Opinion | Pakistan’s climate change fight needs a strong social narrative to succeed

Name: Pakistan’s Karachi residents left thirsty amid water shortages
Uploaded: 2021-10-20T00:45:10.000Z
Duration: 2 min 31 s
Description: Pakistan’s Karachi residents left thirsty amid water shortages

Recent steps by the government are encouraging, but a lack of social awareness and acceptance could doom Pakistan’s progress

The failure of Islamabad’s plastic bag ban and increased logging despite reforestation efforts show the importance of securing public support

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A Pakistani villager walks on the dry Hanna lake in Urak Valley, some 15km from Quetta, on October 6, 2018. Some half a million people have been displaced because of severe droughts caused by a lack of rain. Photo: AFP

Jawad Khalid

Published: 8:45am, 20 Oct 2021

Pakistan is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, according to German Watch’s Climate Risk Index. The country has been experiencing an increasing number of heatwaves, droughts and floods. With rapidly melting glaciers and receding groundwater table levels, Pakistan faces grave threats of a water crisis.

A recent United Nations report indicated that Pakistan could face acute water shortages by 2050. According to a climate risk country profile by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, Pakistan’s economy is losing as much as US$3.8 billion annually because of climate change.

To tackle the challenge of climate change, Pakistan’s government has formulated several policies. Foremost among them is the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme, which aims to plant 10 billion trees by 2023.

Similarly, the Alternative and Renewable Energy Policy 2019 ambitiously aims to increase Pakistan’s share of green energy generation to 30 per cent by 2030. Moreover, the government has introduced ecosystem-based adaptation solutions such as Recharge Pakistan to build resilience and reduce vulnerability.

These policies are steps in the right direction. However, the ingredient missing from Pakistan’s climate change policies is social awareness and acceptance. Although we now have a narrative in the policy domain through the government’s initiatives, what is needed is a strong narrative in the social sphere.

02:31

Pakistan’s Karachi residents left thirsty amid water shortages

Without awareness that a problem exists, it is impossible to find its solution. Many people are not aware that climate change poses a serious threat to their livelihoods.

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