Bureau Report
PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Mehmood Khan on Sunday approved Climate Change policy 2022 to counter the devastation caused by natural disasters.
According to details, the Climate Change Police 2022 has identified 129 elements giving rise to climate change in the country. The policy as also identified 172 climate-friendly initiatives that need to be pushed.
The CM Mehmood Khan said that tending to Climate Change is the need of the hour. The action has come after the worst floods in living memory in Pakistan have already resulted in more than 1,100 deaths, including more than 350 children.
The floods have affected up to 33 million people, and the Flood Response Plan now has the daunting task of providing relief to 5.2 million people. Referred to as a “monster monsoon” by Pakistan’s climate change minister Sherry Rehman, the floods have left more than one-third of the country underwater. It will be some time before the full cost of the damage is known. But with infrastructure damaged across the country, provisional estimates suggest the losses could total around USD 10 billion. Stronger monsoons result in higher precipitation, and the monsoons are getting more severe. So climate change is a factor. We have also had torrential rains in Sindh, run-off floods in Balochistan, urban flooding in cities like Karachi and Hyderabad, flash floods in south Punjab and lower Sindh, and glacial floods in Gilgit-Baltistan. All this shows that due to climate change, the monsoon has changed its traditional passage, and this will have long-term implications for human security in Pakistan.
