KARACHI: Experts during a webinar discussed the things that are not coming out regarding climate change, though they should be, to help the people of the country as well as the government deal with climate change.

The webinar, Climate change: the disconnect between communities and policies, was organised by the Knowledge Forum on Friday.

Social activist Zeenia Shaukat, who was moderating the discussion, spoke about community rights and development rights for knowledge-based resources.

“We want to look at the climate change policies and the development policies of the government in order to see how much are they aligned to the people of Pakistan,” she said.

‘Covid-19 pandemic has made matters worse in terms of climate change here’

‘Climate migration’

Reminding how climate change affects people and communities, she spoke about climate migration due to drought, rain patterns, flooding, etc, and how these things affect livelihoods and health.

She said the media is the first point of contact in communities as it is the point of information.

To this, journalist Afia Salam added that it was the information provided by the media in the form of highlighting community issues due to climate change that NGOs work on then.

She added climate change is a very important subject but unfortunately it is not a priority with the mainstream media. “Be it about climate change or gender issues, news is only highlighted if something noteworthy happens there,” she said.

She said that climate change issues also need to be looked at through the gender lens. “For instance, during the heatwave, there was no escape for the women, the children and the elderly and sick. They could not come out while the men would roam the streets or go to parks for fresh air. The poor are worse off than the wealthy as they cannot afford air-conditioners or other appliances to deal with the weather conditions. And a poor woman is more vulnerable than a poor man. Children and the elderly, too, because they are dependent on others,” she said.

Urban planner and researcher associated with the Karachi Urban Lab Mohammed Toheed said: “After the floods of 2010, there are still some 6,000 climate migrants living on the grounds around the Superhighway. Why have they not been rehabilitated till now.”

Pakistan’s preparedness questioned

He said there are many predictions about worsening climate but Pakistan is not prepared for them.

“We hear that temperatures will soar, we hear that floods would increase but the government so far has not really understood the term ‘climate change’ as it has failed to incorporate communities in all this. There is hardly any engagement with the grass-root stakeholders,” he said.

“It seems that the government is not even interested in engaging with them as it would require more effort. Thus the population most vulnerable to climate change are not included in any design phase of managing climate change, which also affects implementation,” he said.

He also said that there is no specific budget in relation to climate change here.

Writer Basil Andrews said that the government policies of the last five to six years regarding climate are all linked towards a talk down approach. “It doesn’t care how climate change affects people or how it will affect them in the future. And it is not thinking about interventions to make things easier for people. It is just doing whatever it wants to do without looking at the needs and requirements here,” he said.

“Meanwhile, there have been heatwaves. There have also been lockdowns during heatwaves. So the Covid-19 pandemic also has made matters worse in terms of climate change here,” he said.

“Earlier, people, who could not afford air conditioning, etc, would go outside for fresh air. But the pandemic changed all that. Then they were stuck at home. And the high-density areas ran out of ways or opportunities to keep cool. All these factors also affected people’s behaviours and attitudes,” he pointed out.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2021