Pakistan, Germany sign pact for boosting climate change cooperation

Islamabad: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said that the German government has committed to providing all-out technical and financial support for the implementation of various environmental and climate change-related initiatives launched under PM Imran Khan’s vision for clean and green Pakistan, according to a press release issued here on Saturday from climate change ministry. He said further that Germany’s joining of hands with Pakistan for boosting climate partnership to enhance latter’s climate resilience against adverse impacts of climate change and environmental sustainability.At a ceremony in Berlin witnessed by high-level officials of both countries including PM’s aide Malik Amin Aslam, Germany and Pakistan signed an agreement letter on Friday for launching a process of Climate Partnership between the two sides for deepening cooperation and collaboration in climate change, environmental sustainability and green development sectors. “The climate partnership process, in fact, aims to strengthen the latter’s national climate action being taken as a part of global climate action through joint work in areas including Nature Bonds, Climate Finance and Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, Renewable Energy and Water Conservation” emphasized the PM’s aide Malik Amin. The global climate action was launched by the world community under the 2015 global Paris climate agreement for staving off socio-economic deleterious impacts of global warming.

Sara Ijaz, Charge de Affaires at the Embassy of Pakistan on behalf of the Ministry of Climate Change and Prof. Dr Claudia Warning on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development(BMZ) signed the climate partnership agreement letter.The German official during her address at the signing event highlighted that Pakistan was the pioneer country for this Partnership because of its impressive track record of cooperation in the field of climate change. During his meetings in the run-up to the event at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit(GIZ), officials from Pakistan and Germany discussed at length progress on ongoing joint environment and climate change-related projects and explored prospects for further deepening cooperation on mitigating the impact of climate change in Pakistan. The SAPM briefed the German officials at the meeting about the goals and aspects of the “Climate Partnership” between Pakistan and Germany proposed by BMZ and how it would assist the efforts of the Pakistani government in tapping innovative processes to address climate adversities with the view to effectively cope with the economic impacts of climate change. The Letter of intent includes up-scaling initiatives related to Renewable Energy, Nature-Based solutions, Nature Performance Bonds and Carbon Markets, Malik Amin Aslam highlighted, expressing hope that the partnership would prove to be exemplary and provide a model for the international community in restoring ecosystems and addressing common climate challenges.

He also announced that the partnership would be launched as a flagship initiative during the upcoming Conference of the Parties (CoP) in Glasgow in November this year. Later, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister also attended an expert roundtable on Green Bonds and Sustainable Finance as a guest speaker in Berlin and held a productive exchange with representatives of the Sustainable Finance Committee (Sustainable Finance-Beirat) of the Federal Republic of Germany.