ISLAMABAD: Monica P. Medina, the United States Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs has said that the governments of the US 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 US secretary, in a discussion after the bilateral working group on climate and environment, informed journalists on the outcomes of the ministerial dialogue on important issues faced by Pakistan due to climate change.
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.”
Opportunities to solve climate issues
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 US Assistant Secretary said Pakistan is a very important partner and friend of the US, adding, “We have a very meaningful and deep relationship 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 US 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 flooding.
Since these terrible events, the US has announced more than $200 million in flood relief, food security, disaster preparedness, and other recovery efforts. The US is 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 US administration had realized that both countries would have to move forward to mitigate the climate crisis by working together.
