Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Chief Minister (CM), Mahmood Khan, has approved the province’s Climate Change Policy 2022 and the necessary measures to overcome climate change.
The official report on it highlighted 129 elements that negatively influenced the local climate and environment.
The action plan contains potential strategies and measures to tackle those elements, as well as the adoption of 172 eco-friendly practices.
The CM declared the policy a top priority, noting that KP is experiencing the same detrimental effects of climate change as the rest of the country. He remarked that these impacts have become more pronounced in recent years, as indicated by the severe heatwave-induced forest fires that burned most of KP forest cover. Khan added that the recent floods brought on by the monsoon rains can potentially have worse effects if immediate action is not taken.
The policy has been categorized into numerous areas based on priority and includes urgent short-term, medium-term, and long-term action plans.
The CM elaborated that it will significantly affect the environment and that the harmful consequences of climate change can be mitigated in a short period if it is adopted in its true essence.
He also claimed that the work on the policy began in 2017 but the Provincial Forest and Wildlife Department realized the need for a new policy in view of the merging of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) into KP.
Meanwhile, locust attacks in southern districts, wildfires, and environmental zoning (a framework to protect the environment in a specified area) have been considered in the new policy and it has been developed accordingly.
