By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is among the most relentlessly affected countries due to climate change facing frequent natural disasters whereas its massive afforestation plantation programmes helped in emitting nine per cent less green house gases (GHG) emissions as projected in the studies. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam stated that after successful plantation of one billion trees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under Billion Tree Afforestation Project (BTAP) and after the launch of Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (10BTTP), a scaled up version of the former has helped in increasing carbon absorption or sequestration to a significant level.
‘Pakistan’s current GHG emissions comprise of 500 million tonnes which is less than one percent of the global emissions level. The country shows 9 per cent decrease in the GHG emissions as projected by international studies for this decade which is below business as usual,†he added.
The BTAP and 10BTTP massive afforestation projects would help sequester an estimated 500 million tonnes of carbon within next two decades which would be equal to our current total GHG emissions, Amin Aslam said while highlighting a recent study made in this regard.
These two projects, he said would be very strong solutions to reduce adverse impacts of environmental degradation, adding, ‘It will help in bending the country’s total GHG emissions that are still less than one per cent.
The Ministry of Climate Change under its National Programme for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has developed the first ever Forest Reference Emissions Level (FREL) data which sets a benchmark of emissions from deforestation that will help the country to estimate the carbon stocks being absorbed by its forests to access foreign exchange through result-based payments.
REDD+ is a mechanism developed by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It creates a financial value for the carbon stored in forests by offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development.
Developing countries would receive results-based payments for results-based actions. REDD+ goes beyond simply deforestation and forest degradation and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, said the UNREDD website.
The National FREL submitted to the UNFCCC was developed in a stepwise approach with the technical assistance of an international consulting firm Arbonaut Oy, Finland in joint venture with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Pakistan).
The FREL has estimated 946,653 tonnes CO2 per annum between 2004 to 2012 as the magnitude of this climate change inducing gas being released from forests in Pakistan as a consequence of deforestation which could be absorbed by mitigating the loss of trees and green cover. It highlighted that the largest share of CO 2 emissions originated from dry temperate forests with 34 per cent, riverine forests 27 percent and Chir pine forests 16 percent followed by moist temperate 11 per cent, scrub 9 per cent and thorn 3 per cent forests in 2004-2012.
It is worth mentioning here that globally deforestation and forest degradation account for approximately 11 percent of carbon emissions, more than the entire global transportation sector and second only to the energy sector.
Apart from other mitigation measures, the ambitious target of limiting rising earth temperature to two degree Celsius is not possible sans reducing emissions from the forest sector which is considered as the most viable option.
Pakistan is repeatedly placed among the top ten countries vulnerable due to climate change in Global Climate Risk Index of the German Watch as the country is highly exposed to impending climatic threats.
