Islamabad: As Pakistan struggles with the rising risks of floods and melting glaciers, it is crafting a plan to cut its planet-warming emissions under a new global climate deal due to be agreed in Paris in December.
The South Asian nation is currently considering a goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent from 2008 levels by 2025.
Senator Mushahidullah Khan, the federal climate change minister, told that Pakistan intended to submit its contribution to the global climate agreement by Sept. 30, an informal U.N. deadline ahead of the Paris meeting.
Pakistan accounts for less than 1 percent of total global emissions. “Yet we still see an opportunity in cutting the country’s carbon emissions,” Khan said in an interview.
A team of technical experts and government officials is putting together Pakistan’s draft “intended nationally determined contribution” (INDC), as the plans are termed, with international support.
Viable carbon-cutting policies identified for Pakistan include boosting renewable energy, cutting electric power loss during transmission, more efficient water use in agriculture to reduce diesel-powered pumping, minimising farm tillage to keep carbon in the soil and using manure to generate biogas.
Khan said his ministry would finalise its INDC by July 30, and send it to the prime minister for approval before submission to the U.N. climate change secretariat.
Pakistan’s energy and transport sectors are the country’s largest source of emissions, together making up half of the national total, while agriculture produces 39 percent, according to a 2008 national greenhouse gas inventory.
“For us, the most important target sectors for mitigation efforts include energy, transport, agriculture and industry,” said Sajjad Ahmed, director-general for climate change and environment at the federal climate change ministry.
At present, the country’s emissions are increasing at an annual rate of 6 percent, or 18.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent. Emissions were 147.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2008.
“Pakistan’s carbon emissions will reach 400 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (per year) by 2030 if the business-as-usual scenario remains intact,” said Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, author of Pakistan’s climate change policy and former director-general of the Pakistan Meteorological Department.
Uncurbed emissions would speed up the melting process of glaciers in the north, trigger severe floods and harm the country’s economic growth, he warned.
