With only a 0.9% contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, Pakistan is ranked as one of the countries most vulnerable to impacts of climate change. The global rise in GHG emissions contributes significantly to the rise in average worldwide temperatures — recorded at 1.48°C higher than at the end of the 19th century in 2023 which was declared the hottest year on record according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service report. The constant rise in global temperatures has been causing catastrophic and dangerous consequences for the environment and climate, including air pollution which has resultantly seen the spread of conjunctivitis, posing a serious threat to public health particularly the elderly and children. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution triggers various diseases including heart diseases, strokes, lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. This is why the international community, particularly most of the industrialised countries have set the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 to align their environmental policy with the Paris Agreement of 2016, that covers climate change adaption, mitigation, and finance. Similarly, each signatory of the Agreement has introduced concrete and comprehensive legislation combined with the adoption of a circular economy to achieve environmental sustainability.
Parliaments can put in place different mechanisms for protecting the living planet. Constitutionally speaking, the parliament performs three functions — legislation, representation, and oversight roles to represent the will of its constituents. Depending on the nature of the socio-political grievance of the constituents, parliamentarians use a multitude of available parliamentary tools such as introducing new legislation or amending the existing one, voicing the concerns of the people in chamber debates, and overseeing the legislative and non-legislative policies in parliamentary committees.
When it comes to the parliamentary and legislative measures taken by the Parliament of Pakistan for environmental sustainability, it has adopted two prominent steps in this regard; first, it adopted the Climate Change Act 2017, which provides a legal framework for climate change policy; second, two separate standing committees of the Senate and the National Assembly have been formed for the post-legislative scrutiny and implementation of the Climate Change Act 2017, and to oversee the government’s policies for promoting environmental sustainability. When it comes to the effectiveness and actual performance of these two parliamentary forums, there exists a lack of political will to implement the essence of the Act and perform effective post-legislative scrutiny by the members of the standing committees.
The absence of the political will of the members combined with composition factors, committee powers, political interference or pressure, and committee practices have prevented them from demonstrating any substantial outcomes
The Act recommends constituting the Pakistan Climate Change Council headed by the Prime Minister as its chairperson and chief ministers its members amongst others to oversee the plan of action on the climate change policy in the country. It also suggests establishing the Climate Change Authority, comprising government officials to execute the government’s climate change policies. Amongst its other functions, this Council has been bound to convene twice a year to discuss climate change issues. However, there is no available record on whether the Pakistan Climate Change Council has been constituted or not and, if it presumably has been constituted, how many meetings it has held thus far to discuss the environmental sustainability in Pakistan. Similar is the case with the Climate Change Authority, which is bound to present its annual report before the parliament; how many reports has it laid before the parliament, and what has been the policy debates of the parliamentarians on those reports.
Another form of parliamentary oversight of the government’s climate change policy are the standing committees of the Senate and the National Assembly. The absence of the political will of legislative members, combined with composition factors, committee powers, political interference or pressure, and committee practices have prevented them from demonstrating any substantial outcomes.
As the intensity of climate change moves up, it has become necessary for the parliament, political parties and people to embrace the momentum of addressing this issue by building on the work that has already been done to provide the citizens with their fundamental right of clean health and sustainable environment,’ provided under a newly-integrated Article 9-A of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973. For that matter, the following overarching and sectoral environment-sensitive legislation is suggested to be adopted and implemented.
For sectorial-based legislation, measures can be proposed regarding road transport to reach zero carbon dioxide emissions from cars and vans with a clearly set timeframe such as by 2035. Second, it can adopt legislation for promoting the use of sustainable aviation fuels. Third, parliament can make legislation to introduce a circular economy that will help offset carbon emissions eliminate waste, and promote sustainable consumption of products. Fourth, it is equally necessary to introduce rules for imposing carbon prices on carbon-intensive industries and stop importing goods that contribute to forest degradation. Fifth, the parliamentarians can represent the voice of the environmental sustainability-related concerns of their people by calling attention to notices and debating the government policies in the chamber.
Furthermore, the parliament of Pakistan may learn lessons from its overseas counterparts to display evidence of positive and effective advisory, legislative, and regulatory mechanisms for climate change policy.
In addition to introducing new climate legislation, the parliament is required to hold parliamentary scrutiny of the existing mechanisms and implementation process of the government’s climate policy.
First, it can adopt legislation to establish an independent advisory body like the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) — composed of experts chosen for their individual merit rather than their affiliation with a particular stakeholder group or political party — to harness government accountability for climate action and to ensure that climate policy is consistent with the latest scientific findings. The Committee must be given a comprehensive mandate to advise climate policy decisions, evaluate progress, and set new targets.
Second, it may adopt exclusive legislation for emissions reduction to integrate Pakistan’s climate policy with the international community especially the EU which has set the target of becoming climate-neutral by 2050. For instance, the parliament can bind the government to set yearly emission reduction amounts and account it to account on its implementation as it happens in Germany.
Third, it may amend the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Act to make it mandatory for any domestic or foreign company traded on Pakistani exchanges to include climate-related information such as carbon offsets and renewable energy credits as practiced in the United States, to reduce carbon emissions.
Fourth, it can approve a climate legislation to establish procedures for the elaboration of sectoral plans for mitigation of climate change especially for developing a carbon market as has been initiated by Brazil to improve environmental sustainability.
Fifth, it can also adopt legislation for the decarbonisation trajectory for net-zero emissions for a drastic reduction of emissions from transportation. An example in this case is Scottish transport legislation that has set the goal of zero-net emission from transport by 2050. The Scottish government has introduced electric vehicles and is encouraging people to use public transport instead of private cars. It has also been made mandatory for the transport authority to submit its annual performance report before the parliament to gauge the improvement in policy action.
Sixth, information disclosure rules introduced by the National People’s Congress of China, which encourage reporting environmental impact information, can be adopted in Pakistan. Such reporting will help ensure government transparency, direct democratic participation, and open-source information on environmental sustainability.
In addition to introducing new climate legislation, the parliament is required to hold parliamentary scrutiny of the existing mechanisms and implementation process of the government’s climate policy. It must push the government to allocate appropriate budgets for the implementation of policies, legislation, and programs that seek to ensure and promote environmental sustainability. Further, Pakistan requires a drastic reduction of emissions from transportation, deforestation, and advancement in technological innovations in all sectors. To achieve this, what is ultimately needed is the political will of the politicians and policy-makers who have the mandate to take necessary policy steps to promote environmental sustainability in Pakistan.