It’s our shared responsibility to act - with Mohammad Ali Jinnah

When Mohammad Ali Jinnah understood his city, Karachi in Pakistan, would be under water by the 2060s due to climate change and sea level rise, he knew he had to do something about it and get involved – for his children and grandchildren. 

Pakistan is one of the 10 most vulnerable countries to climate change risk, and it is time for the world to come together and act, especially to help the developing countries in the Global South, who have done little to contribute to the challenge.

The more we do to stop emissions rising, as well as help the Global South, the more people in this region can adapt to a changing climate and it also means less climate refugees, a challenge that will cause social chaos across the world. It is time to act, it’s our shared responsibility. 

You can sign up to Its4U at bit.ly/signup2its4U 

Join the Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1017721559112354 

@RethinkingChoices on YouTube and LinkedIn 

@RethinkChoices on Twitter/X

its4u_2023 on Instagram

Use the hashtag #Its4U when sharing the beauty of life, the dignity of all living beings, or how you are supporting local businesses to help your community thrive. 

Join us over the next two weeks for 12 days of Cop and find some inspiration from amazing people. 

#Its4U #ClimateCourage #UncommonCourage 

To get in touch with me, all of my contact details are here https://linktr.ee/andreatedwards

My book Uncommon Courage, an invitation, is here https://mybook.to/UncommonCourage

My book 18 Steps to an All-Star LinkedIn Profile, is here https://mybook.to/18stepstoanallstar

Transcript

Unknown: 0:11

Welcome to 12 days of COP, I'm your host, Andrew Edwards. And today I am delighted to introduce you to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who is joining us from Pakistan. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. How are you? And thanks to everyone, all those cop 28 People who are listening to us, thank you very much for joining us. Yes, please, proceed. That's great. So let's start with your background. And your passion for the environment, of course, great, you know, I'm an IT professional. And I've got to, you know, like, some knowledge for some education from England, in some from Australia, the Brisbane, Australia. And I'm living in Pakistan since 92. And but I'm living here by choice. Believe you, me, this is a wonderful country, and I'm living here by choice. And, and you're asking about the environment, you know, in the back in two, I think I'm five years ago, I read an article on newspaper in our leading newspaper in Pakistan. And it says, The Karachi may sink into oceans by 2060. It was very alarming, because on normal normal cases, you know, my son son will be 20 years old in 2016. So I really got scared, I said, Look, let me just do some research. And then I came to know that, you know, it was an article was sent to the upper in a house in Pakistan, called Senate, that, you know, all the coastal cities in Pakistan, they are in dangers, and the government should do something about it. So you know, that, ya know, that's I know, I've got into involved into this, the United Nation, the SDGs. So I'm representing the company called SDGs, Private Limited, and I'm looking after Sindh, province, Pakistan. And I'm the project director for CIL for SDGs awareness programmes. And so we do all those kinds of awareness on a school level, university level, college level, corporate, everywhere we go, let me introduce, and of course, is a industry specific, so we have 18 goals used to be 670 now is 18 goals, and we do a wellness programme. So in which the goal number seven and Goal number 13, is, you know, directly directly, you know, involved with the environment, you know, because the clean energy and climate Change, they go hand to end together. And, and also just like to add one more thing, you know, another thing we actually, you know, push me to involve in this kind of activities that Barack Obama said, once said, that, you know, we are the first nation, we're going to face the environment changes, but same time, we are the last nation who couldn't do something about it. So that's why, you know, because it's my responsibility to share responsibility, actually, to do something about awareness, at least awareness. Yes, please. Yeah. Yeah. So are you still working on it? Or are you now working 100% exclusively? On the st. SDG training? Well, no. Yeah, I work as a CSR. So it's my corporate social responsibility. So for my bread and butter come from my job, which is I'm the I'm the GM it are one of the, you know, the Group of Companies in Pakistan. So there's, you know, I own my bread and butter from there. And for CSR, I work on SDGs. And do arenas programme was, like, you know, like, on Friday, I do. One programme every Friday is gone. 8pm, Pakistan time and tomorrow, I'll be going 168 programme is for the emerging technologies ready to SVD. Congratulations. So I suppose five years ago, when you read about the rising seas, you probably realise now that those C's are probably going to be rising a lot sooner than before your grandson turns 20. Right. What's the population in Karachi for people who, who won't be as familiar with Pakistan? Oh, well, you know, we have a 250 million population in Karachi. We have something like 30 million. population we have in Karachi. So the around are around 30 million. Yeah, so 250 million in the country. 30 million in the city. Right. So massive cities, but potentially being impacted. You know, we're seeing it with Jakarta in Indonesia. We're seeing Bangkok's at risk. So and of course, all of the alarming news around the glacial melts, so I could imagine and then, of course, Pakistan has gone through some shocking experiences last year with the glacial melt. The floods, people are still displaced. I mean, you're you are definitely a country on the front line facing facing this crisis long before them. So many, I mean, everybody on the planet has practically experienced an extreme heat or weather event now. But nowhere like what you've experienced in Pakistan, it must be very challenging. You Yes, you know, it is very challenging. And, you know, I, you know, wherever we have this environment, you know, the conferences or seminars or people who talk about the environment, you know, I say, Look, you know, very strange, you know, the Pakistan is a top 10 countries in the world who are going to suffer the, you know, the climate change going to be affected by climate change. But yet we have, we are Victor actually, we have never contributed on those climate issues. Because, you know, we never have those big big, you know, motor industry or a steel mill or kind of stuff, who actually created the, you know, this main effect on the environment, you know, of the ozone layer and stuff like that. And but yet, you know, we are the more you know, we are the victim. So I think all the, the, you know, the developing countries that develop, they should do something about under developing countries, especially in a country like Pakistan, and nearby countries, what suffering a lot, because of the environment issue, you know, we have, you know, an, you know, sort of unprecedented, you know, flood, we have the heavy rain, we have everything, you know, it's something we've never been before. So and we are suffering of it. Yes. No, absolutely. You know, I 100% agree. And I see myself here in Asia and feeling getting worse and worse, and the impacts are getting worse and worse. Have there been any announcements at COP 28 that have caught your attention? Whether for good or for bad? Is anything anything come out so far? That sort of got? Got you? Yeah. Because since I'm, I'm into, you know, on the, you know, the awareness programme of FPGAs in Python. So, you know, like, for me knowing something happening, I think it's not unique. But, you know, for the general people, yes. Because the cop 27 was the head, you know, the lot of, you know, a lot of things on news, and especially in this cop 28 The two girls want something like 100 million, I think $100,000 from the Kashmiri, you know, I think they have they have wonder, some some sort of award. So I think people are aware of it, and of course, Pakistan is participating at COP 28. And but, you know, we all concerned that, because the challenge with a cop, all those cop series are facing the law, big, big announcement. But on surface, you know, is very little to see, maybe, you know, I'm you know, like maybe I'm ignorant, maybe I you know, being naive to know what's happening. But you know, on the surface is the very less is aware, you know, on the surface. Yeah, yeah. Look out for those girls in Kashmir. Yeah, I mean, we've got another week of rumblings in background sort of discussions and potential deals going on. So but I think if they, if they don't come out strong in this one, I think I'm, I don't know how cop can be a credible sort of body moving forward. Because, you know, the, what the world is now seen, we finally got the the evidence that everybody said, you know, it wasn't real. So. Yeah, so we've got another week or so before before, we'll hear that, but it's for you. That's, that's the whole campaign. Dr. David Cohen, Richard Bissell lotto are leading and there's a great team around it's really, you know, the, I'm finding the work incredibly inspiring. So what does it it's for you mean for you? Actually, you know, because I'm lucky, you know, I, I have a two cents in air when I got here with the David CO, and Roberts, law courts, Shadow Prince Hyrum. And Inger, you know, I'm just, I'm part of them. But you know, when I told them, you know, when you say it's for you, actually, it's for me. So, whatever, you know, you people are doing, you're doing for me. So that's why, you know, I'm part of it. Because I want to create the awareness. And, you know, I want to hold what knows that in a country like Pakistan, we are, you know, badly hit by the environment. And yet, we haven't never contributed anything on this climate change. I am working just to people, you know, like to raise my voice, you know, just to put my two cents about this environment, the environment is not a it's not a fun is a very serious affair. And people should do something about it. Wherever they are, wherever you are, you know, whatever you can do, do something about environment is a very, very challenging is a worse than having a, God forbid, having a we're having a World War is worse than that. Because environment doesn't have any protocol. It doesn't have any, any kind of protocol or any, you know, any, like a un agreement. You know, how they're going to react. They just react when it's react. So it's very, very serious. Yeah, it's the reactivity that worries me. We need to be getting ready for it. Right. We need to be doing so many things now that we're just not doing. We're not preparing at all. The whole adaptation side is of is a huge concern, because we know what's coming in We're not getting ready for the heat. And I know in Pakistan, you've experienced extreme heat for the last couple of years, you've experienced the floods, you know, you've, you know, the crop losses, and there's so many impacts. And last year at COP 27, the Pakistan team was very strong and was being listened to because of what the country had gone through. And I feel that this year as well, Pakistan has got a strong voice on the stage too. Do you feel that they've got a strong voice still? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, yes, we are in because, you know, of course, our prime minister was there to, you know, inauguration ceremony, and he spent a couple of days there. And I've seen a lot of Pakistani, you know, the, you know, delegations there. So I'm sure you know, afterwards this cop 28 is over, when the report will come, then we know exactly, you know, how they have contributed and whether, you know, if they get anything out of it, the idea, you know, the thing is, the result should be there. The presence is okay, good, is the outcome is important. So we'll we need to see what outcome we get. And once we if outcome is good, then we say yes, we are I saw a strong presence. Yeah, yeah. Now great. Okay, so how can the people listening to us, your community, our friends, our families? How can they get involved in an embrace? It's for you. What do you think? Yeah, you know, it's great. And, you know, I want everyone, you know, should raise your voice should introduce people should educate people about the environment, it's a very, very serious affair. It's not a it's not something, you know, like, you can ignore it. It's coming, is there is not your choice is going to come, and it's coming. So that's why, you know, everyone should, you know, should be prepared, and should, you know, raise your voice to tell everyone in what they should do what they should not. And, of course, when you follow goal number three, goal number seven and 13, you got a lot of knowledge, a lot of information, what we should be doing to protect your, your neighbourhood, your country, your city, you know, that's, you know, my message to everyone. Yeah, nice. All right. Well, this has been awesome speaking to you, if you got if you got some final thoughts you'd like to share with the world? Before we sign off? On, you know, yeah, before, you know, like, I just like to repeat one thing, you know, I said, Pakistan is in the top 10 countries are going to suffer the environment effect. We are the victim. We are not we are not created it. And we've never been a part of it. So please, all those developed countries they should do and should work for countries like Pakistan or country, like, who's going to suffer? Who has a word of victim? Actually, they have not contributed anything in it. So that's my message to everyone. Yeah, yeah, we've got to fight for the beautiful people in the Global South, they have done the least, and they're suffering the most, and it's only going to get worse. And it's on the rest of us. So shrink your lifestyle, buy less stuff, you know, don't you don't need so many new clothes and shoes and handbags, because they all contribute, reduce your meat intake go vegan, if you can, you know, let's all just do what we what we can and please, please, we have to vote for leaders who are committed to fighting the fight that we need to fight. You know, anyone who's a denier that gets elected right now is I mean, that's just idiocy. And unfortunately, we're seeing too much of it. And by the way, extremism isn't the answer either. As as far as politics go, that's, that's going to be a nasty, nasty path forward. So yeah, I totally agree. And we've got to do, we're going to do the right thing and take care of our neighbours in the Global South. Because they deserve they deserve it. And if we don't like we also have to accept the consequences of that, which includes mass migration, and no one's going to enjoy that either. So let's just do the job that we need to do, regardless of what happens at COP 20. Thank you for this opportunity. And I'd like to thank everyone and thanks for this opportunity. Didn't a very nice talking to you. And you know, of course, you know, like, I'm an optimistic person. If a one person can hear my voice, if a one person agreed what I'm saying. So it's a success is a big, big success. Yeah, well, thank you for time, right. All right. Alright, so you guys, thanks so much.