Najam in Dawn on the Climate Risk Index
Adil Najam, climate change expert and Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School at Boston University, was asked by Pakistan’s english language newspaper, Dawn, to comment on the recently published Global Climate Risk Index 2017 which lists Pakistan as he 11th most climatically vulnerable country in the world. The report estimates, for example, that in 2015 Pakistan lost over 1,200 lives to a spiked summer heat wave.
Najam, who has served as a lead author for multiple assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was interviewed by Dawn for its news report published November 11, 2016. Excerpts from their news report:
“The news is not that Pakistan is vulnerable to climate change. We Pakistanis recognise vulnerability in our gut. The real news is that despite being so, we keep ignoring the reality of this fact. Whether at the government level or at the individual lifestyle level, we act as if we have a lot of time. In fact, we do not.”
“The priority for the government should be to build its capacity to capture the climate financing that has now become available but which Pakistan is missing out on. The priority for environmental activists should be to move from simple awareness raising to advocating for lifestyle change in society. The priority for individuals and households should be to focus on areas of energy waste in their own life to capture the low-hanging fruit of win-win climate action.”
Dr. Najam said, “We as a nation take perverse pleasure in indices such as this telling us how dire things are. As if victimhood is a matter of pride. And yet, there is little change in our behaviour. What is needed is not more reports or inventing new bureaucracy. What is needed is real innovation in policy and action at every level.”
The full article can he read here.
Adil Najam is the inaugural Dean of the Pardee School at Boston University. Earlier, he had served as the Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Lahore, Pakistan. Learn more about him here