LAHORE, June 5: Pakistan People’s Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) Secretary-General Dr Mubashar Hasan has called upon engineers to raise their voice against the increasing environmental pollution and find a solution to the problem.

Inaugurating a World Environment Day seminar entitled ‘Low carbon economy’ organised by the Institution of Engineers, Pakistan (IEP) here on Thursday, Dr Hasan said engineers developed internal combustion engines, which were responsible for the environmental pollution, and added that they should now find a solution to the problem as well.

He said the developed countries were causing more environmental pollution than the developing countries. Only two per cent of the American population was contributing 25 per cent to the pollution. China was being accused of increasing environmental pollution. Construction of canals had caused water logging and salinity and stopped the underground flow of water.

He said Pakistan was facing 5,000 megawatt power shortage because the government had stopped Wapda from installing new powerhouses and entrusted the responsibility to the private sector.

The private sector created shortage of everything because the things in short supply fetch higher prices. Tap water was considered good for drinking, but now it was being described unfit for use, to promote the sale of bottled water.

Engineer Aftab Islam Agha, who chaired the seminar, said the climate change issue dominated World Environment Day themes because it had been proved as the single largest threat to Nature and humanity. The low carbon economy idea was being promoted around the world because carbon dioxide was one of the major greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.

Carbon dioxide increased in the atmosphere not only because of industrial plants and agricultural machinery, but also because of people’s habits and lifestyles. In his keynote address, IEP Secretary General Khurshid Ghiyas said that 36 developed countries had agreed to help developing countries limit emission of greenhouse gases to five per cent of the 1990 levels under the Kyoto Protocol, but the US, Australia and Russia did not ratify the agreement.

The effort to improve the climate balance now rested entirely with the European Union and Japan. He said the National Operational Policy for Clean Development Mechanism should be implemented to reduce Co2 emissions from coal power generation projects and cement and paper projects in Pakistan.

Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company’s Jawad Rabbani said the increasing consumption of fossil fuels in energy projects was leading to a steady increase in emission of greenhouse gases. The International Energy Agency’s baseline scenario for global carbon dioxide emissions showed annual emissions increasing from 25,000 million tons in 2003 to almost 60,000 million tons in 2050.