ISLAMABAD - The federal government has decided to establish Climate Change Authority to tackle climate related challenges in the country. The authority would be headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, The Nation learnt reliably yesterday.
The sources said that the Ministry of Climate Change has completed the draft of “Pakistan Climate Change Act 2016”, which will be presented in Parliament for approval soon.
They also said the aim behind this move is to control the damage of natural disasters and to organise awareness campaigns, researches and sign the agreements with international organizations in this regard.
The federal government will also generate a special fund for Pakistan Climate Change Authority, the sources added.
They also said that the PM will be the chairman of authority and Federal Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Planning Division, Minister for National Food Security, Finance Minister and Minister for Water and Power will be members of the authority.
Representative of all provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu Kashmir, FATA, National Disaster Management Authority and Federal Secretary for Climate Change will be part of this authority.
More than 35 government officers, experts and representatives of civil society will be the part of the authority, they added.
On the other hand, the federal government could not implement the first approved forest policy due to the alleged poor coordination of Ministry of Climate Change with provinces in last three years.
Talking to The Nation, a senior expert of climate change Haroon Akram appreciated the decision of the federal government and said the provinces should cooperate with the government for establishing Pakistan’s first ever climate change authority. He said the federal government should give task to this department to prepare an effective policy to utilize the flood water along with the cooperation of experts and provinces.
He urged the government to allocate sufficient funds to the authority, engage national and international experts for preparing the climate change policy for next 30 years.
