The task force on climate change on Monday decided to prepare interim report by December 15, which would include global and national climate change perspectives, and policy level measures to address the adverse effects of climate change in the key sectors of national economy.
Established by the planning commission to address the challenges related to the phenomenon of climate change, the task force held its first formal meeting here the other day with Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Salman Faruqui in the chair.
The members and experts deliberated upon formulation of sub-groups in the key areas such as water (flood, drought and seasonal variability), food and agriculture, health, energy, fisheries and forests, focusing on mitigation, adaptation, research and development, financing, capacity building and collaboration among all the stakeholders.
A good part of discussion focused on situation of glaciers in the Himalayan region and to ascertain the extent of melting of these glaciers. They also deliberated on the strategy to minimise the speculations about this phenomenon so that policy measures were recommended on realistic basis.
An exploratory discussion was carried out to ascertain the level of existing knowledge, capacity of relevant organisations and help bring about synergies in their work. It was also decided that the next meeting of the task force would be held on 12th November 2008.
The meeting was attended by Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, Minister of State/Advisor Science & Technology, Planning Commission, Shams ul Mulk, ex-chairman Wapda, Ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel, ex-deputy executive director United Nations Environment Programme, Khushnood Akhtar Lashari, Secretary Environment Govt. of Pakistan, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, Director Lead Pakistan, Dr Qamar-uz-Zaman, Director General Pakistan Meteorological Department, Daniyal Hashmi, Wapda, Dr Aurangzeb Khan, Chief Environment Planning Commission, Mahmood Akhtar Cheema from IUCN and Dr Arshad M. Khan, Executive Director Global Change Impact Study Centre.
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