Climate change is a global phenomenon

Climate change is a global phenomenon and a challenging reality. It is a phenomenon that is likely to impact almost every sector of Pakistan’s economy. Today it stands not only as a major environmental issue but also as a multi-dimensional developmental issue. In view of these concerns, an Inception workshop was held for the launching of Collaborative project, “Climate Change Adaptation: Introducing and Promoting Energy Efficient Cooking Stoves (EECS) in flood and terrorism affected remote underdeveloped rural areas of Pakistan.” on Friday at Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

The project activities towards climate change adaptation would be carried out by Sahara Welfare Foundation, Malakand, in collaboration with UNEP National Committee for the Republic of Korea and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad . The meeting was attended by Mr. Bakht Muhammad, Chairman, Sahara Welfare Foundation and his staff, Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI, Mr. Mumtaz Khan, Chief Scientific Officer (Rtd.), Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Resources, Ms. Anusha Sherazi & Dr. Mahmood A. Khwaja from SDPI.

During his opening remarks, Dr.Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director SDPI emphasized the need for technology transfer which is an effective measure for climate change adaptation. The EECS technology has already been successfully introduced and promoted in Nepal and Bangladesh . Dr. Khwaja, EECS project In-charge, gave an account of project objectives and activities which include awareness raising, training for making EECS with metal and with clay using metallic moulds. Ms. Anusha Sherazi, Project associate for EECS project; further highlighted that the importance of EECS and said that cooking for most of the households in rural areas of Pakistan is basically fuelled by burning wood. Open fire places are most common traditional technology used by majority of the rural people in Pakistan . One of the problems of cooking over an open fire place is the increased health problems caused by the smoke, particularly lung and eye ailments, but also birth defects. Replacing the traditional three-stone fire-place with an energy efficient firewood/cooking stove with chimney for venting the smoke out of the house can significantly contribute to the improvement of family’s health, fuel cost and reduction in green house gases emission.