HYDERABAD: Two-day international conference titled “Climate change, its social effects and disasters of Flood 2022 in Pakistan” on Thursday kicked at the University of Sindh Jamshoro in collaboration with Sindh Higher Education Commission (SHEC).
According to the university spokesman, the inaugural session of the conference managed by the Faculty of Social Sciences was presided over by the Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Muhammad Siddique Kalhoro.
Delivering his presidential address, the Vice Chancellor said that the purpose of the conference was to understand climate change and its effects and make recommendations in this regard. The toxic pollution had affected all agricultural and food systems in the country, which needed to be diminished, he said.
“The government should make efforts to meet the challenges of environmental and climate change”, he said and added that it was the joint responsibility of the researchers and academia to create awareness among the masses about climate change and translate the research abstracts included in the conference book into Sindhi and Urdu so that the same could be conveyed to the common people through the media.
He said: “We should focus on relevant research to solve local problems and help people live their lives without the fear of disasters. Global warming affected the climate tremendously, with the earth’s average temperature now rising by about 0.18 degrees Celsius (per decade), he said.
The Vice-Chancellor announced that the recommendations of the conference will be sent to the provincial and federal governments so that Sindh University might help the government in its efforts related to climate change and cope with natural disasters including floods.
The Sindh Provincial Head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) James Okoth in his speech thanked the University of Sindh for inviting FAO to the important conference on climate change and its impact on the agri-food system and said that the conference was an important step towards creating awareness about climate change.
He highlighted the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on existing systems and discussed FAO’s strategy on climate change, which aims to transform agri-food systems to become more efficient, resilient, and sustainable.
He informed that FAO in Sindh province was working to strengthen the livestock production system, promote climate agriculture, improve water efficiency, build resilience in agricultural animal communities, developing value chains, development and advisory services.
He emphasized the importance of all stakeholders working together to address and build resilience to challenges affecting natural resources, food and nutrition security.
Earlier, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Hamadullah Kakepoto said that the international conference had great importance as the country was facing many problems due to climate change. “Pakistan is suffering a lot due to climate change, as evidenced by last year’s flooding”, he said and added that the recommendations of the conference will be shared with the provincial and federal governments.
The Deputy Director Saleemullah on behalf of Chairman Sindh HEC, Major Moazzam on behalf of Chairman NDMA Islamabad Prof. Altaf Abro, Professor of King Mangkot University of Technology Thailand Dr. Pisanan Asavarik and many other national and international scholars and researchers participated in the inaugural ceremony.
Later, the national and international scholars presented their research papers on the topic and provided remedies as to how natural disasters including flooding can be coped with.
The conference will continue on Friday in which researchers will read their research papers on the topic and also prepare recommendations.