ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is eyeing an initial grant of more than $350 million to mitigate the devastating impact of climate change because of the global warming and increased greenhouse gases emissions. According to Adviser to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam, Pakistan would initiate work on multiple projects to be executed under the 200 million dollars grant provided by Green Climate Fund to mitigate environmental degradation and combat climate change.
In a related development, the World Bank is to provide $188 million to fund major projects including the upcoming Ecosystem Restoration Initiative that aims at implementing the ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami’ and ‘Recharge Pakistan’ programmes. A press release issued by the National Disaster Risk Management Fund on Sunday said that $188 million fund will be placed under the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF), as it already has a framework and mechanism in place for quick and efficient disbursement of the money. It further said that the NDRMF has already been financing projects through funding being arranged from the Asian Development Bank.
The Ecosystem Restoration Initiative in addition to financing afforestation projects such as the ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami’ would also focus on Recharge Pakistan, E-Vehicles, Marine Life and Blue Economy, Biodiversity and Land Degradation, provision of early warning radars and eco-tourism.
The Ecosystem Restoration Initiatives will not only provide money to the provincial governments and other implementation partners through grant financing, it will also free up space in the budget allocations for the government. The bank has already held consultations with federal government departments, provincial governments and non-governmental organisations in the last few weeks to finalise restructuring proposal of its Hydro-Met Project.
The hydro-meteorological and climate services project is aimed at strengthening the government’s capacity to deliver reliable and timely weather, hydrological and climate information and services to user departments and communities.
Now the bank will use the project funds to finance the Ecosystem Restoration Initiative.
The PTI government has had launched these major initiatives as part of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and fighting environmental degradation.
The TBTT project is an up-scaled version of the project implemented by the PTI government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa between 2013 and 2018.