Islamabad, April 14, 2026 \u2014 Policy experts, environmentalists and development practitioners proposed a set of practical measures to tackle crop residue burning and black carbon emissions in Punjab, calling for stronger institutional coordination, farmer incentives and expanded monitoring to deliver effective smog solutions.<\/p>\n
Malik Amin Aslam, environmentalist and former Minister of State for Climate Change, said Pakistan already has adequate research identifying pollution sources and mitigation options but struggles with on-the-ground implementation. He urged firmer enforcement of clean-air policies and recommended studying regional successes such as coordinated interventions in Beijing and Delhi to reduce smog through joint action.<\/p>\n
Zainab Naeem of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute highlighted the potential of circular economy approaches that link farmers with small and medium enterprises to turn crop residue into a valuable input. She emphasised market-based mechanisms that allow farmers to sell residues instead of burning them and noted that biomass-based energy projects can create income while cutting particulate pollution.<\/p>\n
Mohsin Rose from the World Bank Pakistan recommended integrated cross-sectoral coordination and digital data-sharing between public institutions and private stakeholders. He said short-, medium- and long-term strategies supported by research-driven planning are essential to ensure targeted interventions and to scale up solutions that reduce emissions.<\/p>\n
Dr Ambreen Latif of the Environment Protection and Climate Change Department Punjab pointed to recent institutional steps, including approval of provincial climate plans and the roll-out of data dashboards designed to improve transparency and interdepartmental coordination. She stressed the need to pair these systems with on-the-ground incentives for farmers and programmes that provide access to alternative uses for residues.<\/p>\n
Abid Omar of the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative urged expansion of real-time air-quality monitoring by integrating satellite, remote sensing and ground-based networks. He argued that improved forecasting and early warning tools would enable more localised responses such as selective school closures and district-specific mitigation rather than blunt, province-wide measures.<\/p>\n
Dr Umar Maqsood at FAO Pakistan emphasised collaboration with farmers through sustainable agriculture initiatives, field demonstration projects and improved access to machinery via government-supported service delivery. Experts also recommended developing standardised national reporting systems and crop suitability maps to inform policy and investment decisions at district level.<\/p>\n
Speakers agreed that delivering practical smog solutions in Punjab requires aligned institutional action, farmer-centred incentives, private-sector engagement and regional cooperation. They called for integrating black carbon into national climate planning, strengthening market linkages for residues and expanding monitoring and data-sharing systems to ensure policies translate into measurable air-quality improvements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Experts urge coordinated policy action and farmer incentives to deliver smog solutions in Punjab through monitoring, market links and regional cooperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":18122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18124,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18123\/revisions\/18124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}