Revisiting the Climate Change Act.

Law is order, and good law is good order. A good law is a law only by virtue of its being based on a right reason; and developed in the right context; and only if it embodies the right detail. The Latin maxim 'Lex malla, Lex nulla', meaning 'A bad law is No law', rightly places the emphasis on the need for eschewing bad laws.

As far as a piece of legislation deviates from the right deductive reasoning, it's a sham. Penning down my concerns today are the laws in the realm of environment management and climate change.

Pakistan's vulnerability to adverse impacts of climate change are well established and widely recognized. Our cities get cited among the world's most polluted; smog has become a household term; and environmental bummers are a routine occurrence. As reported in the press, April 2022 turned out to be the hottest month here in the last 61 years. The melting of the Shishper Glacier in Gilgit-Baltistan a few days ago is the latest incident to raise eyebrows. Already a water-stressed nation, we are projected to have an emergency on our hands as the Indus and its tributaries gradually dry up.

It will be no surprise if we hear more and more cataclysmic episodes in the coming days and months. The question is what damage control measures we have taken? how good is the legal superstructure? Have we prepared ourselves beyond the lip service? What is the Pakistan Climate Change Act, 2017, not long ago trumpeted as the magnum opus on climate change, good for? How good are a plethora of other laws on the subject? Or does the maxim 'the more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws' hold good for us? Do we need to reset the clock and strive to change?

Till early 2010, the Pakistan Environment Protection Act (PEPA), 1997 was the principal legislation to control pollution with its jurisdiction extending to the whole of the country. Consequent to the 18th constitutional Amendment, the provinces enacted their own environmental laws, primarily by provincializing the federal Act. The provinces therefore became responsible to execute pollution control activities within their respective ambits.

These laws provide a comprehensive legal framework to regulate undesirable emissions that cause climate change. Meeting international obligations and commitments is a federal subject owing to provisions of the federal legislative list. Section 31 of PEPA, 1997 empowers Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) to make rules for implementing the...