The Norwegian Embassy and IUCN Pakistan Friday signed an agreement for developing and institutionalising the Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) on Climate Change for Pakistan. Dr Sissel Volan, Head Development Section, Royal Norwegian Embassy and Sohail Maqbool Malik, Country Representative, IUCN Pakistan, signed the agreement.
While addressing the participants Sohail Maqbool Malik said, "by bringing together different organisations working on climate change on a single platform, the TAP will provide active support to Pakistan to address climate change challenges." The panel would also undertake activities to build capacity and raise awareness among stakeholders.
To this end, the TAP will work for enhancing the economic and social resilience of Pakistan's population to the effects of climate change by generating and disseminating technical knowledge for application. As such, the TAP will identify national research needs, mobilise national, regional and international expertise and forge linkages with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for capacity building of the government and other stakeholders for effective participation in UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol negotiations and the development of programmes to implement the recommendations of the conference of parties.
In addition, TAP will also facilitate the adoption of a cross-sectoral approach for integration of climate change perspectives in all relevant government policies and programmes and assist the MoE in developing project proposals on climate change mitigation. Currently, the TAP comprises six organisations, including the Ministry of Environment, Global Change Impact Studies Centre, Pakistan Agriculture Research Council, Pakistan Meteorological Department, Asia Pacific Network, Pakistan and IUCN Pakistan that will house the TAP secretariat.
"With a natural resource-based economy, Pakistan is not a major contributor to greenhouse emissions. Still, it remains extremely vulnerable to global warming and climate change due to their negative impacts on food production, water resources, biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Climate change can also increase the likelihood of natural disasters such as droughts, floods and cyclones that can wreak havoc on the population", added Sohail Maqbool Malik.
The GoP is a signatory to the UNFCCC as well as the Kyoto Protocol and has shown keen commitment to addressing the issues. In Pakistan, various institutions, including government departments and academic bodies, are working on climate change issues. But there is an urgent need to bring together all the players on a single platform to create synergies.
Created in 1948, the World Conservation Union brings together 83 States, 111 government agencies, 800 plus NGOs, and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 148 countries in a unique worldwide partnership. The Union's mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is ecologically sustainable.
The Union is the world's largest environmental knowledge network and has helped over 75 countries to prepare and implement national conservation and biodiversity strategies. The Union is a multicultural, multilingual organisation with 1,000 staff located in 62 countries. Its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland.
IUCN Pakistan has programmes from the north to the south of the country and multiple field projects. It is one of the nine Country Offices of IUCN's Asia Programme, covering 23 countries with a workforce of nearly 500.