ISLAMABAD: US Ambassador Donald Blome said that he was delighted to join the launch of Recharge Pakistan, a groundbreaking seven-year, $77.8 million partnership between our governments, the Green Climate Fund, the Coca-Cola Foundation, and the World Wildlife Fund.
For the past 20 years, Pakistan has consistently ranked among the top 10 most vulnerable countries on the Climate Risk Index.
He said, “Today, we find ourselves in a decisive decade to take urgent action required to adapt to climate change.”
The United States and Pakistan have identified water resilience, water governance, and water productivity as areas critical to helping Pakistan build climate resilience through our “Green Alliance” framework.
By transforming Pakistan’s approach to flood mitigation and water resource management, Recharge Pakistan supports and advances these goals. It will help Pakistan pivot toward ecosystem-based adaptation and green infrastructure. And perhaps most importantly, it puts communities at the center of climate and resource management decision-making.
The project’s intended outcomes are ambitious and far-reaching:
● It will build Pakistan’s water resource capacity and improve agricultural output.
● It will help rural economies adapt to climate risk and improve sustainability.
● It will help restore degraded watersheds and build resilience in the regions hardest hit by the 2022 floods.
● And it will improve livelihoods by mitigating and reducing the losses generated by the country’s drought-flood cycle.
Taken together, the program’s interventions will directly benefit nearly 700,000 Pakistanis, and indirectly benefit more than 7 million more with project work across three provinces: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan.
The United States and Pakistan have a long history of working together to solve development and humanitarian challenges. Just as the Green Revolution improved the quality of life for Pakistanis starting in the 1960s, today, we’re making strategic investments in clean energy, water, and agriculture to help better position Pakistan for the future through the U.S.-Pakistan “Green Alliance” framework.
We’re installing new, modern generators and refurbishing hydroelectric power plants. These plants help prevent catastrophic water shortages, mitigate the damaging effects of flooding, and expand agricultural productivity. We are increasing electric grid capacity at affordable rates, and providing reliable, efficient, clean energy to more than 50 million people.
We’ve introduced farmers to new crop varieties, innovative ways of planting, efficient use of fertilizers, and new irrigation technology. These are investments in Pakistan’s people and its future.
The climate crisis impacts each of us. We all have a role to play in protecting communities from its worst impacts. Recharge Pakistan embraces this model — bringing together a wide array of stakeholders to develop innovative and enduring solutions to the country’s climate risks.
In closing, I want to thank Caretaker Prime Minister Kakar, our Recharge Pakistan partners, and all those who made this important initiative possible. This work is inspiring and reflects the best of what our countries can achieve when we work together.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.
