Joshua Dearien

April 6, 2018
MUN Policy Paper #2
Climate Change

Policy Paper: Pakistan

Policy Statement:

Climate change, the most underestimated issue of the century, the killer of all

humankind, and a major issue and threat to the world we know and love. Climate change is “​a

change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to

late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon

dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.” (Oxford Dictionary) The industrial world we live in

full of advanced, convenient technology and resources may benefit us on a variety of levels,

however, it also has a very negative effect on the entire natural world. Most scientists agree that

the main cause of climate change in our time is the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases stay

in the atmosphere and act as a blanket over the earth. Some greenhouse gases actually

prevent heat from escaping the atmosphere and this causes the climate/ temperature to change

rapidly. The probability that human activities have warmed our planet over the last 50 years is

more than 95%. The industrial world that we revolve around in our modern ways has raised

atmospheric carbon dioxide up to 400 parts from 280 parts in 150 years. If it isn’t clear enough,

this is a major threat to all we know.

Although Pakistan may produce less than 1% of global carbon dioxide emissions,

Pakistan is also the 7th most vulnerable country to climate change. This transnational issue has
presented to scientists who will be most affected. It just so happens that the least developed

and lowest income countries will be affected the most. Pakistan will be negatively affected from

an economic standpoint and an environmental standpoint. Economically, Pakistan will be

impacted in terms of stability and corruption. For one, refugees have destroyed the economy

enough, and climate change is pushing more people into Pakistan’s diverse environment for

jobs/ labor, and specifically for agriculture. People everyday are displaced internally and

externally (meaning outside of their home country), and climate change brings unhelpful factors

to the refugee crisis like rising temperatures which moves these people into places with a more

diverse environment like Pakistan. However, while the economy faces these issues the

environment faces threats just as bad, if not much worse. The environment of Pakistan includes

everything from the tallest mountain range in the world to very hot desert areas. The Himalayas

have glaciers that are melting rapidly and posing a major threat to the Indus River System

because the rivers are growing too fast and creating floods and over erosion of the land. The

temperatures rising also threatens the agriculture and areas needed for it in Pakistan as well.

Since people are fleeing to Pakistan for the agriculture specifically and the agriculture is being

threatened by things like droughts and floods, Pakistan is stuck in a very damaging spot. These

reasons provide the evidence for Pakistan being one of the most vulnerable and “in trouble.”

Unless all 7.6 billion of us in the world take action now, countries as vulnerable as

Pakistan and those that aren’t, will all face major transnational issues and scientifically in a long

time, the end of the world as we know it. To resolve this issue we must take specific steps

towards bettering our systems to result in less carbon dioxide emissions, slower and less use of

resources, and pollution reduction earth wide. To begin, the UN shall conduct a meeting upon

the resolution of reducing total carbon dioxide emissions starting with the countries that create
the most metric tons of it. In this resolution all the general assembly will discuss how they will do

this. This will be done through creating laws that limit the amount of carbon emissions each

household and business creates each year. Next, heavy influence of how to change systems

and what people worldwide can do to take action starting in their own home and then

community. The more people conserve on a small scale the closer we get to conservation

internationally. As far as pollution, laws shall be made in every single country that limit waste

and restructure waste systems, laws that punish citizens for littering anywhere, and laws that

keep people from interfering with any bare nature and unused space across the globe. If we can

take these steps in our own countries than we will be able to fix or at least slow down this

transnational issue.

Sources-
Nye, Bill. “Climate Change Causes: A Blanket around the Earth.” ​NASA​, NASA, 10 Aug. 2017,

climate.nasa.gov/causes/.

Cenayes, Grant. “Climate Impacts on Energy.” ​EPA​, Environmental Protection Agency, 22 Dec.

2016, 19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-energy_.html.

Bueller, Harris. “Climate Watch.” ​Climate Watch - Data for Climate Action​, 1 July 2016,

www.climatewatchdata.org/countries/PAK​.

Race, Human. “Climate Change in Pakistan.” ​Wikipedia​, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Mar. 2018,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_Pakistan.