Islamabad: (April 23, 2021). Enhanced global and regional cooperation could play critical role to respond to growing challenges emanating from climate change. Dev eloped countries should come forward to support developing countries for the clean and green recovery. The environmentalists and climate change experts said this while sharing their views with the audience at special webinar on ‘World Earth Day, climate crisis and the road to Glasgow,’ held here by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in connection with the World Earth Day.

Director Climate Program, World Resources Institute (WRI)-India, Ms Ulka Kelkar, on the occasion said that this earth day was precedented by the pandemic, locust attack and a devastating super cyclone in India and Bangladesh. The challenge for south Asian countries is to develop a low-carbon infrastructure to rely on for a sustainable growth in the future and they need technologies for their cli mate adaptation and for taping on their renewable energy resources.

She emphasized that “the implementation of the climate action will have to happen at local and sectoral level and thus, local stake holders need to be supported.” Likewise, the climate change budget and climate change finance need to be trickle down to the local level. She added.

Director, International Center for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka, Dr Saleemul Haq, lamented that no tangible action has been seen in the past 25 years to respond to the the climate change. He emphasized that the SAARC platform and the regional research think tanks working on climate change should join hands for crafting a regional climate action plan for a better and sustainable future.

Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI, highlighted that the earth day is being marked again amidst the pandemic and signifies the need of a greater preparedness. He was of view that the developing countries need to come up with a collective agenda and push the greater emitters for low carbon initiatives.

“The clean and green recovery and growth in the developing countries could be made possible only with the  help of the developed countries and by creating a green climate fund,” Dr Suleri said and added further that the road to Glasgow should be coming up with our own indigenous agenda for clean and green recovery.

Climate Scientist, Dr Fahad Saeed, was of the view that there is need to translate the climate change science into local languages to make it more effective at the local levels. He suggested that we need to strike a delicate balance between ambitious climate action as set by the developed countries and to ensure a sustainable economic growth.

Dr Imran Khalid, Research Fellow at SDPI, while covering diverse aspects of the topic said that climate change is a reality, and we need concrete and tangible steps to cope up with its impacts.