Climate-Ready Workforce Essential To Combat Environmental Challenges: Aftab Alam 

APP

Peshawar: Aftab Alam, a prominent climate change expert, emphasised on Sunday the necessity of climate-proofing the curriculum to equip the future workforce for addressing climate change impacts. He was speaking at a seminar held in Peshawar.

Alam highlighted the urgency of preparing students to tackle challenges like droughts, floods, heatwaves, and the resulting economic and non-economic losses.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Resilient Future International also shared his successful experience of incorporating climate change elements into the economics curriculum at a university in Punjab.

This initiative aims to foster a generation of professionals who are not only well-versed in their respective fields but also equipped with the knowledge and skills to contribute to climate resilience.

Alam suggested that universities needed to integrate climate change into the curricula of different disciplines, such as management sciences, economics, engineering, psychology and political science.

Universities can generate in-depth knowledge on problems and solutions related to climate change by engaging students and faculty to direct their research and theses towards climate change to provide valuable facts and evidence for developing policies and programmes relevant to the country, he added.

Aftab also advised the students to direct their efforts to three categories of climate action: adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage for an organised contribution against the climate crisis.

Referring to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 28)in Dubai (November 29–December 12, 2023), Aftab noted that the COP is a key opportunity for the world to direct its resources and energies to solve the most daunting challenge faced by the earth and its inhabitants.

CEO, who will also attend the COP28 in Dubai, noted that for Pakistan and other climate-inflicted countries, it would be important to ensure an agreement in Dubai that offers favourable and new climate finance, a genuine plan to cut greenhouse gases, and a befitting response to global stock-taking on the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

The government of Pakistan fought for climate justice at last year’s COP27 in Egypt, and a conducive agreement on the Loss and Damage Fund would be a sign of global acknowledgment, expert added.

The seminar was organised by the University of Swabi Department of Environmental Sciences and the Green Youth Movement on Sunday.