ISLAMABAD, Sep 27 (APP): Head Coordination Global Climate Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC) and Member of UNFCCC Consultative Group of Experts, Muhammad Arif Goheer on Wednesday said waste was a neglected area in Pakistan since there was no agency compiling its data, due to which, the centre faced difficulties in GHG inventory compilation due to paucity of data.
A round table on “waste managment, data needs and challenges” was organized by Global Climate Change Impact Studies Centre here, a news release said.
The activity was organized under ‘Third National Communication Project’ with the objectives to assess status of waste data – availability, gaps and constraints, identify data providing institutions/departments and formalize institutional arrangements, and establish a framework for data management at national level.
The experts from various federal and provincial government’s departments, private organizations, waste companies, academia and civil society participated in the event.
Muhammad Arif Goheer talked about various approaches used in waste inventory preparation that were mainly Bulk Approach and Life Cycle approach.
He apprised the audience that the Centre besides preparing the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventories had laid out a comprehensive plan for the capacity building of provinces supporting them in preparation of Provincial and Sectoral inventories and establishing GHG baselines.
Further, GCISC is also working for preparing a coherent institutional setup well aligned to National Inventory Management system housed at GCISC.
He announced the establishment of a dedicated expert group on waste for future guidance from the experts meeting every three months.
Goheer assured the participants that GCISC would keep providing quality research based inputs for climate change related decision making and keep preparing GhG inventories and supporting Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination in the preparation of National Communications, National Adaptation plans and Nationally Determined Contributions for onward submission to UNFCCC.
He also talked about the recently established Climate Transparency Platform and the transparency forum which was convened in Islamabad from September, 19 to 21, 2023. He thanked the participants and wished for promising outcomes from the roundtable.
Speaking to the occasion, Muhammad Irfan Tariq, Former Director General Environment, renowned environmentalist and Advisor for the preparation of Third National Communication, said that GCISC had established its name for the preparation of National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.
He congratulated GCISC for organizing five consecutive events in one month namely training workshop on green house gas inventories, transparency forum, roundtable on energy for transitioning to Tier-II emission factors and Roundtable on data management in waste sector.
He appreciated the efforts of GCISC and Arif Goheer for spearheading the GHG inventories preparation process and establishing the first climate Transparency Platform of Pakistan. He said he is very much pleased that GCISC has started to work on the neglected areas of waste management and waste data systems in Pakistan. He hoped that GCISC will keep the leading role in climate change research and Climate change communications.
