ISLAMABAD, Mar 18 (APP):Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam on Thursday said Pakistan’s investment in focusing Climate Change adaptation was imperative to ensure human security in the prevailing era of mounting environmental degradation.
He was addressing the second day session of Islamabad Security Dialogue, organized by National Security Division, titled Responsibility Within: Instituting a Human Security Paradigm.
The SAPM delivered his keynote address at the session and expressed his views on Championing Climate Change.
Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa delivered the opening address at the session.
Speaking on the occasion, Amin Aslam said Pakistan was facing adverse impacts of environmental degradation despite being least contributor to global green house gas emissions as was emitting less than one percent.
Pakistan, he said was blessed with 12 ecological zones with the worlds highest point to the steepest one in the deep sea level.
Owing to the serious ecological depletion, Pakistan was repeatedly among the top ten countries vulnerable due to climate change and were 135th country in the global ranking of GHG emitters, he added.
The SAPM underscored that Pakistan primarily required to focus its response on adaptation to cope with the environmental degradation.
“The huge glaciers in the Himalayas lying in the transboundary region with the neighbouring countries are forming the third pole of the world with a huge ice tower in the North. Around 90 percent of this water resources is sizely impacted due to climate change,” he said.
The present government had very wisely initiated a clean and green agenda addressing climate change that scaled up its existing unique protected areas from 30 to 45 within 8 months, energy mix being targeted to shift 60 percent over green energy, ten billion tree tsunami plantation initiative and electric vehicles policy , he added.
Amin said, “Pakistan globally has emerged as a leader among the developing countries by investing its own resources in nature conservation despite its economic crisis.”
Pakistan, he said aiming to pilot its first sovereign nature bond which would garner international financial assistance for nature conservation.
SAPM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan in his keynote address on Managing Covid-19: Lessons from Pakistan.
He said while fighting Covid-19 pandemic it was necessary to gauge the outcomes of the corrective measures being taken to address the issues. However, specific actions were necessary as national coherence for an effective response was important to gain positive results.
The successful achievement in stemming the outbreak of Covid-19 was based on decision being formulated on information and was flexible and responsive, he added.
To a question, he said the authorities concerned to manage data or information for decision making were unprepared and lacked any proper data streams.
However, concerted efforts were made to develop linkages with the federating units for proper data sharing and management which never existed earlier, he added.
The government, he said had made numerous efforts to develop institutional capacity of the National Institute of Health which needed to be sustained.
SAPM on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar delivered her keynote address on Poverty Alleviation: Casting Safety Net.
She said the demographic security should be at the core of human security paradigm whereas there was needed to bring a paradigm shift in governance to ensure credible utilisation of resources.
NACTA Former National Coordinator Ahsan Ghani during his keynote address deliberated his views on Violent Terrorism and Extremism.
He said the region of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas had faced decades violence though not completely but have emerged out of a protracted violence.
The government needed to drop soft measures other than stringent one as it required assistance to establish its war torn sectors to come at par with other federating units.