Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy (PCP) and the One Joint Programme (One UN JPE) on Environment jointly organised a session on corporate social responsibility 'A Climate Change Perspective' at a local hotel on Wednesday. The function was attended by CSR representatives of various corporate entities, social society organisations, the UN agencies in Pakistan, besides many government officials. The programme was aimed at creating awareness about the climate change risks.
The event also highlighted the importance of One UN JPE and different initiatives, which helps evolve partnership with civil society organisations and the federal and provincial governments along with the One UN programmes initiatives to develop partnership of UN agencies with the corporate sector.
The Executive Director of PCP, Dr Anjum Riyaz ul Haque welcomed the participants and explained the broader objectives of the programme. Speaking on the climate change perspective, Rina Saeed held deforestation, glaciers thawing into lakes, pollution in big cities like Karachi and Lahore and such other key factors responsible for the weather becoming unpredictable in the county.
She said the deterioration in climate could be arrested through growth of green economies, besides transferring the energy production into alternative modes including solar, wind etc. She said that conservation of natural resources and protection of forests would be helpful in scaling down the volume of carbon in the air.
Rina Saeed observed that Pakistan's emission of pollution was insignificant than other major countries like India and China though, the country was suffering from the global change in the climate. She suggested that better agriculture practices, disaster preparedness and spread of awareness could be the possible steps to protect the country's environment. She opined that the climate change had emerged as a new challenge to the CSR, saying it was a responsibility which public and private sectors had to jointly shoulder to protect the nation from atmospheric troubles.
Head of Corporate Affairs at Standard Charter Bank, Ali Habib, Deputy General Manager of Habib Bank Limited, Maya Ismail, Programme Analyst of One UN JPE, Usman Manzoor, Assistant Country Director, Environment and Climate, UNDP, Abdul Qadir Rafiq highlighted their institutions' workings towards the social responsibilities in the country. National Programme Co-ordinator of One UN JPE, Amanullah Khan shared his views on climate change.