Federal Cabinet approves much needed National Clean Air Policy: Sherry Rehman

Islamabad: Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman on Thursday said the Federal Cabinet had approved the much needed ‘National Clean Air Policy’, proposed by the Ministry of Climate Change.

The minister, in a series of tweets, thanked all the cabinet members for unanimously approving the policy.

Sherry Rehman said: “This policy was the need of the hour which has been formulated in consultation and partnership with all stakeholders. It aims to reduce air pollution in Pakistan, improve air quality, reduce annual deaths, improve citizens’ health, increase economic activity and ensure food security.”

She said Pakistan was the third most polluted country in the world in terms of air pollution in 2021, while Lahore and Karachi were the most polluted cities in Air Quality Index 2022-23.

“Air pollution has become a serious environmental and health problem. In 2019, 235,000 people died due to air pollution in Pakistan.”

The minister noted that air pollution had shortened the average life expectancy in Pakistan by 2.7 years.

According to the World Bank, she said, air pollution in 2013 caused an economic loss of $47.8 billion in Pakistan, which was 5.88% of the GDP (gross domestic product).

“We needed a comprehensive policy to reduce these losses. All losses can be mitigated by the technical and administrative measures of this policy,” Sherry Rehman said.