ISLAMABAD, June 21: The government’s decision to make the ministry of climate change a division of the Cabinet Secretariat took environmentalists by surprise.

The status was changed on June 7, 2013, and environmentalists saw more negatives than positives coming from what they called the downgrading of the ministry.

The only plus point, according to some officials concerned, was that like other divisions of the Cabinet Secretariat such as Planning, Cabinet and Aviation, Climate Change Division would be accountable to the prime minister only.

“The only plus point is that it will activate Pakistan Environment Protection Council which is chaired by the Prime Minister,” said Director General Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) explaining the importance of the Council that looked into environment degradation across the country and had been inactive for the last few years. Probably the worst part of the whole move was cut in development budget of the climate change division, he said.

The erstwhile ministry officials had been pushing for a higher budget of around Rs100 million and the Planning Commission had principally agreed to it before the budget announcement. Instead of fulfilling the promise the commission dropped four new development schemes proposed by the ministry, officials said.

Officials claimed the cut in allocations might affect Pakistans case at the international level.

“If Pakistan is unable to participate in international activities because of lack of funds, the world community might take Pakistan as a non-serious entity in fighting environmental degradation,” said the senior official.

“It is our responsibility to comply with the federal government’s austerity measures,” the official said adding, “But it is not possible for us to survive on Rs59 million that were allocated for ongoing development schemes.”

At the same time donor funding had also seen a decline after devolution of the ministry of environment to provinces two years back.

Some of the major funding parties for environment projects included the World Bank, Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Government of Netherlands “Yet another setback was the absence of a minister, one who is aware of environmental causes and fight for Pakistan’s cause and represent it in international forums,” said DG Pak-EPA Asif Shuja pointing out that Pakistan is signatory to more than a dozen conventions and protocols.

Asif Shuja explained that although Pakistan did not add to global warming, it was most vulnerable to abnormal events of changing climate. He believed that Pakistan, a disaster prone country was not prepared if natural calamity hits it again.

“All of this is possible when there is a proper ministry to coordinate efforts, plan ahead to adapt to the changing climate, and utilise resources to prepare and deal with natural disasters,” said Asif Shuja.