A three member delegation of parliamentarians from Pakistan has arrived in Brussels to participate in 10th Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting (ASEP10) to be held from 27th to 28th September 2018. The delegation is comprised of Senators Najma Hameed, Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen and Faisal Javed, says a press release received from Brussels here today. Members of Pakistani delegation will attend plenary session in the morning of 27th and will participate in discussion panels of three thematic sessions which pertain to environment and climate change. The first panel will discuss impact of climate change and environment on the economy. The second panel will look into the impact on migration; whereas the third panel will deliberate on the impact on climate change and environment on the security. The delegation will also visit House of European History, besides an interaction session with Pakistani community and media based in Belgium. The ASEM parliamentary meeting is highly significant for Pakistan in the context of environmental challenges being faced by the country as it ranks 7th on Climate Change Vulnerability Index in terms of most adversely affected countries by climate change according to latest Global Climate Risks Index released by Germanwatch a German think-tank advocating for the prevention of dangers of climate change. Pakistan’s high vulnerability is indicated by the data collected over past 20 years with death toll of 523.1 lives per year i.e. 10,462 lives lost in 20 years and economic losses worth US $ 3.8 billion -equivalent to 0.605 per cent of the GDP in the 20 year period. During this time, Pakistan had suffered from 141 extreme weather events, cyclones, storms, floods, Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and heatwaves, etc. Senator Faisal Javed is member of Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change whereas Senator Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen is member of Standing Committee on Water Scarcity. The present government has brought the issues of climate change and water scarcity into lime light and has initiated actions to mitigate impact of climate change on the war footings. The plantation drive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the last five years under the PTI government has borne fruits as 1 billion trees were planted by 2017 and has been reported as a successful example by the international media. Inger Andersen, head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the NGO in charge of administering the Bonn Challenge, described it as “a true conservation success story”. ***** ?
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