4“What went on in Pakistan, will not stay in Pakistan” says Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environment Senator Sherry Rehman in her address at the International Maritime Conference in Karachi today. Federal Minister Sherry Rehman stated that climate change was catastrophic for all the world’s ecosystems, including humans. She further said that “It was need of the hour that we responded to climate change proactively. Pakistan experienced the worst floods in 2022 which affected 33 million people”Sherry Rehman said that
War further accelerated the climate crisis. “Bombing and other methods of modern warfare directly harm wildlife and biodiversity. Pollution from war contaminates bodies of water, soil, air and makes area unsafe for people to inhabit.
Therefore states must pursue peace”, adding that we need to invest in decarbonisation.Federal Minister said that Oceans were the largest carbon sinks in the world and the Turing to Blue Economy model was key. Oceans had absorbed ninety percent of global warming in last fifty years. Micro-plastics had made the situation worse and were choking the oceans. The entire marine life was ingesting plastic. She further said that It was predicted in 2050 that there would be more plastics in ocean than the marine life. It is high time that we stop using plastic in all form and shift to a plastic free lifestyle, she added.Sherry Rehman said that Pakistan’s economy would recover from a flood that destroyed 33 million lives. Pakistan had suffered from the wrath of climate change despite being the lowest emitter of carbon. What happened to us will certainly not only stay with us.
“We are seeing climate change impacts crossing borders and wreaking havoc, whether it’s hurricane Fiona that has hit Puerto Rico, children starving in Somalia from protracted drought, Nigeria battling floods like never before and the forest fires and heatwaves in all of Europe and USA”, she said.Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environment stated that,”For countries like Pakistan, facing new records of vulnerability, a crisis of climate impacts along with debt has created huge communities of fragility and impoverishment, where people are unable to reinvent broken lives on ground they can no longer live or grow or build anything on. Global warming is triggering similar futures of climate distress, driven either by famine, drought, or flooding and rising sea levels which stalk the developing world, the Horn of Africa, the LDCs and the Small Island States, where the gap between needs and resources is too huge.” Federal Minister and Senator Sherry Rehman talking about Living Indus Initiative said that,” Living Indus is as an umbrella initiative and a call to action to lead and consolidate initiatives to restore the ecological health of the Indus within the boundaries of Pakistan, which is most vulnerable to climate change. Extensive consultations with public sector, private sector, experts, and civil society led to a ‘living’ menu of 25 preliminary interventions, which focus on nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based adaptation approaches to protect, conserve, and restore natural, terrestrial, freshwater, coastal and marine ecosystems in the Indus Basin.Pakistan is consistently ranked as amongst the ten most vulnerable countries to the effects of global climate change, mostly of the impacts on the Indus system. Having already seen an average temperature increase of 1 degree Celsius over the last three decades and witnessing highly erratic and extreme weather events over the last decade, Pakistan’s vulnerability to climate challenge is expected to become more severe in the future both in absolute and (globally) comparative terms. Pakistan is already entrenched in the ‘Age of Adaptation’ where it has to be dealing with and preparing for climate impacts even as it continues to contribute to global emissions mitigation. Climate change, for Pakistan, is therefore primarily a water challenge.”Concluding the address, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environment urged that change in lifestyle was the need of an hour. After the address she distributed souvenirs among the speakers of International Maritime Conference.
