KARACHI: Federal Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rehman, on Wednesday stressed collaborative efforts to deal with the multifaceted impacts of climate change and urged investors to invest in climate-resilient development projects.

She was addressing the inaugural session of the 6th edition of ‘The Future Summit’ held under the theme of ‘Prepare for Disruption’ for discussing challenges being faced by Pakistan and deliberating upon the future footprint and required readiness to deal with them.

The 2-day summit was jointly organized by Nutshell Conferences Group and Engro Corporation in collaboration with the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) and Habib Bank while a large number of business delegates from Pakistan and abroad, as well as the Pakistani diasporas from all over the world, took part in the moot.

Sherry Rehman highlighted that Pakistan was facing multifaceted issues like terrorism on borders, economic challenges, and above all serious implications of climate change and multi-pronged strategies besides investment of billions of dollars were required to deal with the situation.

She termed record-breaking rains and floods as a wake up call from nature which affected millions of people and a vast area of the country and said that nothing was going back to be normal as it was not a business as usual.

Pakistan, as well as South Asia and even the entire world, had not to make any mistake it could happen again and destruction would come again and again as if one echo system fails it is followed by the other one, she noted.

The world was passing through an accelerated phase of warming with rising temperatures while Pakistan was the hottest place on the planet during the summer for the last three years, she observed. Adding that on the other hand river Indus has been the second most plastic-choked river in the world with a prevalence of 38 million metric tons of plastic every year.

It is a nontraditional risk to the overall economy, she said quoting a country report by the World Bank that pinpointed serious consequences of climate change for Pakistan and short, medium, and long-term measures required to deal with the threats.

The concept of climate change resilience is closely associated with development now and both can not be separated anyway, she stressed adding that climate resilience measures in all the relevant sectors ranging from education and awareness to preparedness and mitigation required a huge investment of $348 billion by 2030.

The ministry of climate change was working on comprehensive policies in that regard as well while our plan was declared as a model of hope at international forums, she added.

The minister said that industries and business entities either large or small ones contributed over 70 percent in pollution over the last 100 years and now businesses have to take the lead in mitigation measures as well.

The government realized that eradication of the impacts of climate change could not be done in a vacuum and all the stakeholders including the government had to respond well in time, she reiterated and urged investors to invest in climate resilience and development projects.

The businesses, while working in partnerships and joint ventures, should contribute to measures for net zero Pakistan, promote green financing, properly report SDG compliance, adopt recycling protocols, discourage extended use of plastic, be transparent in carbon footprint, invest in sustainability and impart awareness, she further urged.

Earlier, addressing the session Founder Nutshell Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, Chief Investment Officer Engro Corporation Nadir Salar Qureshi, Chief Executive Officer Jazz Aamir Ibrahim, and President Habib Bank Limited Muhammad Aurangzeb suggested various measures for economic uplift and growth.

They said that millions of young students could be trained in coding skills for earnning much-needed foreign exchange in short terms while focusing on the agriculture sector, digitization of the economy,financial services and utilization of data had vast potential of strengthening economy.

They also stressed the need of growing exports and expanding the export base with timely decisions and swift execution and urged political parties to sit together and come up with a consensus based charter of economy while putting their differences aside.

CEO of Blockchain for All, Jimmy Nguyen said that financial inclusion, IoT and smart technologies, generative artificial Intelligence, and newly emerging meta verse tech were four key pillars of future development and technology serves as a bridge between banks and business and help grow trade.

Future will surely be delivered by the new generation and they should be allowed to explore their potential to build the future while connecting with the past, he opined.

Managing Director Orbit Startups, William Bao Bean termed the technology as a major driver for future building and said that digital technology had the potential to transform the lives of people.

He said that start ups played an important role in the economic development of China and other emerging economies and those should be promoted in Pakistan as well.