Daily Times

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam Monday said Prime Minister Imran Khan’s clean green vision and leadership helped Pakistan to successfully achieve sustainable development goal 13 (SDG-13) of Climate Action ahead of 2030 deadline.

The adviser while addressing a special talk on “Achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action” in his keynote address said it’s a jubilant day for Pakistan as the world was struggling in coping with climate change and the pandemic it had achieved the SDG-13 target despite gruesome challenges prior to the deadline.

Amin Aslam said Prime Minister Imran Khan was among the global leaders who were advocating for climate action and rigorous measures to avert adverse impacts of climate change across the globe.

He said Pakistan’s major shift towards clean energy and forestry supported its performance in SDG, which were opted by the entire world.

“The mega coal fired power plants of 2700 megawatts (MW) to be established at Muzzaffargarh and Rahim Yar Khan have been shelved under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and replaced with 3700MW hydro power projects, which are emission less safe projects. More over country’s first Electric Vehicle Policy has been approved and its market incentives are on ground,” he said.

The pandemic of COVID-19 made the world realize that the entire world was interconnected where the existence of one without the other was difficult, as the loss of ecosystems and wildlife would result in such contagions affecting mankind, he added.

Amin Aslam said that the recent Sustainable Development Report 2020 paced Pakistan at 134th place out of 166 countries where its Sustainable Development Index score was 56.2 in 2020 where at regional level it was 67.2.

He mentioned that the SDG-13 performance as per the Sustainable Development Report 2020 was not improving rather complimenting other indicators of different SDGs heading in positive direction.

“Karachi Zero Emission Metro Bus project, Smart Agriculture project, and glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF-II) programme to mitigate risk of glacial inundation through Global Climate Fund (GCF) financing have been placed on ground in just two years that are responsible to achieve the target of SDG-13”, he said.

He added that the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa implemented Billion Tree Tsunami project (BTT) that revived the depleting forest cover from 20 to 26 percent where the global organizations IUCN, FAO, WWF, Bonn Challenge and others had endorsed this development in their reports.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Resident Representative United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Aliona Niculita congratulated Pakistan for achieving SDG-13 Climate Action and said, “Its encouraging to see Pakistan achieve SGD-13 in hard and challenging circumstances. Pakistan is an example on established SDG framework that is formed and owned by the government.”

She added that it required collective efforts and meaningful partnership to achieve SDG targets.

UNDP Assistant Resident Representative Environment and Climate Change Unit Amanullah Khan also spoke on the achievement whereas Additional Secretary Ministry of Climate Change Joudat Ayaz delivered his welcome remarks.