‘World looks towards Pakistan to lead global climate action’

Islamabad : Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said that thanks to incumbent government's world-acclaimed green agenda, the world has started posing trust in Prime Minister Imran Khan to lead global climate agenda.

Talking to ‘The News’ in an exclusive interview on the side-lines of World Environment Day 2021 celebrations, he said, “Indeed Pakistan is ready and will lead the world through full-fledged support towards goal of achieving environmental sustainability and climate resilience."

He said that like other developing countries climate crisis has also long stared hitting Pakistan right from northern regions to southern parts in shape of rapidly melting glaciers seething heat waves, frequenting and intensifying riverine and urban flooding, shifting and declining and shifting rainfalls, expanding desertification, depleting groundwater resources, rising sea-level and cyclonic activities as well as cloudbursts.

He informed The News that the monsoon patterns are fast shifting in timing and leading to declining or erratic rainfall, badly and rapidly harming the country’s agriculture sector to an extent that it has become almost unable to adapt to the changing weather patterns.

"For addressing these adverse challenges, we have decided to respond effectively these climate change impacts with our whatever resources and capacity is available while neither waiting for foreign support and nor opting for being merely just be a crying victim," he told The News, saying "Pakistan has emerged today a reliable solution provider for the world through its indigenously-launched multi-billion dollar green initiatives .”

Spelling out PM Imran Khan's green initiatives Malik Amin said that 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Programme (TBTTP), Recharge Pakistan Programme, Protected Areas Initiatives and Green financing through launch of green bond projects have been launched and are being implemented to boost environmental sustainability and climate resilience of the country.

He told The News further, "Under TBTTP we have already planted one billion trees out of that 10 billion trees and are very much om the track to achieve the ambitious target of planting 10 billion trees.”

The tree-planting activities across the country have led to generation of a huge number of green jobs, including 100,000 jobs created during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Aslam emphasised, explaining that the green job creations helped improve the livelihood of thousands of households and pulled families out of the poverty traps, proving that “if you invest in nature, nature always pays you back. It’s not a one-way investment.

“Besides working rigorously to expand the forest area of the country, a weather warning system has also been put in place in Pakistan's north to get a beforehand knowledge of glaciers' melting and their outbursts,” Malik Amin Aslam told ‘The News’.

The minister said that Pakistan is also on path to reach the goal of shifting 30 percent of the country’s vehicles to electric by year 2030 to mitigate the pollution levels, and is poised display locally-manufactures electric vehicles in coming days.

Talking about launch of US$ 500 million green bond, Malik Amin said that Pakistan has received offer of 3 billion dollar in response to the floating of the US$ 500 million green bond in the international market for funding country's green and clean initiatives.

“The present government is now ready to further utilise the green bond avenue for building and transport financing,” he added.

He said further that last week the government also completed its first assessment for blue bonds, a funding tool that spikes finances from potential global investors for projects that protect ocean ecology and related industries, such as fisheries and eco-tourism.

For this, the PM's aide said that PM Imran Khan has already launched the country's first blue carbon estimation this month, aided by the World Bank.

He highlighted that the global lending agency World Bank had calculated the country's new plantation projects - including planting 10 billion trees over the next few years, which of if survived successfully would be of the value of worth $500 million by 2050.

He informed further The News that the World Bank used conservative estimates for carbon pricing, and the valuation could go up to $2.5 billion.

Aslam said that now Pakistan is now a great example for various countries to learn about environmental protection measures. "For, by taking measures to protect the environment, the we have shown that development without environmental protection measures is unsustainable," he warned.