“Pakistan is the least contributor to global warming but is most affected by its effects with cyclones, heat waves, droughts, floods including the glacier lake outburst floods,” opined former federal minister and senator Nisar A. Memon, chairman Water Environment Forum Pakistan in his keynote speech at the launch event of the “Pakistan Climate Resilience Research Coordination Network – PAK-Climate RCN”, held at Center of Advanced Studies at NUST, Islamabad.He added, “Pa kistan with its rich natural resources, established institutions, climate policies and experienced human resources can effectively convert the climate challenges to opportunities to ward-off the crisis from disasters to sustainable development; with a robust, responsive and resilient research program.”
He congratulated the organizers of the event USAID/Pakistan Higher Education System Strengthening Activity (HESSA) to bring researchers from 14 universities of all the six regions of Pakistan to come together to brainstorm the subject and chalk out a coordinated program to align with the national priorities and policies.
He was pleased that the University of Utah USA, which has the experience of working in Pakistan in establishing Center also at Mehran University of Engineering & Technology, Jamshoro is leading the consortium of US institutions of higher education along with Universities of Alabama and Vermont in this initiative. The experience of Prof Asim Zia – University of Vermont and Prof. Steve Burian – University of Alabama will greatly add value to the program.
Memon said that being global responsible country, Pakistan is engaged with global initiatives on climate like: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Sustainable Developmemt Goals, UN Climate Conferences (known as COP) held every year. Pakistan succeeded to get a historic decision in COP27 Egypt to establish a fund for responding to climate Loss & Damage implementation Actions in affected countries like Pakistan.
Memon was pleased to see the quality participation of all and said, “I am confident this 3-day event has generated user-inspired research ideas to advance climate resilience in Pakistan.
