Nuaman Ishfaq Mughal,
Islamabad: Dr. Adil Najam, Dean, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University stated that for a country like Pakistan, which depends solely on water, climate change was not a future issue but a current issue. He stated this during his address at a Public Talk on Global Climate Change and its Implications for Pakistan, organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI), under its Distinguished Lecture Series.
Dr. Adil Najam started off by talking about the age of adoption. He said that vulnerability was inversely proportional to how much countries contribute. He stated, “We have passed the age of mitigation and have landed in the age of adaptation.” He further stated that countries which were emitting the most of carbon waste were those which were least affected by the effects of climate change. About climate change impacts in Pakistan, he said that Pakistan was in its 10th consecutive year of flood and 4th consecutive year of drought, however, these things did not make headlines anymore. He called climate change a global phenomenon and said it needed to be dealt in a wholesome manner.
Dr. Najam also spoke about climate and security. He said that at the state level, insecurity was shown as war; however, there was also insecurity at the societal level, which was why the number of civil violence deaths had been eight times more than those caused by war. He added that Pakistan was a country that was totally defined by climate which was changing rapidly. He cited Attabad Lake as a prime example of climate change for Pakistan.
Earlier, in his welcome remarks, Ambassador Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Director General ISSI, said that the so-called traditional security discourse, while critically important, was also incomplete. He stated that to ignore non-traditional dimensions of security was, in fact, to make the modern state less secure, including on national security. He further added that Pakistan was one of the countries at great risk of the impacts of climate change and for Pakistan; water scarcity was one of the biggest security challenges arising out of the climate change issue.
While giving the concluding remarks, Ambassador Khalid Mahmood, Chairman Board of Governance, ISSI, stated that ignoring the impacts of climate change was no longer a luxury that any country could afford, least of all, Pakistan. “In order to meet the challenges, the country will first have to learn how to negotiate through these challenges, and follow words with actions,” he concluded. The event was attended by policy makers, diplomats, academics and students.
