ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Environment has finally formed the long-awaited National Climate Change Policy. The policy framework, however, is not without the loopholes.
A ministry official while talking to the Pakistan Today on Sunday said, “The forthcoming National Climate Change Policy of Pakistan fails to give an adequate provision for implementation of the policy. He said the policy appeared to be superficial and he dubbed it as ‘CUT-PASTE work’ done by the ministry.
“Despite the fact that the climate change was rapidly unfolding challenges of catastrophic global, regional and national proportions, but the authorities concerned were not fully alive to the situation”, he noted. He said Pakistan could be affected by the impacts of the climate change, far more seriously than was generally recognised by the policy makers and opinion leaders.
“In the draft of the national policy, the ministry of environment has only highlighted the general environmental issues that could affect the country but no adequate adaptation measures have been recommended in it,” he added. It is pertinent to mention here that at present, Pakistan does not have a national policy or strategy on climate change although the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act-1997 is in place.
According to official, Pakistan has drafted the national climate change policy with an action plan to mitigate catastrophes like the recent floods but experts are not giving the new policy any importance.
Very poor reporting. I am also an expert in the field of Climate Change and during last climate conference Dec, 2011 in Cancun, Mexico luckely I have seen the initial draft of Pakistan National Climate Change Policy which the Pakistani delegation was carring with it. I must acknowledge that the initial draft which I have seen was very comprehensive and excelent document. In fact we have forwarded this to few other developing countries as an example to follow.
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