Benefits of Climate Goals Must Reach Local Communities and Ordinary Citizens, Declares Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb
NEW YORK : The tangible benefits of global and national climate resilience efforts need to reach local communities and at the grassroots level, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb has said.
The Minister for Finance reiterated at a high-level climate change side event during international climate change conferences in New York that the implementation of environmentally broad frameworks, as required to turn the vision into reality, will depend on strong climate change policy implementation, institutional capacity building and unhindered access to international climate finance.
The transition from dialogue to action.The shift from discussion to action.
Global climate conversations need to move beyond talk and towards implementation, Finance Minister Aurangzeb said:
Organizing Resources: Pakistan is trying its best to allocate budgetary resources and mobilise financial resources from international funding institutions for green transition and disaster mitigation activities.
Overcoming Institutional Bottlenecks: The Minister admitted that institutional coordination gaps and lack of ready investment bankable projects have been obstacles in the way of using the available resources in the past. He referred to the impact of the devastating floods in 2022 and said that some of the inflows of foreign funding remained unutilised as there were no pre-vetted project pipelines ready to be implemented.
Enhancing access to Global Climate Funds.
Emphasizing the diplomatic and financial efforts, Aurangzeb said Islamabad is in constant touch with international financial institutions (IFIs) and specialized climate change financing sources to avail concessional grants and low-interest loans.
He further repeated that the development of local execution capacity must be given utmost importance so as to ensure transparency and sustainability of the economy.