Report rings alarm over climate change

Shehla Ambreen in the Nation (Pakistan): The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) fifth assessment report titled "IPCC AR5 - What it means for a stronger and more inclusive Pakistan" released on Monday held that in South Asia some low-carbon development options may be less costly in the long run in terms of climate change with integrated climate adaptation, mitigation and development approaches.

Besides, the report emphasised on international cooperation as vital to avert dangerous climate change and enabling South Asian governments to promote ambitious global action. Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, CEO, LEAD Pakistan, said that it was the most comprehensive assessment of climate change ever with input of 830 expert authors from 85 countries. He said: "The report reviews the scientific evidence on the trends and causes of climate change, the risks to human and natural systems, and options for adaptation and mitigation."

...Dr Adil Najam, Dean of Pardee School of Global Studies said that everyone should step forward and take action in fighting against climate change. He said: "There is no doubt in saying that climate change is posing a great threat to the water and food security, health, livelihood and infrastructure in South Asia."

"Climate becomes unpredictable if it is messed and management of adaptation for the future will be mostly related to water, because climate of the future is very wet," he added. The report warned that climate change would have widespread impacts on South Asian society and its interaction with the natural environment. It stated that climate change adaptations were mostly going to be about changes in life style, ways of energy production and going for advanced technologies....

A man points to the level that the water came up to on the side of his home when floods swept through his village in Pakistan's Sindh province in August 2010.Shot by DFID - UK Department for International Development, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license