Karachi: "Climate change is global issue but in Pakistan's case it is evident that climate change is happening now and not phenomenon that only our future generations will experience," said Amir Paracha OICCI President at 2nd Pakistan Climate Conference.

Dr. Shamshad Akhtar Minister of Finance, Muhammad Ali Minister of Energy, Adil Najam WWF Global President, Bill Winters Global CEO Standard Chartered Bank, Philip Skinner Managing Director GuarantCo, Sarah Mooney British Deputy High Commissioner among leading business and thought leaders spoke.

Paracha said, OICCI launched conference last year with sense of responsibility and accountability. Taking responsibility for our footprint, we are working towards minimising our environmental mark as much as we can by implementing changes within our own operations and also engaging with other key players in ecosystem," he added.

Themes for conference were in line with upcoming COP 28 scheduled to be held in UAE by end of November.

OICCI Secretary General M Abdul Aleem said conference highlighted "Initiatives, projects and campaigns that show how people from different backgrounds, sectors and countries are here to work together to address climate crisis."

Emphasising on achieving goals of Paris Agreement, Rehan Shaikh Vice President OICCI said, "We have narrow window of opportunity to avoid worst effects of climate change and we need to align our policies and investments with a net-zero future."

Number of people from business community, trade bodies, academia, NGOs and social sector organisations attended conference.

OICCI member companies, including Chevron, Dawlance, InfraZamin, Standard Chartered Bank, Unilever, BASF, Toyota Indus Motors, Nestle and Abbott were key sponsors of event.