A full day consultative session on framing the provincial climate change policy for Baluchistan was held at the Civil Secretariat in Quetta on Tuesday. The event, organized by the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change (CSCCC) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment Department, Government of Baluchistan, was attended by the Provincial Minister of Environment, Forests and Livestock Mr. Ubaidullah Jan Babar, Secretary Environment Mr. Ghulam Muhammad Sabir, as well as policy makers, government officials, members of the civil society, researchers, academia, private sector, and media.
                         Speaking at the event, Chief Executive of CSCCC Ms. Aisha Khan thanked the Government of Baluchistan for extending full-fledged support for holding the event. She described the purpose of the CSCCC as a networking platform for climate action all across the country at national and sub-national level.
                             Mr. Saadullah Ayaz, an environmental expert representing the Ministry of Climate Change, described the importance of the event and the great vulnerability of Pakistan and Baluchistan to climate change. He said that the National Climate Change Policy works as a guiding document for the country as a whole but the actual implementation of the climate change policies has to be carried out at the provincial level by subnational governments, especially after the 18th Amendment where most of the powers related to environment, forests, and climate change is with the provinces.
                                    Mr. Ghulam Sabir further expressed the importance of policy making at the provincial level and also said that the devolution process should be fully implemented so that provinces can truly play their part in developing and implementing policies and actions.
                                  Mr. Ubaidullah Jan Babar, while sharing his views, said that awareness about the subject of environment and climate change was encouraging concept, since in these regions the knowledge and awareness of these issues among the people is incredibly low and have been largely neglected in the past. He said that along with at the government level, it is also extremely important to spread this knowledge and awareness about this subject at grassroots level in the communities and among the people.