Islamabad: The United Nations Environment Assembly Bureau elected Thursday its vice-president, Malik Amin Aslam, special assistant to the prime Minister on climate change.
Malik Amin, who was elected during the bureau’s fifth weeklong session, will represent Pakistan in the global forum for policy-making. This forum, which establishes the global environmental agenda with UN institutions, multilateral environmental agreements, and other international organizations, will also include Pakistan.
Eight ministers from different countries, including Zac Goldsmith, the UK’s environment minister, were elected vice-presidents. The term of office for the president, vice-presidents and the rapporteur of UNEA Burea is two years. They begin their terms of office at session’s close and remain in office until the close the next regular session.
For the first time, Pakistan has become the vice-president of the UNEA Bureau to lead the global efforts towards goals of making the world climate-resilient and environmentally-sustainable place through global climate action. Malik Amin stated that it is a great achievement and an honour for all nations. He explained that the Bureau’s main mandate was to aid the president in conducting the business of the UNEA. The Bureau’s periodic meetings also provide guidance to the Secretariat and other stakeholders for preparations of the next session.
He stated that the UNEA Bureau was a UNEP governance body which oversees global environment policies and priorities. A spokesman for the PM said that Pakistan’s election to UNEA Bureau was a clear indicator that the world community appreciates the internationally acclaimed green programs of governments, including the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Programme, which is being implemented as part of global climate action for sustainability. He told the session’s participants, who were from 193 countries, that rapid climate change was causing unprecedented challenges. “In this uncertain landscape there is a demand for international collaborations facilitated by organizations like the UNEP. “The UNEA platforms, whose fifth session has just been concluded, offer members the opportunity to bring their local perspectives into discussions,” he stated.
Malik Amin assured that the international community of Pakistan would continue to support the agenda to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. He stated that the Pakistani government had launched a programme to make Pakistan ‘clean and clean’. This included the Living River Initiative, which aims to restore the Indus River basin to climate-resilient conditions, the 10 Billion Trees Tsunami initiative, which will restore and enhance more than one million hectares, and the Protected Areas Initiative, which will increase the national coverage of protected areas to 12% to 15%.
The aide to the PM stated that all of these initiatives were creating jobs in nature, opportunities for ecotourism, and climate change adaptation. The world cannot choose but to make the transition to recycling and viable options. Pakistan, for instance, has one K2 Mountain that has been blessed by the nature but has accumulated enough plastic waste so that it can stack up two more K2 Mountains – this clearly indicates that the situation is not sustainable and must be stopped. He said that we look forward to working constructively and meaningfully with UNEP to create a new plastic-free world.
