Pakistan to prepare South Asia’s first ever advanced MRV system

Islamabad : The experts at the two-day workshop on Monday aimed to launch web based platform of the country was going to prepare South Asia’s first advanced measurement, reporting and verification system to gauge greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC) which is the research arm of The Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) organised the two-day workshop in collaboration with German Development (giz) and CiTEPA the French counterpart entitled National Training Workshop on GHG Inventory Platform and Climate MRV System and Development of M&E Adaptation Tracking System in Pakistan during September 2021. Participants from National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA), Pakistan Forest Institute (PFI), Ministry of Industries and Production will learn the use of this online platform named as RiSQ.

The opening session was participated by Secretary MoCC Naheed Shah Durrani and Director General Environment MoCC Irfan Tariq who presented a detailed overview of countries efforts in mitigating climate change and adaptation initiatives.

Ms Durrani emphasised that Pakistan had less one per cent share in global emissions, adding, "however, we are leading vulnerable country due to climate change.”

She added that in order protect its population from the different impacts of climate change, Pakistan is a leading country taking climate friendly actions.

GCISC Head Agriculture and Coordination Dr Arif Goheer who also heads the Centre’s team responsible for developing the country’s GHG inventories told APP that under the Paris Agreement, all signatory countries were responsible for preparing their GHG inventories which was a comprehensive scientific document accounting the complete emissions data of a country.

Dr Goheer said as per Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 guidelines all countries have to report GHG emissions spewed from four different sectors and submit it to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

He added that as per the global target it was aimed to limit world temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius, where all countries had to achieve net zero emissions to achieve the goal to avoid massive environmental degradation due to temperature rise.

In Pakistan, he said GCISC prepared the GHG inventory on behalf of MoCC, whereas the country had implemented various ecosystem restoration and conservation measures to cap GHG emissions.

Electric Vehicles Policy, Renewable Energy Policy, adding the share of renewables in electricity mix, Ten Billion Tree Tsunami plantation, Ban on Plastic Bags, Clean Green Pakistan Index and Movement are the key initiatives on ground that will help reduce GHG emissions drastically, he underlined.

In order to contain GHG emissions, two key interventions in mitigation and adaptation domain were carried out to ensure less environment damaging gaseous releases into the atmosphere.

It included planting more trees to enhance GHG and carbon sinks, take measures to ensure coexistence amid increasing natural catastrophes like Climate Smart Agriculture project of the Ministry, he added.

Senior Scientific Officer and team member GHG inventory GCISC Muhammad Amjad informed that, the workshop was intended to track emissions, their sources and sinks which was also part of the effort to build a transparent mechanism prior to the launch of Enhanced Transparency Framework 2024, he added.

We are preparing to have a most professional, credible and transparent data generating capability at the level of the Framework 2024, the RISQ software by CiTEPA will be platform where we will be able to gather past and future data of GHG emissions, he told.

Senior Adviser giz on Climate Change Climate Services Dr Muhammad Abid informed that the German Development Cooperation was supporting GCISC to develop the MRV system which was one of the latest and advance solutions.