Chairperson of BoG, Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Shafqat Kakakhel, has said that the South Asian region is vulnerable as the region is frequented by climate-induced calamities.
Mr Kakakhel was delivering the keynote address at a seminar on ‘Regional cooperation on climate change in South Asia’ organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
Kakakhel bemoaned the continued lack of political will to carry out several agreements made under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) on Climate.
In his reaction, Dr Philipp Johannes Zehmisch of the South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg, Pakistan’s performance on climate change is being hampered by a lack of funding.
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He said that it was crucial for the countries in the region to engage in green energy programs as climate change is a broad topic that includes everything from disaster assistance to mitigation.
For Dr Shailly Kedia, associate director of TERI in Delhi, decoupling political divides is crucial in order to address the issue of climate change in the area. He added that science must be the driving force behind climate diplomacy and that the focus must shift from nations to individuals.
According to Anam Rathor, technical advisor, Climate Finance, GIZ, the main challenge for developing nations like Pakistan is how to gain access to the international climate fund and receive adequate support from it.
Story was adapted from the News.
