KARACHI: The British Deputy High Commissioner at Karachi and Director for Trade in Pakistan Sarah Mooney has said that over 55 million pounds, pledged by the United Kingdom at the previous UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) to partner with Pakistan to fight climate change, can now be accessed in terms of building flood-hit infrastructure and rehabilitation of people in Sindh and Balochistan.

Talking to Dawn on the eve of COP27, she spoke at length about the relief efforts carried out by the UK during floods and said that the focus was now on rebuilding a better infrastructure.

For that purpose, she said, the British High Commission in Pakistan is meeting with different actors in terms of NGOs, scientists, engineers, government, international actors in order to work together to design, finance and produce a more sustainable infrastructure across Sindh particularly but also Balochistan and Punjab, as they also had representatives from those provinces.

“Another area, which I think is quite personal to the moment as we move into COP27, is that the UK had pledged over £55 million to partner with Pakistan to fight climate change, manage water more sustainably and unlock climate investment in November 2021 during the COP26 Conference in Glasgow,” she told Dawn.

“I do think that the money can be accessed in terms of building infrastructure and rehabilitation of Sindh and Balochistan. And that’s something we need to sit down and think about as we look at the financing of redevelopment,” she said.

The diplomat herself arrived in Pakistan in the beginning of August when the scale of the flooding was just becoming apparent.

“We have provided about £26.5m worth of aid, which is also being matched by a considerable sum from our Disaster Emergency Committee [DEC] where the people within the UK, including our really active diaspora, are also contributed. A number of British businesses who stepped to support the relief effort also include some looking at how we can bring prefabricated bridges into Balochistan and Sindh to patch up the infrastructure that has been badly damaged,” she said.

Around £21.5m of this is going to the relief efforts in the areas worst-hit by the flooding. The remaining £5m will go directly to the DEC Pakistan Floods Appeal after the UK government match funded pound for pound the first £5m of donations by the UK public to the DEC. As part of the UK’s aid package, £2m worth of relief items for the most vulnerable people affected by the devastating floods are also being shipped to Pakistan.

In addition to the £26.5m in humanitarian funding, a UK Royal Air Force flight delivered eight boats and 10 portable generators in September. These were gifted by the UK government for use in flood relief operations. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are also offering free relief shipments in their cargo of any aid goods being sent from the UK to Pakistan.

The British diplomat also said that King Charles III feels very close to Pakistan as did the Queen. “One of the Queen’s last messages was about flooding in Pakistan just days before she died. On the official level, there are still a lot of meetings and exchanges going on and I would not be surprised to see a number of additional visitors in the next few months,” she said.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2022