Remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the Innovative Finance Facility for Climate in Asia and the Pacific Kick-Off Event, 12 November 2024

Climate change poses an increasing threat to people and their livelihoods. Record heat waves, catastrophic floods, prolonged droughts, and other extreme weather events in Asia and the Pacific are becoming more frequent.

Inclusive sports can empower women with disabilities, and foster accessibility, social integration, and gender equality in the Pacific. Recent Paralympic milestones and policy examples illustrate the ongoing need for supportive infrastructures and greater representation to create equitable opportunities in sports.

India’s federal power minister on Tuesday asked the states that are away from coal resources to consider setting up nuclear-based power plants, besides identifying and listing the power utilities to meet investments to support growing power demand.

The Indian government in its federal budget this year had proposed to partner with private players to develop small nuclear reactors to increase the amount of electricity from sources that do not produce carbon dioxide emissions.

States should consider setting up nuclear power plants at the sites where coal-based thermal power plants have completed their life, Manohar Lal, the country’s power minister, told states as per a government statement.

India’s stringent nuclear compensation laws have hampered talks with foreign power plant builders such as General Electric GE.N and Westinghouse.

The country, which currently has about 8 gigawatts of nuclear capacity, aims to increase it to 20 GW by 2032.

The minister also asked the states to identify and list their power utilities in the country’s stock exchange to meet increasing investment demand in the power sector as well as improve the transmission system to add more renewable capacity.

India has pledged to achieve a net zero carbon emission target by 2070 and has a target of 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030.

A suspect who was allegedly involved in the 2023 blast at Peshawar Police Lines mosque, that claimed 84 lives, was arrested a day earlier and has been identified as police constable Muhammad Wali, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police (IG) Akhtar Hayat Khan Gandapur revealed in a press briefing on Tuesday.

On Jan 30, 2023, a powerful explosion ripped through a mosque in Peshawar’s Red Zone area where between 300 and 400 people — mostly police officers — had gathered for prayers.

The banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility for the attack. It later distanced itself from the blast but sources earlier indicated that it might have been the handiwork of some local faction of the outlawed group.

Addressing the press conference in Peshawar today, IG Gandapur said the “remaining missing link” was related to who had facilitated Qari, the alleged suicide bomber.

“As a result of that effort, […] we arrested this person along with two suicide jackets from near Jameel Chowk on Peshawar’s Ring Road on 11/11, meaning yesterday,” the IG stated, referring to the facilitator.

“Based on the interrogation, it was deduced that the facilitator was our own policeman,” who he identified as Muhammad Wali.

“The suspect operated in line with the order of the banned organisation Jamaatul Ahrar and has received Rs200,000 through the hundi-hawala system,” KP IG said, adding that the policeman also received Rs40,000 to Rs50,000 from the banned group per month.

“He received Rs200,000 which cost the lives of hundreds of people who were martyred. He sold his [own] brothers for this,” the IG added.

The top cop further revealed that the suspect dropped off the suicide bomber at the Pir Zakori bridge.

“After the blast occurred, he contacted his handler named Junaid and informed him about the success of the operation via Telegram,” he stated.

While the police already knew that Jamaatul Ahrar was involved in the blast, the suspect was the “missing link” who acted as a local facilitator.

The police inspector general said that Muhammad Wali was also involved in other incidents.

In Feb 2024, the suspect handed a pistol to a person from Jamaatul Ahrar named Saifullah in Lahore to target a member of the Ahmadiyya community, the KP IG said.

He targeted a priest at Peshawar’s Jameel Chowk in Jan 2022, he added.

According to Gandapur, social media played a key role in such incidents, adding that “Fitna al Khawarij and other extremist organisations use social media to brainwash and radicalise people”.

In July, the government, through an official notification, designated the TTP as Fitna al Khawarij, while mandating all institutions to use the term khariji (outcast) when referring to the perpetrators of terrorist attacks on Pakistan.

Then-KP IG Moazzam Jah Ansari had said in February last year that the suicide bomber was “clad in a police uniform”. He had said that technical evidence and information collected suggested that the blast was the work of TTP’s Jamaatul Ahrar faction.

In March 2023, the KP Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said the mastermind and the handler of the suicide bomber had been traced, stating that both of them were Afghan nationals.

Then-CTD chief Shaukat Abbas said the suicide bomber was identified only by his alias “Qari” and his handler was identified as Ghaffar aka Salma. He had further confirmed that the attack was carried out by Jamaatul Ahrar.

The government of Punjab on Tuesday — expanding on its previous order — closed all the educational institutions up to the higher secondary level in the province from tomorrow until the end of the week, shifting them to an online mode, as the province tackles the hazardous smog situation prevalent for the past few weeks.

The recent smog situation was declared a “calamity” in Punjab last month. Schools have been closed in the province’s main divisions — Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Multan — until November 17 in a bid to lower children’s exposure to pollution.

Separately, the public has been barred from entering public parks, zoos, playgrounds, and museums until November 17 to reduce public exposure to smog.

A day ago, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) representative in Pakistan called for urgent and greater efforts to reduce air pollution, noting that over 11 million children under five years of age were exposed to smog in the worst affected districts of Punjab.

The province’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a notification issued today, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com that “All the educational institutions […] up to higher secondary level shall remain closed and will shift to online mode with effect from Nov 13 within […] DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Sargodha and Rawalpindi divisions […] till Nov 17.”

Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat also announced the closure of schools during a press conference today, saying that the “decision was made in light of the complaints received from the district.”

“This drastic decision had to be taken to protect children from the deadly effects,” he said, “There is a sense of educational loss, but the decision to close educational institutions is being taken out of compulsion.

“In view of the difficulties in online teaching, an alternative strategy is being quickly brought in,” the minister added.

He also appealed to the public to cooperate and do what was in their capacity to help the government deal with this issue.

50pc of govt offices to work online

Separately, all government offices were ordered to shift half of their workforce to online mode to reduce traffic load on roads to prevent the worsening of the smog situation due to vehicular emissions.

“The physical presence of human resource(s) of offices in your jurisdiction may kindly be reduced to 50pc by shifting them to online mode/work from home,” the EPA said in a separate notification issued today.

In the order issued on Tuesday, which is seen by Dawn.com, the Punjab EPA directed all the administrative secretaries, as well as heads of attached departments and semi-government/autonomous bodies, to reduce the physical presence of human resources by 50 per cent.

According to the notification, the situation was likely to prevail for a few weeks, adding that local pollution contributing factors, especially vehicular emissions, may further exacerbate the conditions.

“Hence, the situation warrants to specify safeguards to reduce the number of vehicles on roads in order to control air pollution, through preparation and implementation of contingency plans,” the notification said.

The EPA also called for inter-departmental meetings to be convened in an online mode unless the physical presence of participants was “extremely necessary”.

Bad-quality air aggravating pulmonary diseases: doctor

Speaking to Dawn.com, a pulmonologist at Multan’s Nishtar Hospital, Dr Nasir Javed, said that asthmatic patients, who were earlier stable, are now facing chronic health conditions due to the smog.

“[Due to the smog], asthma patients would start feeling inflation in their airways and it would become difficult for them to breathe smoothly,” he said. “Even medicines have stopped working properly to cure the problem.”

He further added that asthmatics and chronic smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were at greater risk and were visiting the hospitals with exacerbation of their diseases.

“Air-Quality Index is directly proportional to the symptoms/ severity which one can suffer,” he said.

“Limited outdoor activity and hydration are the mainstays to avoiding respiratory issues as antibiotics were of no use.”

Smog to persist in major cities as weather conditions worsen: NDMA

Meanwhile, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in an advisory issued today, said that the smog situation was expected to persist across the urban centres in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa throughout November and December due to high humidity, low wind speeds, and upper atmospheric pressure.

According to the advisory, as reported by the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) the cities most likely to be affected by the worsening smog situation include Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Mardan, and Nowshera.

“The advisory highlights the rising smog levels in the affected areas, driven by the current weather conditions, and advises residents to avoid prolonged outdoor exposure and adopt protective measures to safeguard their health,” the *APP report said.

“[…] The National Emergency Operation Centre has been monitoring the current smog situation in Pakistan and surrounding regions.

According to the advisory, the team has access to advanced ground-based and space-based monitoring tools, enabling the analysis and projection of pollution emissions from various sources, including industry, transportation, and agriculture.

Precautionary measures

The NDMA advisory recommended the public adopt several measures to mitigate the effects of smog, such as avoiding unnecessary outdoor exposure during peak smog hours, especially in the morning, and wearing masks during outdoor activities, according to the APP.

“Staying hydrated, using dehumidifiers and air purifiers to improve indoor air quality, and adopting efficient transportation methods—like carpooling and eco-friendly driving, along with using COx and NOx filters—are also advised,” it said.

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Outlining the energy access disparity women face in Vanuatu, this brief shows how it impacts their health and economic opportunities and explains why mainstreaming gender can increase financial inclusion and drive an equitable green transition.

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