While Pakistan’s contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remains low, it has been facing the wrath of climate change phenomenon in the form of heatwaves, rains and floods. As climate change becomes a critical question, a debate over the contribution of North and South to GHG emissions has gained momentum.
Developing states, particularly Pakistan, are paying the cost of actions taken by the global North. The question is why people in western Balochistan and interior Sindh have to pay a particulary high price on this count. It is because we neither have resilient technology nor appropriate infrastructure. The government should devise practical solutions instead of crying over spilt milk.
As for the global equation, climate justice is the right answer to the basic dilemma. The global North should not bury its head in the proverbial sand, and compensate the global South.
Carbon pricing should be raised by governments at local, regional and international levels on a war footing. The more you burn carbon, the more you pay for it. It is literally as simple as that.
USMAN GHANI
QUETTA
