Briefing session Millenium Development Goals
UNDP Country Director addresses youth on Climate Change

Rawalpindi, 5 December 2007

5 December, 2007, UN Information Centre, Islamabad: "Climate change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time", said Mr. Alvaro Rodriguez, Country Director, UNDP-Pakistan, while addressing a briefing session on climate change, organized by the UN Information, Islamabad in cooperation with the Department of Environmental Sciences, Fatimah Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi and UNDP , on 5 December 2007. This session was one among a series of briefing sessions, organized by the centre in connection with the awareness raising initiatives on MDGs.

He said that the recent events have emphatically demonstrated our growing vulnerability to climate change. Climate change impacts will range from affecting agriculture- further endangering food security-, sea-level rise and the accelerated erosion of coastal zones, increasing intensity of natural disasters, species extinction and the spread of vector-borne diseases. In the past century the earth has warmed 0.7 degrees centigrade. Scientific studies have concluded that the world is now at or near the warmest level of record in the current interglacial period, which began around 12,000 years ago.

Emphasizing on the impact of the climate change on Pakistan , he told that a ccelerated glacial melt in the Himalayas will compound already severe ecological problems across this region. In Pakistan it will initially increase floods before reducing the flow of water to major river systems vital for irrigation. The thousands of glaciers located across 2,400 kilometers of the Himalayan range are at the epicenters of emerging crisis. The flow to Indus , which receives nearly 90 percent of its water from upper mountain catchments, could decline by as much as 70 percent by 2080.

Significantly, during 2005, Pakistan faced temperatures 5-6°C above the regional average. I wonder how many in the audience can relate to climate change as already affecting our lives in Pakistan .

Talking about CO2 emissions, he informed that with 2.4 % of the world's population, Pakistan accounts for 0.4% of global emissions- an average tonnes of 0.8 tonnes of carbon di-oxide per person.

If we all today decide to ignore the situation of climate change and do not take the required measures, we will suffer major losses on agricultural production as a result of climate change which will lead to increased malnutrition and reduced opportunities for poverty reduction.

By 2080, the number of additional people at risk of hunger could reach 600 million-twice the number of people living in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa today. In Pakistan , climate models simulate agriculture yield losses of 6-9 percent for wheat with a 1 degree centigrade increase in temperature.

Among other risks, that climate change poses threats to human health with the developing countries being seriously affected because of high levels of poverty and the limited capacity of public health systems to respond. An additional 220-400 million people could be exposed to malaria - a disease that already claims around 1 million lives annually. The incidence of dengue fever could also rise as a result of climate change.

As we know, seven years after the Millennium Declaration, the Government of Pakistan has made considerable progress in stabilizing the economy, and in undertaking key policy reforms that provide critical input to realizing the MDGs.

Improvements in Pakistan 's HDI ranking over the past few years also attest to the growing commitment of the GOP to dedicate resources and initiate reforms necessary for improving the stock of human and social capital. But all this could be hampered by climate change within a few years.

Responding to the questions asked about "how to tackle these challenges"? , he shared and explained a four points strategy to address these challenges; 1) Mitigation, 2) adaptation, 3) capacity building and 4) mainstreaming : to integrate climate change in national programmes. He informed the students that all these strategies will be placed on the table during the inter governmental meeting taking place at Bali this December. Bali conference brings together representatives of over 180 countries together with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, and the media for a breakthrough in international climate change negotiations.

He concluded his presentation with a quote of a woman affected by the floods in Pakistan "I have lost all that I had, my children, my home and now to feed myself I have moved to Karachi and have resorted to begging. This despairs me beyond limit?" The window of opportunity is narrowing fast, we need to act now for the sake of our children.

Professor Dr. Saeeda Asadullah Khan, Vice Chancellor of the university, in her address, thanked Mr. Rodriguez for his highly valuable presentation to the young future environmentalists. She said that it offered students of environmental sciences an excellent opportunity to learn more about these critical global challenges of climate change. The knowledge and information base shared in this presentation will be very useful for students during their course of professional studies of environmental sciences.

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