Climate Change Council should be assembled within 100 days: Senator Sherry.

ISLAMABAD -- Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman on Wednesday took charge of the Climate Change Ministry.

On the occasion, Minister Sherry Rehman said, 'Climate Change is a very important and serious issue, particularly in developing countries such as Pakistan. So far approximately 80% of the urban population lack access to clean drinking water. Pakistani cities rank highly on the air pollution score in the world and one in ten deaths amongst children under five are caused by air pollution and 128,000 people die from airborne particulate matter yearly in Pakistan. What we have seen so far are headless climate change ministries that fail to blip on the federal government's own policy radar. We need to rethink our policies and coordinate priorities quickly', said a news release

She continued, 'First and foremost, a policy roadmap beyond planting trees is needed. At the same time public awareness and community buy-in is crucial if we are to combat climate change as a nation. We need the Ministries' priorities and policies to be up and running to focus on all key challenges, particularly the terrible damage caused by waste and pollution of all resources; behaviour change needs messaging, in language that should also be easily accessible by the common citizen. Our population needs to be made aware of the ever-increasing danger we face at the hands of climate change. We as a society don't really understand that Pakistan will be threatened by even deeper social instability than it faces today without a public plan that focuses on action. Climate action is not just about planting trees, but much more. Pollution of our water and air, temperature rise , have caused incalculable costs to the country, to its soil, to its people and exposed us to disease and vulnerability.

Whilst the potential cost of climate inaction is varied, the estimated consensus is a shocking $3.8 billion annually. It is a painful irony of climate change that those least responsible for the problem are often the ones most exposed to its ravages. Global climate change has been partly caused by greenhouse gas emissions by industrialist countries. Pakistan contributes only 6% of the world's emissions, yet is one of the countries consistently ranked amongst the most vulnerable to the harmful effects of climate change. Environmental pollution, air pollution, smog eradication, water scarcity, public awareness and a number of other key issues are among our policy...