Last month, the Ministry of Environment of Pakistan, in collaboration with One UN Joint Programme on Environment, based in Islamabad, which supports Pakistan in fulfilling its international obligations towards environmental treaties and agreements, organized an International Conference on Climate Change and Development, 21–22 October 2010, in Islamabad, Pakistan, to take stock of the unfolding effects of climate change in the South Asian region, with a focus on Pakistan.

The conference brought together over 600 participants who focused on how to ensure access to technology and adequate financing to mainstream climate change-related concerns into the development process.

One of the main objectives of the conference was helping policymakers coherently mainstream climate change concerns in the overall development process. During the closing session, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari emphasized this point, stressing that climate change is not only an environmental issue but a multi-dimensional development issue.

Reporting on this conference, the Guardian‘s Poverty Matters Blog includes the following quote.

‘In a concluding statement to the conference, Prof Dr JP Kropp of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said: “The fairy tale that enough money for adaptation could fulfil development and climate protection goals in parallel is not true. Development is needed and threatened by climate change, but the money for development is needed in addition. It should not relabelled to climate related adaptation issues. This is increasingly done, due to the popular misunderstanding that development per se will lead to a better climate. This is also not true, in particular not for sustainable development. To keep the [global temperature increase] to 2C we need much more ambitious efforts. Simply, a transition of our consumption styles and economic systems is needed”.’

Read more at the Guardian‘s Poverty Matters Blog: The floods in Pakistan show our vulnerability to climate chaos, 10 November 2010.