Pakistan Suffered Loss of $100 Billion Due to Climate Change in Last Two Decades

Amid political and economic challenges, environmental conflicts have further exacerbated the situation for Pakistan, inflicted loss of $100 billion during the last two decade due to climate change compared to around $130 billion total external debt.  This was the crux of a thematic session titled ‘Environmental conflict and social dialogue in Pakistan’ organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Thursday.  Moderated by Dr Zainab Ahmed from Beaconhouse National University (BNU), the session was also attended by Higher Education Commission (HEC) Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Imrana Tiwana, BNU; Prof Dr Arshi Saleem Hashmi from National Defence Univerity; Qazi Saqib Basir from Muslim Aid Pakistan and Prof Rafi Amir-ud-Din from Comsats University, Lahore.  Speakers were of the view that by disturbing environment security, multiple crises, including hindering economic growth and food security, were created.  HEC Chairman Dr Mukhtar Ahmed said environmental conflict was one of the main challenges the country was currently facing. He said future wars would be fought over clean water and air, therefore factors disturbing the environment should be handled through collective wisdom.       He said huge agriculture land was being used for housing societies, which would create serious challenges for the food basket.  “Nature is being disturbed and the government should come up with an institutional mechanism to ensure that no agriculture land is used for other purposes,” the HEC chairman said, adding that another big challenge was deforestation which had disturbed the weather pattern leading to increase in temperature that affected crops.  He also recommended sustainable institutional arrangements to ensure reforestation.  Arshi Hashmi said that environmental conflict could not be taken in isolation, and other factors were also making it challenging. She said sustainable peace was directly linked to a secure environment, adding that environmental conflict affected every segment of society.  Imrana Tiwana said the environment was weighing high as currently eight per cent of the GDP was affected by climate change which was expected to reach 30 per cent by 2050, ultimately reducing life expectancy.  Saqib Basir said Pakistan had suffered $100 billion in losses due to natural disasters caused by climate change during the last two decades, while the total external debt of the country since its creation was around $130 billion. He further said that due to rising temperature and climate change around 70 to 80 percent development of the country was washed away.    Rafi Amir ud Din said conventional measures such as bans and taxes showed limited success in reducing single use plastic bag usage. Previous bans on plastic bags in Islamabad were transient and largely ineffective, he added.