US says has identified areas critical to helping Pakistan build climate resilience

ISLAMABAD: United States Ambassador to Pakistan, Donald Blome has said that the US and Pakistan have identified water resilience, water governance, and water productivity as areas critical to helping the country build climate resilience through our Green Alliance framework.

In video remarks on Saturday at the launch of ‘Recharge Pakistan’, Ambassador Blome said he was delighted to join the launch of Recharge Pakistan, a groundbreaking seven-year, $77.8 million partnership between our governments, the Green Climate Fund, the Coca-Cola Foundation, and the World Wildlife Fund.

For the past 20 years, he add that Pakistan has consistently ranked among the top 10 most vulnerable countries on the Climate Risk Index. “Today, we find ourselves in a decisive decade to take urgent action required to adapt to climate change,” he added.

He said that the United States and Pakistan have identified water resilience, water governance, and water productivity as areas critical to helping Pakistan build climate resilience through our “Green Alliance” framework. By transforming Pakistan’s approach to flood mitigation and water resource management, he stated that Recharge Pakistan supports and advances these goals.

He added that it will help Pakistan pivot toward ecosystem-based adaptation and green infrastructure. Perhaps most important, Ambassador Blome added that it puts communities at the center of climate and resource management decision-making. The project’s intended outcomes are ambitious and far-reaching, adding that it will build Pakistan’s water resource capacity and improve agricultural output.

He stated that it will help rural economies adapt to climate risk and improve sustainability, adding that it will help restore degraded watersheds and build resilience in the regions hardest hit by the 2022 floods. He stated that it will improve livelihoods by mitigating and reducing the losses generated by the country’s drought - flood cycle. Taken together, he added that the program’s interventions will directly benefit nearly 700,000 Pakistanis, and indirectly benefit more than 7 million more with project work across three provinces: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan.

“The United States and Pakistan have a long history of working together to solve development and humanitarian challenges,” he said. Just as the Green Revolution improved the quality of life for Pakistanis starting in the 1960s, today, we’re making strategic investments in clean energy, water, and agriculture to help better position Pakistan for the future through the US-Pakistan “Green Alliance” framework. We’re installing new, modern generators and refurbishing hydroelectric power plants, he added. He said these plants help prevent catastrophic water shortages, mitigate the damaging effects of flooding, and expand agricultural productivity. “We are increasing electric grid capacity at affordable rates, and provide reliable, efficient, clean energy to more than 50 million people. We’ve introduced farmers to new crop varieties, innovative ways of planting, efficient use of fertilizers, and new irrigation technology,” he said, adding that these are investments in Pakistan’s people and its future.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023