UN hails Pakistan’s steps to meet Climate Change challenges

NEW YORK (92 News) – Executive Secretary United Nations Climate Change Conference Ms Patricia Espinosa has said the Pakistan is taking bold steps to meet climate change challenges. Talking to Advisor to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam, she said steps taken by Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Government of Pakistan regarding climate change is inspiring. The UN Climate Executive Secretary said billion tree program of Pakistan will also play an important role to overcome the impacts of transition in climate and Pakistan will play a leadership role in future. Earlier, PM Imran Khan has urged the developed countries to support the low-emission countries for coping with climate change and looming consequent crises. The prime minister stated while addressing a high-level event on “Environmental Stewardship in Addressing Poverty to Achieve Sustainable Development for All” co-chaired by him and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad on sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session. “Pakistan is contributing hardly anything to green house gases. Rich countries, which are really responsible (for emissions), should help countries like Pakistan and other countries… which are not trying to compensate for the damage done by these green house gas emissions,” the prime minister said. Imran Khan informed the gathering that the forest cover in Pakistan had been among the lowest; however, his party-led government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province planted 1.1 billion saplings during last five years against the target of one billion to fight the climate change. PM Khan said impressed by the success of the idea, his government had targeted to plant 10 billion trees across the country which could face severe crisis in future as the glaciers contributing 80 percent of the country’s rivers were fast receding. He said Pakistan was among the top 10 countries to face the effects of the climate change and if the glaciers continued to melt with the same pace, the future of the hundreds of millions people in the region would be in danger. The premier said unfortunately, the seriousness on part of the developed countries to tackle the environmental challenges was lacking despite the fact that the phenomenon would affect both the rich as well as the poor nations.