ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has signed a four-year country program framework agreement with an international green economy organization to advance its sustainable development goals by enhancing climate resilience through green growth initiatives, according to an official statement released on Thursday.
The agreement was signed by Pakistan’s Climate Change Ministry Secretary, Aisha Humera Moriani, and the Global Green Growth Initiative’s (GGGI) Deputy Director-General, Helena McLeod, during a formal ceremony at the United Nations-led Global Climate Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Pakistan ranks as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. In 2022, catastrophic floods claimed over 1,700 lives, affected more than 33 million people, and caused economic losses exceeding $30 billion.
While international donors pledged over $9 billion last January to help Pakistan recover from the devastating floods, officials report that little of the pledged amount has been disbursed so far.
“The Ministry of Climate Change & Environmental Coordination and GGGI has signed a four-year Country Programme Framework agreement to advance Pakistan’s sustainable development goals through targeted climate action and green growth interventions,” said the official statement.
On the occasion, McLeod said her organization aimed to facilitate Pakistan’s transition to a green economy through collaboration with national stakeholders to address water scarcity, deforestation and energy challenges “compounded by climate change effects.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s Coordinator on Climate Change Romina Khurshid Alam thanked the GGGI for engaging with Pakistan to “mobilize green finance, support climate action frameworks and promote investment” to achieve climate resilience.
Pakistan also regularly faces other climate change-induced effects such as droughts, cyclones, torrential rainstorms and heatwaves.
Currently, record-high air pollution levels have triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, school closures and stay-at-home orders in the eastern city of Lahore and other cities in the populous Punjab province, which has been enveloped in thick, toxic smog since last month.
A mix of low-grade fuel emissions from factories and vehicles, exacerbated by agricultural stubble burning, blanket Lahore and its surroundings each winter, trapped by cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds.
The city of 14 million people stuffed with factories on the border with India regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, but it has hit record levels this month, as has New Delhi.