ISLAMABAD: US Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Monica P. Medina has said that the governments of the United States (U.S.) and Pakistan have great room for working together on the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to solve climate challenges due to worst impacts of global warming and environmental degradation.
The U.S. Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs in a discussion after the bilateral working group on climate and environment informed media men on the outcomes of the ministerial dialogue on important issues faced by Pakistan due to climate change.
Ms. Medina said, “One thing that we really need to work on together is with respect to the Green Climate Fund which is one of the largest fund donors of the projects to deal with climate change in the world, and that both Pakistan and US governments are going to co-chair the board of directors at the key moment when the countries are looking to get more funding from the Fund into the communities that are being hit hardest by climate change.”
She underlined that it was a tremendous opportunity for the US and Pakistan in particular to work together to help solve climate challenges now even as the entire conference of the parties (COP) process continued to deal with the loss and damage fund.
The U.S. Assistant Secretary said Pakistan is a very important partner and friend of the U.S., adding, “We have a very meaningful and a deep relationships with lots of people to people ties, strong bilateral exchanges and were working together on a huge range of global climate and environmental topics and challenges as these challenges we know hit close to home.”
The U.S. official said the world countries had faced horrible climate impacts but the devastating floods in Pakistan last year caught everyone’s attention.
“We worked closely with the Pakistani government in the wake of the floodings.
Since these terrible events, the U.S. have announced more than $200 million in flood relief, food security, disaster preparedness and other recovery efforts. We are very pleased to be able to do that as well as lending a lot of expertise too in trying to figure out ways to prevent and adapt to these sorts of climate stressors.
She added that the U.S. administration had realised that both the countries would have to move forward to mitigate climate crisis by working together.
The U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John Kerry would have been here but his busy schedule did not permit him, she added.
Commenting on the Working Group proceedings, Ms. Medina said, “We not only had a climate dialogue but an environmental dialogue which allowed us covering a full range of topics including water resources, agriculture, nature and biodiversity, ocean conservation, and several others. It was very pleased to leave this working group together with the Minister for Climate Change Senator, Sherry Rehman here in Pakistan and our two governments had a long discussion about how we are going to strengthen our cooperation on climate and environmental issues.”
The U.S. Assistant Secretary said climate issues were interlinked and fundamentally related to one another, adding, “we can’t address climate crisis without talking about biodiversity and vice versa.”
She commended the efforts of U.S. Ambassador Donald Blome for devising a robust process for engagement of the Working Group. “We had a very wonderful mechanism for working on these issues helped by Ambassador Blome putting in place called Green Alliance Framework for work on climate, agriculture, water management and clean energy.
The U.S. Assistant Secretary had met with the Minister for Water Resources. She had also visited the biodiversity rich Margalla Hills National Park and saw the work of Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB).
She termed the IWMB as a model for other wildlife services. She appreciated the bear rehabilitation center and the Leopard Preserve Zone managed well by the IWMB.
She also appreciated the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) young scientists and commended the students for asking good questions.
She also met the young and called her interaction important with women at NUST who were very engaged and active to be part of the learning process.
She also met the programme alumni at the Embassy that had a huge one.
“They are very active in civil society, business and academia,” she acknowledged the U.S. Embassy program alumni.
She also met the representatives of the business community and civil society and was amazed to meet them
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Embassy work on looking the issue of climate change at the local level, she said.
Ms. Medina noted that plastic pollution issue was another important area where the U.S. government was engaged with it’s Pakistani counterpart.
“Pakistan had one marine protected area (MAP) and we are also working in this area to enhance Pakistan’s capacity to further boost it’s MAPs.”
She added that further areas of cooperation included illegal fishing, air quality, mangroves, impacts of floods and recovery issues and
Climate Smart Agriculture to address impacts of environmental degradation, and management of 2023 monsoon floods.
The working group delegation, she informed that had a detailed presentation and commended that both the governments had engaged in a really pivotal moment at the global level.
Last year, she said, “I was pleased to represent my country at the Convention on Biodiversity conference in Montreal and the world got a successful landmark agreement. We had 40 hours detailed discussions to cover the uncovered water areas in high seas. We had a text in agreement to protect marine protected areas which did not exist before. This is half the planet that had no cross sectoral governance.
The world came closer on the times of very challenges.”
Discussing the plastic pollution issue, she said there was a great discussion on plastic and plastic pollution at the working group level.
“We are drowning in plastic waste. Some of the municipal and provincial governments of Pakistan are trying to meet this challenge. It’s an important part of the climate challenge. We are already looking forward for COP-28 to address numerous global challenge and how to utilise that global forum to advance our agenda on global level.”
She expressed her gratitude to Ambassador Blome for holding this delegation and making strides to make Green Alliance Framework and made the great friendship with Pakistani governments, interest groups, media and people .
Responding to a couple of queries from APP, U.S. Assistance Secretary Monica Medina said to discuss plastic pollution she was very pleased to be able to have with her at the Working Group meeting two representatives from the U.S. Development and Finance Cooperation.
There job is to find business solutions to solve the plastic pollution problems and find good business solutions, she said, adding, “They are very interested in solving plastic solution. They are very good options for building those kinds of business solutions as we needed those for addressing plastic pollution.”
