Planning Commission endorses Rs815m for Ministry of Climate Change: report

ISLAMABAD: The Planning Commission has endorsed a budget of Rs815 million for development of the portfolio of Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) from Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) fund and also approved the Indicative Budget Ceiling (IBC) by a tentative amount of Rs815 million, according to a report by a private media outlet.

Earlier, the MoCC had submitted its demand of Rs69.81 million for approved projects by the Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP), including establishment of Pakistan Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), Strategic Planning and Coordination Cell, Climate Resilient Urban Human Settlements Unit, Establishment of Climate Change Reporting Unit in Ministry of Climate Change for funding from the programme in the upcoming budget.

Additionally, the ministry had also demanded Rs738.50 million for its six continuing projects including the establishment of a geomantic centre for climate change, Green Pakistan Programme, Sustainable Land Management project to combat desertification of Pakistan (SLMP-II), and strengthening Zoological Survey of Pakistan for undertaking an immediate inventory of endangered wildlife species and habitats nationwide.

It also aimed at facilitating a better environmental planning in the country, through assessment of environmental impact of different human activities, making them compatible with the objectives of sustainable development.

The environmental protection agency takes credit for launching the Environmental Atlas of Islamabad 2016-17, besides struggling to prepare State of Environmental Report 2015-16, in addition to conducting industrial and hospital waste surveys of Islamabad.

The Pak-EPA also claims about the establishment of a well-equipped centre of geospatial technologies for environmental monitoring in Pakistan and collection of a spatial and thematic database on various environmental issues such as natural resources, natural and anthropogenic hazards and pollution levels.