Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday stressed the need for taking utmost care to avert climate change and global warming impacts.

He was speaking at the MoU signing ceremony between the climate change ministry and the World Bank in Islamabad and called such initiatives important for Pakistan.

“Unfortunately, Pakistan is among those 10 countries of the world that are most vulnerable because of climate change. It’s not our fault as our carbon emission is less than 1 per cent,” he said.

The premier lamented the change in the weather patterns of Pakistan over the years, saying that people in rural areas have been complaining of low rain and more dry seasons.

“If we didn’t take meaningful and strong steps [to counter global warming] weather patterns will have a negative impact, eventually a cost to human society,” he said and warned that if the world didn’t pay attention it would have an impact on agriculture and food security.

He stressed the need for following nature-based solutions and lauded the ministry for signing such an agreement with the WB, aimed at securing climate.

On environmental measures, he said the government has declared 15 national parks as part of its forestation project that would be allotted to the local communities for protection.

He added that the government would ring-fence big cities to its secure green areas under its cities’ master plan, which would be completed in six months to one year.

Earlier, Special Assistant to the PM on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam shared the government’s plan under the project.

“The Rs22 billion worth of project under the green stimulus will be generating 135,000 green jobs in the next nine months across all provinces,” he said, adding that forestry, protected areas, clean green initiative, electric vehicles, are four areas of focus.

He termed it as the "booster dose" to the PM's Billion Tree Tsunami project.