Voice of climate-by Naseem Sheikh

A carbon offset is a credit for greenhouse gas reductions achieved by one party that can be purchased and used to compensate (offset) the emissions of another party. Carbon offsets are typically measured in tonnes of  CO2 -equivalents (or  CO2 e) and are bought and sold through a number of international brokers, online retailers and trading platforms. For example, wind energy companies often sell carbon offsets. The wind energy company benefits because the carbon offsets it sells make such projects more economically viable. The buyers of the offsets benefit because they can claim that their purchase resulted in new non-polluting energy, which they can use to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions. The buyers may also save money as it may be less expensive for them to purchase offsets than to eliminate their own emissions. Many types of activities can generate carbon offsets. Renewable energy such as the wind farm example above, or installations of...

The environmental field has experienced a major transition in the past 20 years. Climatic changes are actually happening and Earth is heating up, the glaciers melting and water is being consumed by the growing population. The changing climate leads to changes in the frequency and timing of extreme weather and climate events, and can result in unprecedented extreme weather and climate events. Erik Solheim is the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) since May 13, 2016. He has an extensive career focusing on environment and development in government and international organisations. In his first interview with The News on Sunday, Erik seemed hopeful to work with current government and further the conservation agenda in Pakistan. Regarding the environmental issues that Pakistan is grappling with, Erik Solheim stood clear that all these environmental threats are man-made and that they can be solved by humans themselves.   Pakistan ...

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2.2% or about 1,687,000 ha of Pakistan is forested. Pakistan has 340,000 ha of planted forest. And that has been declining rapidly.  Between 1990 and 2010, Pakistan lost an average of 42,000 ha or 1.66% per year. In total, between 1990 and 2010, Pakistan lost 33.2% of its forest cover or around 840,000 ha. Pakistan's forests contain 213 million metric tons of carbon in living forest biomass. It boasts  some 1027 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Of these, 3.5% are endemic, meaning they exist in no other country, and 5.5% are threatened. Pakistan is home to at least 4950 species of vascular plants, of which 7.5% are endemic. 4.0% of Pakistan is protected under IUCN categories I-V. Khurshid Ahmed, an environmentalist from Peshawar University, says most of the logs illegally cut from Pakistan's forests have be...

Asia, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres, is the world’s largest and most populous continent, Population of Asia 2011 is 3,879,000,000 (3.8 billion). It covers 8.6% of the Earth’s total surface area (or 29.9% of its land area) and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world’s current human population, But only about 36 percent of the renewable fresh water. So, even on a continental scale, it is clear that water is a serious constraint in Asia. China, India and Pakistan are three of the four top irrigators in the world, suffering with serious water problems. Pakistan has in most areas of agriculture a monsoon climate, and there might be abundant rainfall during the wet season and then a very long dry season where crop production depends very heavily on irrigation water. Groundwater is a very important source of irrigation for farmers. Ground water is being over-pumped extensively in order to meet current demands for food production but if ou...

In Pakistan, the annual mean surface temperature has been  consistently rising trend since the beginning of 20th century. The rise in mean temp. has been  of 0.6-1.0°C in arid coastal areas, arid mountains and hyper arid plains, and there has been a 10-15% decrease in both winter and summer rainfall in the coastal belt and hyper arid plains. There has been an 18-32% increase in rainfall in the monsoon zone especially the sub-humid and humid areas. There is a 5% decrease in relative humidity in Baluchistan, 0.5 to 0.7% Increase in solar radiation over the southern half of the country. These  drastic environmental changes are all due to global warming because of our wasteful  usage of natural resources and an increase in  pollutants that are further causing irreversible changes to our mother land. We must adopt steps like other developed nations to reduce and further overcome these types of problems. In America the National Green Week is the largest waste red...

As stated, Pakistan is one of the lowest contributors to this global problem but, nevertheless, it has played a leading role in trying to formulate global consensus in addressing this issue demanding collective cooperation. Also, the country is cognizant of its development priorities and is actively seeking both, financial and technological support, to place its undeniable future growth on to a low carbon trajectory. Global deforestation and degradation had a negative role towards climate change for which initiatives such as Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) was important as an alleviation response to climate change. The United Nation Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCC) was adopted in 1992 and Pakistan was one of its signatory along with 194 other nations. The study, by researchers at the University of California, Merced, concluded that rising temperatures associated with climate change could result in many more severe forest fires in the coming d...

Pakist­an needs to shift to enviro­nment-friend­ly energy. Pakistan must adopt other technologies for generating power from renewable energy sources, such as municipal waste and landfill methane geothermal recovery, anaerobic biomass gasification, biological fuels, fuel cells and ocean waves. It is no secret that Pakistan is in the grip of a serious energy crisis that is affecting all sectors of the economy and various segments of society. Luckily Pakistan is also blessed with many resources but the government has not focused on alternative energy to the extent that it should, so far. For years, the matter of balancing Pakistan’s supply against the demand for electricity has remained a largely unresolved matter. And it is a separate issue that Pakistan faces a significant challenge in revamping its distribution network as well. A lot of problems arise out of the fact that Pakistan’s energy infrastructure is neither well developed nor well managed. The mismanagement can be gauged from...

Pakistan is one of the countries that contributes least to global climate change but, nevertheless, it has played a leading role in trying to formulate global consensus on cooperating to address it .Also, the country is cognizant of its development priorities and is actively seeking both financial and technological suppor, to place its undeniable future growth on to a low carbon trajectory. Global deforestation and degradation accelerated climate change and to counter this, initiatives such as Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) was important as an alleviation response. The United Nation Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCC) was adopted in 1992 and Pakistan was one of its signatory along with 194 other nations. The study, by researchers at the University of California, Merced, concluded that rising temperatures associated with climate change could result in many more severe forest fires in the coming decades. Professor Anthony Westerling and his tea...

hopes for better climate As stated, Pakistan is one of the lowest contributors to this global problem but, nevertheless, it has played a leading role in trying to formulate global consensus in addressing this issue demanding collective cooperation. Also, the country is cognizant of its development priorities and is actively seeking both, financial and technological support, to place its undeniable future growth on to a low carbon trajectory. Global deforestation and degradation had a negative role towards climate change for which initiatives such as Reduced Emission from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) was important as an alleviation response to climate change. The United Nation Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCC) was adopted in 1992 and Pakistan was one of its signatory along with 194 other nations. The study, by researchers at the University of California, Merced, concluded that rising temperatures associated with climate change could result in many more severe f...

We believe that electricity exists, because its life line of the countries,and the electric company keeps sending us bills for it, although we cannot consume it all 24 hours. ” Pakistan is in the grip of a serious energy crisis that is affecting all sectors of the economy and the various segments of the society. Luckily Pakistan has blessed by many types of resources but lack of attention and sincerity among authority leaders and concerned department all resources are just for name of appreciations rather than utilization. For years, the matter of balancing Pakistan's supply against the demand for electricity has remained a largely unresolved matter. Pakistan faces a significant challenge in revamping its network responsible for the supply of electricity. Pakistan ’s energy infrastructure is not well developed, to a certain extent it is considered to be underdeveloped and poorly managed. Currently the country is facing severe energy crisis. Even despite the fact that of stro...