Sustainable Transport Imperative To Cope With Spiking Risk Of Smog, Air Pollution: Experts

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 7th Dec, 2022 ) :Experts at a panel discussion said there was a need for stakeholders' collaboration and engagement of the government and civil society to come up with sustainable transport systems across the country to cope with the spiking risk of smog and air pollution.

This was stated by the experts at a jointly organized panel discussion by the Institute of Urbanism (IoU), Heinrich Boll Stiftung (hbs), and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on "Sustainable Urban Transportation for Smart Cities in the Developing Countries".

According to a press release issued here on Wednesday, the event was organized on the 2nd day of the 25th Sustainable Development Conference (SDC2022) held alongside UNESCAP's 6th South and Southwest Asia High-level Political Forum and Policy Dialogue on SDGs.

Dr. Ejaz Ahmed, Senior Programme Fellow, Institute of Urbanism (IoU) moderated the session.

Speaking on the occasion, Ayesha Majid, Programme Coordinator, IoU presented a case study from Islamabad conducted by the institute to gauge the urban mobility and transport landscape of the capital.

She said the Transport Sector in Pakistan and its footprint accounts for 22.3% of the services sector of GDP and 6% of employment and comprises 30% of the total energy use of the country.

She also underlined that there has been a steep increase in motorization that has resulted in rising parking issues with more cars, loss of green cover due to the expansion of road infrastructure, and misuse of greenbelts.

Muhammad Umar, Assistant Manager Mechanical at Punjab Mass Transit Authority said the Authority is the pioneer of mass transit projects in the country and is currently running four Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) projects in major cities of Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and Multan.

He recommended the implementation of distance-based fares, park and ride facilities, bicycle sharing, renewable energy resources like electric and hybrid buses, non-fare revenue generation, transit orient development meaning maximizing residential, business, and leisure spaces within walking distance of public transport, etc will help ensure the BRT system to proposer in the urban mobility landscape.

Dr. Mohsina Zubair, Director of Labs, Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) said that the smog season prevails across the country. However, sustainable transport has a great impact on the environment as it reduces emissions and lowers the impact on ecology.

There have been anti-smog squads that are deputed to check the stacks of factories and industrial plants to contain smog.

Maryam Shabbir Abbasi, Senior Research Associate at SDPI said there was huge public outrage in smog season and particularly the situation in Lahore was not good. The governments have made efforts but all have failed to address air pollution.

She noted that the reasons for governments' failure are the government and private sector competition of data authenticity, the 18th amendment disconnect between policy and response, coordination issues at Federal and provincial ministries, emergency responses to the issue, and lack of human resources at the Environmental Protection Departments level.

Zainab Naeem, a Researcher at SDPI briefed the participants on Urban Climate Resilience and Development in Pakistan. She was of the view that over 4.3 billion population is living in urban areas around the world. She suggested that the region is experiencing a climate emergency and needs to strengthen service expansion and nature-based solutions to improve the situation in the urban centers.

Dr Axel Harneit-Sievers, Director, Heinrich Boll Stiftung (hbs), Asia Global Dialogue Office, Hong Kong chaired the panel discussion.

He said in Pakistan there is difficulty in switching to gas-based cars from oil-based to reduce emissions whereas it can explore electric vehicles as a solution. Moreover, there is also a need to observe the power mix of the country for assessing the areas causing a rise in air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.