'67pc of youth want to leave Pakistan, climate change causing deaths'.

LAHORE -- A two-day festival, called EconFest, for debates and discussions on the economy of the country and the related sectors being organised by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) kicked off at Alhamra Art Centre, Mall Road, on Saturday. Sessions on myriad topics like economic and energy crisis, investment, identity, agriculture, climate and education were held on the opening day while many more on similar topics were scheduled for Sunday (today).

One of the first sessions was on 'climate change and resilient cities' on the opening day.

Moderating the session, environmental lawyer Rafay Alam said the climate change and greenhouse gases were disrupting the weather system, which was balanced since the last ice age. Giving an example of the hot weather conditions in early March in Lahore, he told the audience that it was actually going to be the coolest summer for the rest of their lives.

'The Pakistani cities are right in the middle of several fault lines regarding climate change, which has brought increasing heat and unbearable air pollution in some of our cities. The question is how should our cities respond as about fifty percent of the population lives in urban areas.'

Shocking facts shared in two-day EconFest that kicks off at Alhamra

Omar Masud, the chief executive officer of Urban Unit, said the debate on climate change had not gone down to the level of the communities and the citizens. That's why there was no voice at their level regarding climate change. 'The question is how do we contextualise climate change within cities,' he said, suggesting that a talk on climate change in Lahore should focus on the city itself and its neigbourhoods being affected by the weather conditions.

He pointed out that climate change was being discussed at the federal level as well as at the provincial level but there was hardly any talk at the local level, which was a challenge.

Mujtaba Hussain, the additional secretary of the ministry of climate change, raised the issue of lack of proper understanding of the climate change at the federal as well as provincial level, saying that absolutely nobody understood this issue at the local level.

'The message has to go down to the tehsil and union council level,' he suggested and added that it was the responsibility of the government to mainstream climate change into the development process.

Dr Mehreen Mujtaba, a health expert, said there were more than 0.8m deaths worldwide due to climate...