SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that Pakistan was fully committed to the objectives of the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) and offered assistance to the member countries in sharing technical expertise on forest restoration in drylands.

Addressing the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) Summit 2022 here at the Conference of Parties (COP27) platform, the prime minister termed MGI one big step in the right direction to save the planet from the disasters of climate change.

With the first MGI summit hosted by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in 2021 in Riyadh, the initiative amplifies the Kingdom’s coordination and knowledge transfer with regional and international partners to achieve a reduction in carbon emissions and deliver the largest reforestation programme in the world.

Lauding Saudi Arabia for driving the Initiative, Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan had already extended cooperation through the exchange of knowledge and provision of experts.

As a further step, he said, Pakistan was willing to provide assistance to all MGI member countries in sharing experiences and technical expertise on forest restoration in dryland areas and mangroves, management of protected areas, carbon stock assessment and establishment of forest monitoring systems.

He expressed gratitude to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for organizing the summit.

He said Pakistan valued the pioneering vision of the Saudi crown prince for undertaking the MGI, the first ecosystem restoration initiative of its kind in the Middle East region.

Nature-based solutions, he mentioned, are at the heart of Pakistan’s ambitious climate action agenda under the Convention and the Paris Agreement.

The prime minister emphasized that nature-based initiatives, like afforestation, helped countries build adaptive capacities, sequester greenhouse gas emissions, as well as avert and minimize damage due to climate change at national and regional levels.

He pointed out that Pakistan and many other member countries included in the Middle East Green Initiative were facing accelerated ecological imbalances induced due to climate change effects.

He mentioned, in this regard, a cascade of extreme catastrophes in the form of unprecedented rains, devastating floods, prolonged heat waves, relentless forest fires, glacial lake outburst floods and many such climate-induced devastations.

Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan fully endorsed the guiding principles of a shared vision of sustainable futures, effective collaboration, regional and international linkages, innovation-driven actions and science-based decision-making.

He expressed confidence that it would go a long way in making this initiative a life-changing success for the member states and their vulnerable populations.

The prime minister mentioned that the objectives of the MGI were aligned with the objectives of Pakistan’s National Forest Policy and the Green Pakistan Programme aimed at protecting the country’s forests, wildlife and ecosystems by 2030.

He highlighted the Green Pakistan Programme, launched in 2016, as the flagship national forestation initiative ongoing with an enhanced target of planting 3.3 billion trees by 2023 and tripling it by 2030.

The programme, he said, had brought exemplary gains in terms of enhancing forest cover and conserving biodiversity, while also provisioning thousands of green jobs for local communities.

Shehbaz Sharif mentioned that Pakistan’s Protected Areas Initiative had increased 3.6 million hectares of protected areas for safeguarding the country’s threatened flora and fauna.