ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reiterated that Pakistan knows it’s duties towards the environment and would keep on ensuring its protection.
In a message regarding ‘World Environment Day’ the premier said that it would be ensured that our infrastructural, industrial and related initiatives are environment friendly.
Nawaz stressed that it is the shared duty of each and every one to care for the environment as a sacred trust to be passed onto posterity.
“In the international domain, Pakistan has already ratified the ‘Paris Agreement’ and, thereby, stands committed to collaborate in global efforts to protect the environment,” he said in a message on the World Environment Day.
The prime minister said the World Environment Day was actually a day for serious introspection.
It was a day to comprehend the true significance of connecting people to nature, he added.
He said nations all around the world needed to carefully review their policies and practices, and try to improve their understanding of how best they could all collaborate to synergistically protect and preserve the common habitat.
“We need to synchronise our policies, develop and adopt new environment-friendly technologies, and ensure that all our developmental efforts lead to outcomes that are also environmentally sustainable,” he added.
The prime minister said finally, there was need to earnestly accept that environmental impact transcended borders, and that the non-cooperation of even one nation could become a woe for all others.
In this context, he noted, it was a matter of immense satisfaction that the Government of Pakistan was mindful of its responsibilities towards the environment.
“We have ensured that our industrial, infrastructural and associated developmental initiatives are environment-friendly. We have made environmental impact studies a mandatory part of all development projects, irrespective of their size,” he added.
He said the government also recently launched the Green Pakistan Programme across the country in collaboration with provincial and regional governments, the civil society and international development partners.
This programme was a comprehensive intervention designed not just to preserve our environment, including woodlands and wildlife, but was also aimed at raising awareness amongst the masses on the crucial requirement for every Pakistani to contribute towards the national effort, he added.
The prime minister said prospects of climate change, global warming and environmental degradation endangering the future of the human race on Earth were real – critically real.
“We cannot deny the alarming rate at which glaciers are melting, nor can we turn our attention away from the depletion of the ozone layer,” he observed.
The prime minister further said the visible increase in the frequency of natural calamities, including disastrous rainfall and flooding, in recent times was just one indicator.
“Those few who are denying this reality even today are jeopardizing the whole of humanity,” he added.
