Hammad Naqi Khan is the Director-General at WWF-Pakistan. He possesses more than 30 years of professional experience in environment, climate change adaptations, water management, resource mobilization and partnership building, market transformation & greening the supply chain, and sustainable agriculture with a focus on improving farmers’ livelihood & food security. As Global Cotton Leader (Aug 2011 to July 2014) under WWF-International's Market Transformation Initiative (MTI), Hammad has led advocacy approaches, representing WWF in multilateral fora and other policy dialogues. He was a member of the Senior Executive Team (SET) for Asia Pacific Growth Strategy (APGS) and has also represented Asia Pacific in the Network Executive Team (NET) of WWF-international since 2015 till July 2018; in addition to being a member of SWG and WWF GEF Steering Committee. Hammad is a non-official member of the Pakistan Climate Change Committee chaired by the Prime Minister, a Member of the IUCN-Pakistan National Committee (PNC), and a LEAD Fellow.

Following are the edited excerpts of a recent conversation BR Research had with Mr. Hammad regarding the rising climate and environmental challenges for the world and Pakistan:

BR Research: Being an environmentalist, how critical has climate change become, given the recent revelations in the UN’s IPCC report?

Hammad Naqi Khan: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body created to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments, implications, and potential future risks in climate change as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options.

It is important for the readers to understand the whole process behind climate change lobbying. There have been quite a few global conventions focusing on nature conservation, environment, chemical and effluent management, or emissions that are all legally binding documents and ratified by the participating countries. Everyone was very happy when the Paris Agreement, which is an international treaty on climate change covering climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance was adopted in 2015.

However, whether it is the recent IPCC report; or the commitments and discussions held in Madrid last year at COP25; or the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the alarming thing today is that the targets set in the Paris Agreement remain far from being accomplished considering the current emission levels. The emissions and the temperatures are “locked-in”, which means that the temperature of the Earth will continue to rise despite the efforts or the anticipations and commitments made so far. This is because, at the moment, the emissions are around 38 percent more than what is required to control the Earth’s temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This means that the average temperature will continue to rise despite the fact that the private sector is committing to neutral emissions globally and eventually becoming net-zero or net-positive.

BRR: Can you tell us what the main purpose of the IPCC report is and what should ring alarm bells for the policymakers and the decision-makers?

HNK: The main objective of the IPCC, when it was set up in 1988 was to provide all the policymakers, decision-makers, and politicians with solid scientific assessments. These assessments were not only conducted to analyze the risk; they were also conducted to identify options on how to mitigate those risks, and more importantly, find options for adaptation primarily for the developing and South-Eastern countries. The panel has come up with five reports so far, and the sixth comprehensive report will be issued next year in 2022.

What is alarming is the terms used in this report and the assessment that has been done. The warning in the report is that of a crisis, of a huge magnitude; and the report talks about the anthropogenic impact being unequivocal needing immediate curbing of greenhouse gas emissions. But it also further says that even if countries comply with their commitments and take immediate action, the impact will still be there whether it's on the ice sheet, the rainfall pattern, food security, sea-level rise, or frequency and intensity of natural disasters.

The message in the IPCC report is loud and clear: Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying; and every country, government, business, and part of the society must act now to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

As a student of environmental science and as an environmentalist, I believe this report should be taken as a wake-up call by the policy and decision-makers, particularly when people say that the pandemic has seriously affected the economies and the global population. Yes, we are affected by the pandemic and we don't know how long it will last, but climate change is a much bigger, long-term challenge that is not getting the collective global attention than it should. For example, the NDCs have not been aggressive despite the commitments made after the Paris Agreement that every country will enhance them. Developing countries lack resources, and the developed world needs to fulfill its commitments and promises before announcing new ambitions. There is no time left.

BRR: Coming to Pakistan, how would you rate the government’s performance in combating climate change?

HNK: The government rightly mentions that our contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is hardly one percent. But if you look at the Global Climate Risk Index, Pakistan is among the top 10 most vulnerable countries to climate change. The government’s initiatives like the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami, Clean Green Pakistan, or Electric Vehicle Policy are all steps in the right direction but these are not the only solutions to the problem. The problem is much bigger.

Secondly, climate change for us is water change, because 60 percent of our water in water bodies comes from snow and glacial melt, while the rest comes through precipitation - primarily the monsoon rains. We can see monsoon patterns changing; heatwaves becoming a regular feature, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) becoming more frequent. And then our food security is linked to agriculture - most of which is irrigated agriculture. Our agronomic practices are still not efficient, while our key crops - cotton, rice, wheat, or sugar cane - are all water-intensive.

The solution for a country like Pakistan is adaptation. Adaptation at the local level is critical; our districts should have adaptation plans and they should be resourced properly. Rather than having a separate ministry and a separate department for environment and climate change, the focus should be on ensuring that every department has a person who is well-versed in climate-smart development plans. We need to have a holistic approach to address this challenge. We are not doing enough.

BRR: Do you think we have the right policies and systems in place to implement such adaptive strategies to address climate change?

HNK: It is very important to have an enabling environment and a supportive policy and regulatory framework, and Pakistan is good at developing policies - at least on paper. We have a national climate change policy with a similar framework with some changes adopted by the provinces too. We have climate change councils at the federal level, with similar arrangements at the provincial levels. There is also a representation of the private sector, academia, and scientists. We also have an implementation framework, which is a document where interventions are intelligently and rightly categorized into three different types: long term, medium-term and immediate.

The awareness is there; supportive policy is in place, and apparently the political will also exist. Being an environmentalist for almost three decades, I believe that if we implement the climate change policy and the framework in letter and spirit, we don't need any water, environment, or forest policy because the climate change policy is very comprehensive.

BRR: So what do you see happening at COP26?

HNK: This year is important because the stock take is going to happen this time in the light of the commitments which were made in 2015 in Paris. More importantly, COP26 will be about updating and upgrading the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) because of the commitment that was made in Madrid last year. Another important thing this year will be the finalization of the Paris Rule Book, which is a crucial document for the operationalization and implementation of the Paris Agreement. It will also be interesting to see how the divide between the developed and the developing world is addressed in terms of measures to address climate change, cost incurred, climate finance, and resources mobilization.