Workshop on Carbon, Water exchange in plants starts at AAUR
By Adnan Rafique

ISLAMABAD—A two-day International workshop on “Carbon and Water Exchange in Plants under Changing Climatic Conditions” commenced here on Monday at Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi (AAUR).
The workshop is being organized by the Department of Environmental; Sciences, Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan and Institute of Agro-Environment and Forest Biology, National Research Council of Italy .
Speaking as the chief guest at the inaugural session of the workshop, Federal Minister for Environment Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat said global weather and climate change are now regarded as the “greatest challenge facing the world”.
The Minister said the rise in the global temperature and the associate changes in precipitation, glacier melt and sea level rise are expected to have considerable direct and indirect impacts on various socio-economic sectors.
He said agriculture productivity in Pakistan is likely to declinesubstantially because of warmer temperatures and shifting rain fall. Water demands of Pakistan mainly depend upon a single river system of Indus that is fed by glaciers in Hindukush and Himalayas regions. Faisal Saleh said Pakistan is deeply committed to the global efforts of combating climate change and has taken various measures to address the issue of climate change.
He said Pakistan had signed the UNFCCC in June, 1994, Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and acceded to the Kyoto Protocol on 11th January 2005.
The Minister said a Prime Minister`s Committee on Climate Change has been constituted as policy and review forum besides establishing a global Change Impact Studies Center (GCISC) to undertake research on climate change, suggesting appropriate measures.
“An amount of 20 million rupees has been allocated under Medium-Term Deveopment Framework (MTDF) for improvement of environment sector in the country,” he said.
He said a clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Cell has been established under the climate change wing of the ministry to facilitate approval of CDM projects in the country.
Earlier, VC AAUR Dr. Khalid Mahmood Khan, in his welcome address appreciated the Department of Environmental Sciences for organizing the workshop.
He informed the participants that the University has become a hub of such activities and provides forum for open discussions on the topics of immediate national concern.
Dean, Faculty of Forestry Range Management and Wildlife, Prof. Dr. Sarwat Naz Mirza and Dr. Mauro Centritto, an Italian scientist, also addressed on the occasion. The workshop aims at presenting an overall view of changing climatic conditions (CO2 concentration, increased temperature and water stress) of the world and to define the relationship between different intensities and types of plants.
The participants of the workshop will discuss and explore the possible options to intervene current scale of global climate change in order to avert the rising global temperature.