Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Chairperson of Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change, Senator Sherry Rehman, has said that there are two eras of ecological neglect: the historical period when industries consumed massive amounts of fossil fuels and emitted carbon and the present day, where Artificial Intelligence and data centers are consuming immense quantities of water, but the world is still not paying enough attention to the critical issues.
She was speaking at a plenary titled: ‘Strengthening Climate Action: Priorities and Proposals for Effective Implementation’, organized on the occasion of the 4-day Sustainable Development Conference held by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute at the Allama Iqbal Open University here on Monday.
The overarching theme of this year’s conference is ‘Rethinking Development in an Age of Disruption’.
“We are in an Axial Age. The advent of El Niño means that we are in a century of water scarcity,” the Senator said, noting that Pakistan is stuck in recovery mode. “Every summer, there is a disaster and even if there is a gap, the country remains in recovery mode,” she said.
Justice Jawad Hassan of the Lahore High Court (LHC) said Pakistan has led the world not only in turning soft laws and climate warnings into hard laws enshrined in the constitution, but also become the country to have complied with all climate-related international provisions in the ESG framework.
Minister of State for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Dr Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal, said that climate change and disaster know no boundaries, “Nepal’s disaster is a recent example, and our mountains are very similar.” She said that these changes are also affecting our economies, and “the Government of Pakistan recognizes this urgency”.
SDPI Executive Director Dr. Abid Suleri said that in the upcoming UN General Assembly there will be a discussion on the post-SDG-era roadmap, which is why Pakistan needs actionable and potent “macro, meso and micro level implementation of climate action.”
Tracy Mamoun from Southern Voice said climate action should not be in silos. Multiple countries are facing similar issues and require a coordinated approach to their resolution,” she added. She also raised a few questions regarding the current level and approach of climate action across the world. She said,“impact of climate change is often localized, so there is a question of decision-making authority, which often does not lie with the local governments.”
Mozaharul Alam, Climate Change Programme Regional Coordinator at the UN Environment Programme, said that while the UNEP report has warned of the higher temperature hike globally, an even more significant point to consider is the uneven rise. “Asia Pacific experiences global warming at twice the rate as the rest of the world,” he noted, adding, “the temperature rise will be different across different countries and across different sectors, such as water and food, and even health.”
Speaking at another plenary, titled Rethinking agriculture through regenerative practices: Restoring Soil, Water and Nature’s Balance’, Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Romina Khurshid Alam has called for an urgent transition towards regenerative agriculture, warning that worsening water scarcity, climate-induced disasters and declining soil health are threatening Pakistan’s food security, agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods.
“It’s now or never. The way we grow our food must therefore be part of our response to water scarcity,” she said, stressing the need to restore soil health, conserve water and strengthen the resilience of farming communities against climate shocks.
Parliamentary Secretary for National Food Security and Research Dr Shaista Khan Jadoon revealed that the proportion of Pakistani households experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity had increased to 24.3 percent in 2024-25 from 15.92 percent in 2018-19. She said food security was not simply about the availability of food but also whether families could afford nutritious diets and farmers had the economic capacity and confidence to continue investing in their land.
SDPI Executive Director Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri warned that climate change, shrinking cultivable land and increasingly extreme weather conditions were undermining agricultural productivity and making farming a riskier livelihood, discouraging younger generations from entering the sector. He said the weakening of traditional family support systems was forcing farmers to depend on middlemen for diesel, fertilizer and pesticides on credit at exorbitant premiums, further eroding their earnings after harvest.
Silvia Giada, Programme Manager at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Thailand, called for integrating ecosystem-based adaptation into agricultural practices to protect farmers and communities from climate change. She said regenerative agricultural practices could contribute to ecosystem-based adaptation by strengthening agricultural resilience and protecting the ecosystem services on which farming depends.
