KARACHI: Escalating climate risks, extreme heat, urban flooding, coastal exposure, infrastructure stress and rising global decarbonisation pressures were seen as no longer being isolated environmental issues during the `Urban Climate Forum: From Systematic Climate Risk to Readiness` organised by the Karachi Centre for Climate Change and Sohail University at the Zaki Hasan Auditorium, Medicare Hospital, on Thursday.While discussing climate risk hotspots, Federal Secretary, Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Aisha Humera Moriani, said that Karachi stands out as one of the most vulnerable mega cities due to its coastal location, dense population and weak governance structures. `Heatwave is one of the most visible impacts of climate change. We are also expecting a heavy monsoon season this year and urban areas are especially vulnerable here because the infrastructure we have for drainage is not really equipped to deal with monsoon water,` the federal secretary, who joined the forum online from Islamabad, pointed out.

`We need a lot of public sector investment, community level engagement and academia input to create processes within the government system to became more agile to be able to respond to the challenges of climate change,` she added.She also said that waste was one area where they are seeing eight per cent growth because of high population. `It can be an opportunity for investment. In Punjab there is a very big initiative of Suthra Punjab that is creating positive impact this way. There is a World Bank project in Sindh, the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board, where the Sindh government is already engaged. It is a very important project and we are also encouraging the KP and Balochistan governments to take initiatives on waste management such as these. It is the time to invest in waste management. I would encourage the academia also to carefully study this sector and inform about how carbon credits can be claimed,` she said.

MPA Rehan Bandukda said that there are people, who are aware of the problems, who are trying to do their best to bring change. `There is enough awareness in society. But we talk a lot and don`timplement,` he regretted.

`Maybe the right step would be for the academia to come up with just three major points about what you do first and link up with each other before forcing the government to follow those points.

You have resources, intelligence and manpower. You just need to take the right step forward,` he urged.

Chairperson, National Assembly Committee on Climate Change, Munaza Hassan, said that capacity and coordination was a challenge when dealing with climate change.

`Our provincial governments are not uniformly equipped with institutional, technical or financial capacity required for dealing with climate change. Local governments, the most critical players in urban resilience happen to be the weakest link in our governance chain,` she identified. `From urban planning to water management, from infrastructure development to public health, climate cannot remain an isolated agenda. It must become the foundation upon which all development is built,` she added.

Earlier, during several panel discussions the panellists discussed other solution-oriented approaches to the various problems brought on by climate change. Dr Jose Antonio Puppim, Chair, Global Development Initiative, University of Manchester, highlighted possible solutions to institutional bottlenecks.

Abid Umer, CEO Syntech Fiber and Co and founder of Pakistan Air Quality Initiatives pointed towards the trash heaps piling up all over the cities. `For urban waste disposal, we burn our trash while adding to air pollution,` he said.

Nazish Shekha, Head of Initiatives, Centre for Responsible Business, Pakistan Business Council, stressed on the availability and continuity of resources.

`The rising temperatures can impact products and also the productivity of employees,` she said.

Kashif Ali, Country Director, Transparency International, spoke of having robust monitoring systems. `There is no single entity here to collect data,` he said.