Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir said that the academia and researchers must come up with a practicable solution for combating the hazard facing by Pakistan in the wake of climate change.
The minister said while addressing the participants of a three-day International Conference titled “Climate resilient smart soil management,” that the government was prepared to translate their scientific research into policies with the support of academia & researches.
The Department of Soil Science, University of Haripur, has arranged the conference. Researchers, faculty members, scientists from different academia across the country and abroad and vice chancellors of different universities and students were in attendance.
Zartaj Gul said that Pakistan was under threat for the last few years and was falling between 5 to 10 risk factor indexes globally.
She added that “we cannot predict that for how long it will remain so and if we do not act now it would be too late”.
The minister urged the scientists, academia and researchers to come up with result to the land degradation, threats to biodiversity and desertification that the country was going to face.
She said it was a good sign that the academia, researchers, universities and environmentalists for the first time had gathered to discuss climate challenges.
She said that a heavy amount of Rs 26 billion had been assigned from the national kitty for ecosystem restoration, biodiversity, wildlife and geological survey of Pakistan and billion tree tsunami drive.
Pakistan Agriculture Research Council Chairman Dr Azeem Khan, Chairman Soil Science Department of UoH Dr Ali Raza Gormani, Prof Dr Anwarul Hasan Gilani and UOH VC from academia were prominent among those who spoke on the occasion.