– Along with regional cooperation, Pakistan needs immediate long- and short-term measures, including changes in fossil fuel consumption, environmentalists say.

KARACHI, Pakistan

Large swathes of northeast and northwest Pakistan are currently choked by pollution-fueled smog, causing a surge in respiratory illnesses and forcing the government to take desperate measures such as closing schools, parks and other public places.

Warnings abound that air quality will deteriorate further in the years to come, particularly if authorities fail to develop a serious strategy with immediate and lasting measures.

Along with the Indian capital New Delhi, Pakistan’s second-largest city, Lahore, and various other districts in the country’s northeastern province of Punjab, have dominated the list of the world’s most polluted cities for several years, with a air quality exceeding all possible danger levels.

Satellite images released by NASA earlier this month showed Punjab, and particularly the provincial capital, Lahore, enveloped in a toxic haze that extended to parts of northern India and New Delhi.

Lahore – home to more than 14 million people – had an air quality index above 1,900, a record, earlier this month. Any reading above 300 is considered dangerous, while the acceptable range is between 0 and 50.

Hundreds of people are facing health problems such as sore throats and itchy eyes, with doctors and authorities advising the public to stay indoors as much as possible.

Air pollution kills about 128,000 people each year in Pakistan, according to Fair Finance Pakistan, a non-governmental organization that works to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

UNICEF also recently issued a warning to Pakistan, saying that more than 11 million children under the age of 5 are exposed to smog in Punjab.

“Unfortunately, environmental problems like smog have reached the point where they cannot be solved overnight. Pakistan now needs a serious approach to tackle this ever-worsening problem,” said Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an environmentalist based in the capital Islamabad.

Imrana Tiwana, another environmental expert in Lahore, warned that Pakistan is simply not prepared to deal with all the humanitarian crises caused by climate change. His remarks referred to the regular droughts, heatwaves, unusual rains and floods that have become increasingly common in the South Asian country in recent decades.

The smog, she added, was confined to Lahore until a decade ago, but has now crossed the borders of Punjab and entered the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Need for immediate action

Speaking to Anadolu, Sheikh highlighted the urgent need for long- and short-term measures, including decarbonizing the economy in line with the Paris Agreement, increasing public transportation in major cities and converting two- and three-stroke vehicles into vehicles. battery electric vehicles (BEV).

The Paris Agreement, which entered into force in 2016, is a legally binding international treaty that aims to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and boost adaptation to climate change.

In the short term, there could be an extra weekly day off or arrangements to work from home, he said.

Only public transport could be allowed on this day to reduce vehicular emissions, which account for more than 80% of air pollution in Lahore, he added.

Of this 80%, emissions from two-stroke vehicles account for 69%, according to the Punjab Environmental Protection Department.

Part of the smog crisis, according to Sheikh, can be attributed to Pakistan’s “greedy” dependence on fossil fuels, and those fossil fuels are too low quality, Shaikh said.

“We have poor micro-standards, micro-tests and fitness testing systems. Otherwise, the same amount of fossil fuels, coupled with better environmental governance, will not have as negative an impact as we have in Pakistan,” he said.

Regional cooperation

Pakistan blames the increase in smog on winds from neighboring India, mainly due to stubble burning by farmers in India’s Punjab province.

“Stubble burning is the biggest problem we face in winter,” Raja Jahangir Anwar, Punjab environment secretary, told Anadolu Agency.

He said unilateral measures to combat the practice would not work, emphasizing the importance of a joint and collaborative approach.

However, environmentalist Sheikh rejected what he sees as “misguided rhetoric” pushed by Indian and Pakistani authorities.

“Farmers only burn stubble because they want to increase their income by growing vegetables between the two main agricultural seasons,” he explains.

“Instead of blaming them, we must work to provide them with technologies that can help them cultivate a third culture. »

To this, Anwar said that the Punjab government was already providing subsidies to farmers for purchasing machines that will help avoid stubble burning.

Environmental scientist Tiwana also pointed out that climate change-induced smog is no longer a local problem in Pakistan.

“This is a regional problem that requires a regional approach to be resolved properly,” she told Anadolu Agency.

The worsening situation has already led Pakistani Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to call for “climate diplomacy” with India.

The process of dialogue with India, according to Anwar, has been initiated through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an official letter will be sent to New Delhi soon.

Pakistan plans to convene a regional climate conference next month, involving India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and other countries, to develop a joint strategy, he said.

Despite frosty relations between the two nuclear rivals, Anwar remains optimistic about the chances of diplomatic efforts succeeding.

“Both sides have no other choice because the wind does not care about borders,” he said.

Besides stubble burning, New Delhi and Lahore also share the burden of urban pollution, he added.

“It has to be a long-term diplomacy that continues for decades. There will be ups and downs, but I am sure it will succeed, because there is no other option,” Anwar said.

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