‘Temperatures, heatwaves set to increase’
Dawn, Pakistan, December 12,
2014
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The effects of climate change will, over the course of the
next century, lead to an average increase of up to five
degrees Celcius in the annual mean temperature of Pakistan
and take the duration of heatwaves – that are all too common
already – up to 69 days.
These alarming
conclusions were presented, quite calmly, by SDPI’s Dr Fahad
Saeed during a session on ‘Future Climate
Scenarios:Implications for Hotspot Regions’.
Presenting the
findings of his research, which he undertook using global
data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
he presented various scenarios about what the future climate
of Pakistan may look like.
While he took
pains to clarify that, “A climate scenario is not a
prediction of future climate,” Dr Saeed warned that in this
particular field, there were more uncertainties than
certainties, but understanding the former would lead to
decisions that are more robust in dealing with a wide range
of possible futures.
Factors such as
greenhouse gas emissions, natural internal climate
variability and inherent uncertainty in the modeling systems
used to estimate future scenarios could all skew the
numbers, but the general trends still remained intact.
The panel, which
was chaired by SDPI Executive Director Abid Suleri, also
featured a consultation on ‘Pathways to resilience in
semi-arid economies’ with experts from Tanzania, Tajikistan,
as well as experts from major international think-tanks. Guy
Jobins from the London-based Overseas Development Institute
talked about how the focus of their work was to ensure that
poverty reduction was made climate resilient.
Dr Suleri told the
panel that stakeholders viewed agriculture as the sector
most vulnerable to climate change, but audience members
pointed to equally-important problems such as water scarcity
and livestock as potential problem areas.
The discussion saw
candid and lively discussion around the political problems
that are behind the lack of comprehensive planning that may
help Pakistan cope with the long-term impacts of climate
change.
A participant from
Sindh noted that in Tharparkar, the winters had extended to
March, while monsoon rains had been delayed until September,
playing havoc with local cropping patterns and affecting
staple crop yields.
Droughts and
floods, it was observed, are a permanent feature of the
climate of Sindh, but the government goes for temporary
relief rather than making a clear, long-term policy to cope
with the impacts of these climatic patterns.
Mubarak Zeb Khan
adds: An effective competition policy can help promote and
achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, observed
participants at a Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) and
SDPI Panel Session on Competition Policy and Sustainable
Development.
“Rivalry leads to
firms aiming at producing at lower costs to beat their
competitors which results in lesser consumption of
resources, thus reducing the environmental burden”, said
CUTS International Secretary General Pradeep S.Mehta.
Competition
Commission of Pakistan Chairman Dr Joseph Wilson said that
competition was about promoting fair markets for consumers
and not necessarily about controlling prices or increasing
the number of players.
This news can
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