ISLAMABAD, Sep 28 (APP): Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change, Senator Sherry Rehman on Saturday commended the Green Urban Development (GUD) project for empowering and catalyzing young people under its youth-led eco-entrepreneurship initiative to devise tangible solutions for a better sustainable future.
She was addressing as chief guest at the closing ceremony of the two-year Green Urban Development (GUD) project under the title “Green Urban Development Cooperation and Youth-led Eco-Entrepreneurship” hosted by the Institute of Urbanism (IoU) and the School of Leadership Foundation (SoLF), with the support of the U.S. Embassy Islamabad.
“In climate policy and action linking dots and making complex coordinates coming together and making them a chain of virtual circularity with the young people taking it forward will reap positive and desired outcomes intending to ensure climate resilience of the communities,” she said.
She warned that there was an urgent need to protect the future as well as the present amid highly accelerated climate disasters as Pakistan’s urbanization rate is gaining higher at 3.3%.
Senator Sherry commended all the four eco-entrepreneurship startups that were funded by the US Embassy under the GUD project for being focussed and targeted interventions reaping propitious outcomes.
The Senate body chair said Pakistan was actually going to become water scarce nation by 2050 with many of its parts facing the situation at present. “There are no plastic collection sites and mechanisms across the federal capital that is leading water and soil pollution leaving plastics to damage fragile marina ecosystems in the oceans and rivers,” she added.
She invited the young eco-entrepreneurs to visit the Rawal Dam to study its water pollution as a case study to come up workable solution to cleanse the water reservoir from impurities.
“9 million gallons of waste is dumped into Rawal Dam per day which is practically all toxic and used by domestic households,” she said.
The Senator said the federal capital can establish it’s own ecosystem of circularity, unlike the fancy big climate conferences coming with big pledges but ending up with little action, to create sustainable solutions and awareness among masses.
Minister Counselor for Public Diplomacy, US Embassy, Lisa Swenarsk in her guest of honour remarks extended her gratitude to panelists and experts and lauded the GUD youth-led eco-entrepreneurship implemented by the IoU and SoLF that committed green solution and fostered partnerships among key stakeholders.
The US Mission forged strong collaborations to address pressing challenges of urbanization and navigate solutions as there were Green Urban Development Schools established in two universities and co-urban hubs that inspired students at the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) to tap half a million funding for scalable projects.
“These efforts are important for US and Pakistani counterparts to collectively work on climate action as the future youth will get disproportionately affected by climate change. Youth-led eco start ups show emerging leaders addressing climate problems as Pakistan’s innovators are paving the way for better future,” she said.
Green Pakistan Alliance Program is one of the many mega efforts funded by US to spend millions of dollars to address climate crisis, she added.
She thanked the IoU, SoLF, QAU, COMSATS university, CDA, RWMC, DePaul University, PCRWR and all others involved in GUD for making it a success.
The event also showcased videos on the four eco-entrepreneurship projects like Sarsabz Qadam project electricity generation through walking by COMSATS university architects where the pacers were used to help walking and power generation by converting kinetic energy into electric current.
A panel discussion was held where Director General Water Management CDA, Sardar Khan Zimri, Muhammad Bilal Yameen, Deputy Manager Operations, RWMC and Dr Ejaz Ahmed, IoU.
