Zubair Qureshi
The Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have agreed to work jointly for building Pakistan’s climate resilience.
This agreement was reached during a high-powered Climate Adaptation Roundtable hosted by Prime Minister’s Coordinator for Climate Change, RominaKhurshidAlam for the Foundation’s Chairman Bill Gates, said a press statement released from the Ministry on Tuesday.
The roundtable was held at the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Headquarters and co-hosted by Chairperson of NDMA, Lt. Gen. InamHaider Malik.
RominaKhurshidAlam apprised Bill Gates of the various sectoral impacts of climate change, saying Pakistan’s socio-economic development gains are highly exposed to the adverse impacts of climate change.
She also informed him particularly of the floods, heat waves, forest fires and droughts, which have become frequent and intense in terms of their impacts on various socio-economic sectors, mainly agriculture, water, energy, health and education.
She informed Mr. Gates that despite the lowest contribution in climate change causing carbon emissions, Pakistan is facing the worst effects of global warming and making all-out efforts to deal with the impacts so as to protect lives and livelihoods of the country’s vulnerable communities. Pakistan is also committed to supporting global climate action at all levels to protect the global community from the deleterious impacts of global warming, she highlighted during her conversation with Mr. Gates.
PM’s aide RominaKhushidAlsm also underscored the importance of continued dialogue between Pakistani stakeholders as well as international partners to explore avenues of collaboration and mutual support over the world’s most pressing collective challenge, climate change.
She said that both the domestic public and private sector stakeholders were already playing their part in climate mitigation and adaptation, highlighting further the need to develop and deepen linkages between the same and international partners.
