The five-day World Climate Conference, to be attended by Pakistan, will open on Monday (today) in Geneva to contemplate steps to create a Global Framework for Climate Services. UN Secretary General, seventeen heads of state and as many as 100 government ministers will attend the conference.
Federal Minister for Environment Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi along with Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, Advisor to Prime Minister and Dr Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, Director General Pakistan Meteorological Department will represent Pakistan at the international meeting. The conference will focus on improving national climate observation and monitoring networks and review ongoing research on climate modelling and prediction efforts.
The spotlight will be on Global Climate Services Information System with user interface programme. An official of Met office told APP that the Pakistan's delegation to this important event, will be represented by country's eminent scientist, Dr Ishfaq Ahmad, who established country's first climate research center ie, Global Change Impact Study Centre (GCISC). He is currently Advisor in the Planning Commission of Pakistan and Chairman of its Task Force on Climate Change.
Earlier, World Conferences achieved some important milestones and agreed to set up Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and World Climate Research Programme (WCRP).
The WCC-3 will pick up threads from the previous conferences and help speed up global endeavours against threats to the environment that create difficulties for humans and damages earth's ecosystems and biodiversity.
The member countries will closely look at available opportunities that can translate into boosting the process of sustainable social and economic development, especially in developing and least developed countries, the official said.
The framework will ensure speedy flow of data and information in the area of weather and climate. Heightened concerns of climate change makes the framework highly desirable.