning and Development Department, stated that “Climate change resilient practices are key for sustainable economic growth. A new approach, which looks at Pakistan’s economic system as a whole, including its socioeconomic development strategies, is needed to drastically increase climate ambition and meet the resource needs for future generations”.

A detailed description about the NDCs that highlighted the significance of engaging stakeholders in the revision process was presented by Nazifa Butt, the senior manager Climate and Energy Programme, WWF-Pakistan. She also emphasised that national goals could not be set without involvement of provincial government departments, academia and the private sector.

Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer, moderated a session on practicality of targets and goals set within the current NDCs.

Dr Masood Arshad, the senior director Water, Food and Climate Programme, WWF-Pakistan, closed the event by stating that “Pakistan is currently among the top 10 most vulnerable countries in terms of the impacts of climate change; this has led to extreme weather events and natural disasters such as urban flooding, heat waves, rising sea levels, loss of biodiversity and droughts. Strengthening the NDCs and devising a foolproof strategy for their implementation will not only set the ground to reduce emissions by 20pc by the year 2030 but will also allow the country to adapt to the impacts of climate change more effectively, not only on a mass scale, but also on an individual level”.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2021