Pakistan, Nepal needs to jointly voice climate action on global climate forums: Anil Pokhrel
ISLAMABAD, Sep 18 (SABAH): Anil Pokhrel, Chief Executive, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) has urged that the governments of Pakistan and Nepal to work jointly to raise effective voice for effective climate action at the global climate forums.
Anil Pokhrel underscored that the joint efforts at global forums of Pakistan and Nepal should focus on demanding the world community to ensure accessible climate finance instruments for the developing countries facing adverse impacts of climate change.
In an exclusive interview with media at the sidelines of the regional climate dialogue, NDRRMA, Chief Executive, Anil Pokhrel said Pakistan and Nepal shared same Hindukush Himalaya region with similar landscape and monsoon patterns and also hazards like earthquakes, forest fires, floods, and landslides in its disaster-prone terrain in the Hindukush Himalaya Region.
He added that the NDRRMA was eager to learn more about the NDMA, Pakistan’s experiences during climatic disaster and also have an experience sharing opportunity. “In Nepal, we have been tackling hazards from a single aspect of disaster and missing intersectoral links of disasters. We have seen GLOF (glacial lake outburst flood) events, whereas glacial lakes and moraine dams are weakening,” Anil Pokhrel said. The 2005 Earthquake in Muzaffarabad was a massive earthquake and any such earthquake during monsoon would have more devastation like the glacial lakes’ explosion chances were increasing due to faster melting in the north, he added.
The NDRRMA chief pointed out that the forest fires’ suite was also aggravating the GLOF activity as its black surface absorbs more heat and accelerates melting as permafrost is melting faster in the entire Hindukush Himalya Region. “We need start looking at its intersectionality and complexity of disasters that also cascades into larger devastations downstream,” he said. The debate of least greenhouse gas emitter, he said was decades old, whereas the countries like Nepal and Pakistan sharing same risks need to come together as a one singular voice to negotiate more effectively at the forums like COP forums as the COP29 was ahead in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Pakistan and Nepal should work together to narrate the hazards and risks devastations faced by the two countries due to increasing global warming and climate change impacts on the region due to the historical emissions of the developed world driving glacial melt, droughts and forest fires in the region, he added. “This is where the international finance structure has to be designed in such an effective way that it should be substantial, quick, and directly drawn by the climate vulnerable countries like ours that should help in recovery and reconstruction post disasters,” Anil Pokhrel said.
Commenting on mega dams construction in the disaster Faultline areas, the NDRRMA Chief Executive said the science and technology evolution around dams construction had evolved over the last few decades. The countries undertaking such projects should not forget in addition to one time investment in risks assessment and designing along with long-term observation, monitoring and network systems as there is a need to design a disaster component for it as if it fails then what do in that scenario, he added. Such projects, he said should have early warning systems and insurance for these dams in case of failure, whereas its design should be able to withstand these extreme events of earthquake, debris flow, GLOFs, forest fires that could damage these structures.