ICIMOD to assist Pakistan in climate change adaptation

Islamabad: The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal, has offered technical and professional backstopping to the Ministry of Climate Change (MOCC) for better climate change adaptation, particularly with reference to the mountainous region of Pakistan.

An ICIMOD delegation that called on Adviser to the PM on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam here Thursday also invited MOCC to join the Upper Indus Basin network of ICIMOD; to contribute to six technical working groups for successful implementation of the National Climate Change Policy; and to establish Resilient Mountain Villages (RMV) in collaboration with national partners including local mountain communities. The offers were made on the basis of ICIMOD’s great learning on climate change adaptation in the HKH region.

The delegation, which included Farid Ahmed, Head, Strategic Planning Monitoring and Evaluation, and Dr. Abdul Wahid Jasra, Country Representative, also briefed Malik Amin on the successful Community-Based Flood Early Warning Systems (CBFEWS) and innovative livelihood approaches. ICIMOD invited Amin to the high-level policy event taking place in Kathmandu from November 13-14 to present Pakistan’s perspective in terms of climate change.

Amin assured the full support of his Ministry to ICIMOD and its ongoing activities in Pakistan. He also invited ICIMOD to further strengthen its collaboration with the Ministry for piloting and implementation of National Climate Change Policy.

Pakistan is a member country of ICIMOD along with eight regional member countries of the HKH namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. ICIMOD is already working closely with MOCC to address the issue of black carbon by converting 20,000 conventional brick kilns into energy-efficient as well as environmental-friendly brick kilns. A countrywide training has been launched by ICIMOD experts from Nepal to train dozens of brick kiln owners. ICIMOD is also working with MOCC since 2012 for implementation of the REDD+ initiative in Pakistan.