HYDERABAD: Speakers at a summit on youth empowerment point out that population growth is a major contributor to climate change and urged young generation to play a proactive role in finding solutions to challenges posed by climate change.

They were speaking at a session on ‘Climate change and role of youth’ in the summit being organised by Sports & Youth Affairs Department at Sindh museum on Saturday.

Noted environmentalist Naseer Memon termed impacts of climate change as Pakistan’s biggest issue and warned that due to increase in intensity of extreme weather events, wildlife including parrots, sparrows, jungle babblers, honey bees and trees were fast disappearing.

He described population growth as a major contributor to climate change and called for launching nationwide campaign to address the issue. “Planting a tree is a virtue and felling it is cruelty,” he said.

He said that there should be movements against tree cutting just like campaign against controversial canals. Rising heat index in Karachi was attributable to concrete structures which showed “we need to change our way of living”, he said.

Shabina Faraz, an environmental journalist, believed youth were real asset of the country and by recognising their power, they could bring significant change.

She encouraged them to raise voice on climate change through digital media and highlighted vehicle emissions as a major environmental issue.

Javed Soz Halai spoke about harmful effects of plastic usage, stating that Pakistan ranked 10th in the world for plastic consumption which was a major cause of climate change.

He urged people to stop using plastic bags and bottles and instead opt for cloth-made bags and glass bottles. There was urgent need for climate justice and government needed to introduce policies to tackle climate change effectively, he said.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2025