STAFF REPORT IBD: Pakistans mountain ecosystems are vulnerable to unfolding climate change impacts, which has expedited the pace glacial melt, disturbed rainfall pattern and affected livelihood of millions of those living in mountain areas.

“Effective mitigation of negative impacts and adapting to them is not possible, if the impacts are not analyzed and their causes studied in depth,” said Federal Climate Change Minister, Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan, while addressing on the occasion of a signing ceremony of MoU between Everest K2 Centre and the Global Change Impact Studies Centre – Pakistan.

Signed by the Ministrys director-general Jawaid Ali Khan and Ev-K2-CNRs president Agostino Da Polenza, the MoU aims to establish general understanding to facilitate implementation and coordination of research activities in Pakistan and to strengthen the collaboration in carrying out studies on climate change and identification of appropriate adaptation measures.

The minister said that in Pakistan, 22 per cent of the GNP is contributed by agriculture. The Indus basin irrigation system in Pakistan is the worlds largest and it is estimated that snow and glacier melt contribute over 50 per cent of the total flow to this system.

Meanwhile EV-K2-CNR and GCISC have agreed under the MoU to participate, as scientific partners, in the research projects promoted by the former and install a high altitude atmospheric monitoring station for purposes of research on climate change impacts on mountain ecosystems, glacial melt and water resources.

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