ISLAMABAD: Participants of three different events on climate change on Wednesday called for building a new social contract rooted in climate justice.
They also stressed the need for collective response and better preparedness to handle climatic disasters, urging the government to prioritise family planning in climate resilience and rehabilitation strategies.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) organised a national roundtable on climate justice, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) held a plenary titled ‘Green Financing for Clean Energy Transition in Pakistan’ on the third day of the Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) whereas a discussion was held during a meeting of the Population Coalition members from the civil society with media representatives on the interlink between climate change and population that had been organsied by Population Council with the support of the UNFPA.
Speaking at the HRCP’s roundtable, Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change Chairperson Seemee Ezdi said local governance was essential to affect change at the grassroot level.
Environmental journalist Afia Salam noted the state’s lack of preparedness when the recent floods took place, underscoring that the state must work towards disaster risk reduction, not just disaster management.
Speaking at the Sustainable Development Conference, Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Aisha Ghaus Pasha said Pakistan was facing a perpetual climate crisis and was committed to ensuring its pledges for climate resilience and adaptation whereas the world community must realise its responsibility to act in these unprecedented challenging times of environmental degradation.
“We should be playing our role in adapting to climate change and investing in green transformation whereas all our efforts should be climate sensitive,” she added.
German Ambassador Alfred Grannas highlighted the German investment and contributions to climate financing around the world and in the region to enhance climate resilience.
Speaking at another plenary, Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman said both at regional and global level, they needed to pool resources and create robust knowledge sharing systems for the collective benefits of people. However, she said, it was unfortunate that “we do not even share data with each other that could help us in better planning to save people from the impacts of disasters.”
The meeting participants held between Population Coalition members from civil society and media representatives were unanimous in their views that rapid population growth worsened the impact of climate change in Pakistan, strained its national resources and exposed more people to climate related risks.
The participants urged the government to prioritise family planning in climate resilience and rehabilitation strategies. They discussed family planning as a cost-effective approach to climate change resilience and adaptation.
Project Director Population Council Samia Ali Shah said: “Floods have aggravated the pre-existing vulnerabilities of poor women who are unable to exercise their basic right of family planning and healthy spacing due to high unmet need for family planning.”
In his welcome remarks, Senior Director Programmes Population Council Dr Ali Mir said: “Media and the CSOs have an important role to play in influencing governments to include family planning and population management in disaster management and climate resilience strategies.”
The civil society and media representatives called on the government to enhance budgetary allocations for health and family planning particularly in post-floods recovery and resilience programmes.
