ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Climate Change, Senator Mushahidullah Khan on Sunday, urged the global community to jointly work out a global action plan to protect oceans and its resources from devastating fallouts of growing contamination, climate change-caused warming and unsustainable mining of its fisheries resources.
“Today, our oceans worldwide provide the direct livelihood for three billion people, but are under immense human and global warming-caused pressures such as sea pollution, acidification, rising sea levels, overexploitation of ocean resources, coastal degradation and global warming. However, these challenges can be tackled only through a global action,” he said in a press statement issued on Sunday.
But onus of the responsibly was on rich nations, which are to be blamed for global warming and unsustainable use of ocean resources, to lead a global ocean rescue and rehabilitation action, Mushahidullah Khan stressed.
The climate change minister highlighted that ocean-related climate change impacts, including ocean warming, ocean acidification, and sea-level rise threaten the world’s food security, the biodiversity of the ocean, the integrity of coastal areas and livelihoods millions of people who depend on oceans for income and food, tourism and recreation.
Climate Change Ministry Media Spokesperson Mohammad Saleem, told a media briefing that the minister Mushahidullah Khan is all set to attend a two-day global ocean conference scheduled next month in Malta, right at the heart of the Mediterranean, where he would join a global call for new vision and strong and action-oriented commitments needed for addressing challenges to oceans worldwide.
An invitation of European Union for participation in this conference was conveyed last week to the climate change minister Mushahidullah Khan by the EU Ambassador to Pakistan, Jean François Cautain, during a meeting in the climate change ministry, the media spokesperson said.
