Climate Resilient Pakistan moot in Geneva on Jan 9
A Climate Resilient Pakistan conference is being held in Geneva on January 9, 2023
ISLAMABAD: A Climate Resilient Pakistan conference is being held in Geneva on January 9, 2023, while there is no news of the French proposal to hold a donor conference for getting international assistance when Pakistan is looking to recover losses amounting to $30 billion in floods earlier this year.
“The cameras may have left, but the lives of people in many parts of Pakistan, including Dadu in Sindh, continue to be ravaged by a climate event. This is a good reminder as we prepare for a Climate Resilient Pakistan conference in Geneva on the 9th of January,” said Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar.
Ms. Khar also called for enhanced support to countries facing climate-induced disasters at the high-level pledging event of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) held in a hybrid format in New York.
In response to the recent flooding, the CERF allocated $10 million to Pakistan for life-saving humanitarian activities. She stressed the need for a time-responsive, well-funded, and strategically robust emergency response system.
“She also emphasised the impartiality and non-politicisation of such a humanitarian response system. The minister was speaking virtually at the event at the invitation of the United Nations,” said the Foreign Office. Recalling the humanitarian impact of the recent devastating climate-induced floods in Pakistan, the minister acknowledged and appreciated the critical assistance provided by the CERF. She echoed the UN secretary-general’s call for scaled-up funding for CERF, enabling it to assist the developing countries braving climate-induced disasters.
The high-level pledging event was organised at the UN Headquarters in New York to garner international attention and support for the CERF, enabling it to respond to emergency humanitarian needs across the globe.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths inaugurated the event. The minister of state was also joined by the foreign minister of Finland and Somalia’s special envoy for drought response and humanitarian affairs.
Established in 2005 as the UN global emergency response fund, the CERF enables humanitarian responders to deliver life-saving assistance, wherever required. Pakistan has been a beneficiary and a regular contributor to the fund.
