Climate adaptation troubles Karachi’s planners

Zofeen Ebrahim of IPS reports on the challenges of 'climate proofing' Karachi, Pakistan, citing the city as the seventh least liveable according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's latest global survey of living conditions. Farhan Anwar, lead author of the report, ‘Karachi city climate change adaptation strategy: A roadmap’, published in April, warns that if urgent action is not taken Karachi may turn into a cauldron of “social and ethnic tensions”, according to the IPS report.

Anwar says city planners and managers must have a “focused plan” within the context of a ‘climate change adaptation strategy’ that can act as a planning framework. “However,” he tells IPS, “in the long run, climate change related policies and plans” would have to be embedded within the internal working of relevant institutions to give sustainability to the process.