LAHORE (PR): A high level outreach event was held in Planning & Development Department Wednesday to launch the 5th Assessment Report (AR5) of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC). The event was presided over by Chairman P&D, Irfan Elahi which was attended by eminent officials from different provincial departments, academic & research institutions and development organizations.  
Speaking on the occasion, Elahi said that climate change has grave impacts for the region and therefore, Punjab government is working with its international partners especially European Union on different resilience strategies and projects in the province. He appreciated the IPCC’s in generating knowledge and understanding on climate and its impacts on development, infrastructure and health. He urged the need to put more efforts, R&D and social network development as adaptation and mitigation measures to cope with emerging risks associated with changing weather patterns.
The CEO Urban Unit, Dr. Nasir Javed, CEO LEAD Pakistan, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh and contributing authors to AR5 Dr Mohsin Iqbal, Dr Joyshree Roy and Dr Edwin Aldrian shared different lessons for South Asian region, drawn from AR5. The session concluded that there was a need to decouple economic growth from emissions and population increase and the overall development of the region should follow a low carbon pathway.
In the panel discussion, Dr. Ghulam Rasool of Pakistan Meteorological Department and Dr. Nazimuddin of University of Gujrat also joined as panellists. Responding to different questions and comments, the audience was apprised that the IPCC periodically assesses the regional and global impacts of climate change on different regions and sectors based on scientific evidence and socio-economic trends on the planet.

The IPCC report predicts that there will be increased incidence of flooding, drought, glacial melt and resulting impacts on crop yield and food security in the region.
The session concluded that there are many lessons for policy makers of the region in the report such as developing regional climate cooperation for climate modelling and resource management , channelling more investment in different sectors, diverting attention to land use planning and turning focus on high emission sector such as urban development, agriculture, power generation and transport.