Experts for financing to address climate change challenges | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Experts for financing to address climate change challenges

Pakistan Press Foundation

A training workshop on Climate Financing Opportunities was organized by IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, in Islamabad on Saturday. The training was organized under the UNDP-GEF funded Pakistan Sustainable Transport (PAKSTRAN) Project being implemented by the Ministry of Water and Power, Government of Pakistan. Representatives from the government, media, academia and national and international NGOs participated in the event. The training aimed at underscoring the need for accessing climate financing through special funds especially global funds such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

The chief guest on the occasion was Hassan Nasir Jamy, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water and Power, Government of Pakistan who highlighted the need for building capacity of partners in accessing climate financing for securing funding for key environmental initiatives that were essential in addressing the numerous environmental challenges in the country.

He said that while the government was willing to support, its budgets were limited and external funding was needed to tackle the massive challenges Pakistan faced. He added that given the urgency and seriousness of the challenge, the Fund is mandated to make an ambitious contribution to the united global response to climate change. In Pakistan the relevant institutions are not well aware of the GCF opportunity to combat the challenges of the climate change.

Dr. Muhammad Saleem Janjua, National Project Manager of the PAKSTRAN Project explained that the PAKSTRAN Project was providing technical support to Government of Pakistan by focusing the critical challenges being encountered by the transport sector. The overall objective of the workshop is to build the capacity of PAKSTRAN partners and key stakeholders to get oriented to the climate financing concepts to develop relevant concepts for their respective departments. He elaborated that through its 4 outputs and specialized expertise the PAKSTRAN team was assisting the Punjab and Sindh governments to create an enabling environment to promote sustainable transport initiatives.-PR

Business Recorder