Updated National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) 2021.

The goal of the Updated National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) 2021 is: To ensure that climate change is mainstreamed in the economically and socially vulnerable sectors of the economy and to steer Pakistan towards climate compatible development.
Mitigating and adapting actions are considered to be the two key ways of combating climate change. The more immediate and pressing task for the country is to prepare itself for adaptation to climate change. The updated NCCP 2021 highlights the government’s flagship “Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme, in addition to the Prime Minister’s ‘Urban Forest Project’, ‘Clean Green Pakistan Movement’, ‘Protected Areas and National Park Initiatives’. The objective of the last two initiatives is to expand protected areas to at-least 15% of Pakistan’s area by 2023. Further, the policy’s major emphasis is on ‘Eco system Restoration Initiative (ESRI) for facilitating transition towards environmentally resilient Pakistan by mainstreaming adaptation and mitigation through ecologically targeted initiatives. In the policy the vulnerabilities of various sectors to climate change have been highlighted and appropriate adaptation measures spelled out. These cover policy measures to address issues in various sectors such as water, agriculture, forestry, coastal areas, biodiversity and other vulnerable ecosystems. Furthermore, the updated Policy document has been designed in accordance to the requirements of Paris Agreement on climate change, Sustainable Development Goals and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Hence, appropriate measures relating to disaster preparedness, capacity building, institutional strengthening; technology transfer and international cooperation have also been incorporated as important components of the Policy.
The main objectives of Pakistan’s National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) include: 1. To pursue sustained economic growth by appropriately addressing the challenges of climate change; 2. To integrate climate change policy with other inter-related national policies; 3. To focus on pro-poor gender sensitive adaptation while also promoting mitigation to the extent possible in a cost-effective manner; 4. To build climate-resilient infrastructure; 5. To track impact of climate change on water, food and energy security of the country, and to implement remedial plans to support water, energy and food policies; 6. To minimize the risks arising from the potential increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and tropical storms; 7. To develop climate-resilient agriculture and food systems for all agro-ecological zones in the country; 8. To promote country’s transition to cleaner, lower emission and less carbon intensive development; 9. To accelerate the policy coherence and integration to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the light of its Sustainable Development Report 2020 (SDR2020) and our Nationally Determined Contributions; 10. To strengthen inter-ministerial and inter- provincial decision making and coordination mechanisms on climate change; 11. To facilitate effective use of the opportunities, particularly financial, available both nationally and internationally; 12. To foster the development of appropriate economic incentives to encourage public and private sector investment in adaptation and mitigation measures; 13. To enhance the awareness, skill and institutional capacity of relevant stakeholders; 14. To promote tree plantation, conservation of natural resources, nature-based solutions and long term sustainability.
The main policy measures proposed in the NCCP 2021 include: Develop appropriate digital simulation models for assessment of climate change impacts on physical, chemical, biological and financial aspects of agricultural production systems in various agro-ecological zones; Develop new varieties of crops which are high yielding, resistant to heat stress, drought tolerant, less vulnerable to heavy spells of rains and less prone to attack by insects and pests; Improve crop productivity per unit of land and per unit of water by increasing the efficiency of various agricultural inputs, in particular irrigation water; Promote energy efficient farm mechanization to increase yields and laborsaving; Promote horizontal expansion of cultivated lands through development of wastelands, and rainwater harvesting through community based approaches to development; Promote feed conservation techniques and fodder banks in arable areas; Develop a proper risk management system including crop insurance to safeguard against crop failures due to extreme events (such as floods and droughts); Protect ground water through management and technical measures such as regulatory frameworks, water licensing, slow action dams, artificial recharge especially for threatened aquifers, and adoption of integrated water resource management concepts; Ensure rational ground water exploitation by avoiding excessive pumping; Ensure recycling of waste water through proper treatment and its reuse, for example in agriculture, artificial wetlands and ground water recharge; Aggressively pursue afforestation and reforestation programs with plantation suited to the effects of climate change; Restore degraded mangrove forests in the deltaic region and prevent their further degradation by allowing minimum necessary environmental flows downstream of Kotri; etc.