COP28 Pakistan Living Indus Event: “Investing in Ecological Restoration” Statement

COP28

Pakistan Living Indus Event: “Investing in Ecological Restoration”

Statement

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

 

2 December 2023

(15:00-16:00 hours)

 

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

First of all, it is a real pleasure to be with Pakistan again this year, and to discuss the future of the Living Indus Initiative.

 

I am pleased that FAO has been invited to be part of this journey and to be a trusted partner in this important collaboration, providing our broad technical expertise.

 

FAO has been engaged in the Living Indus initiative since its inception two years ago, and I would like to recognize the leadership provided by Dr Adil Najam, and to congratulate him in his new role as President of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).

 

Working as ONE UN, together with our UN partners at the country level in Islamabad, FAO responded to the call by the Prime Minister of Pakistan to develop a Living Indus Initiative to tackle the multiple issues, including demographic, ecological and economic, faced by the Indus Basin.

 

Ably led by Dr Najam, with his long-standing intellectual commitment to climate change, FAO was proud to be part of the team of international experts engaged with the Living Indus Initiative.

 

The strength of the Living Indus initiative lies in three key fundamentals:

 

First: that the challenges facing the Indus Basin resonate with farmers, politicians, and the private sector.

 

Second: that the Living Indus is a whole-society initiative. Restoring the health of the Indus Basin requires action from all segments of society: government, private sector, communities; and the social movement created around the initiative has the potential to transform the way investments are made.

 

And third: Living Indus is a comprehensive approach, an ecosystem approach, which FAO has been advocating for years recognizing that one sector alone cannot adequately address current and future interlinked and overlapping challenges.

 

The collaboration model needed to tackle the impacts of the climate crisis is a systems approach, which is also one of the central conclusions of the Global Stocktake here at COP28.

 

Transforming global and national agrifood systems to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient, and more sustainable is critical, including for Pakistan.

 

Despite its abundant natural resources, Pakistan’s agriculture sector is not performing optimally. It has been importing food (mainly wheat and oil seeds) over recent years, which have contributed to increased trade and budget deficits. Past public investments in the 5 main crops: sugar, rice, wheat, maize, and cotton, some of which are highly water-dependent, have not led to the transformation needed.

 

Re-targeting public investments towards environmentally and economically sustainable agrifood systems is necessary, especially as the country’s agriculture uses over 80% of available water resources. Re-aligning agricultural subsidies to ensure that all Pakistanis have access to safe and nutritious food is the next challenge.

 

The Living Indus Initiative reflects FAO’s key message to COP28: agrifood solutions are climate solutions. 

 

Sustainable agrifood systems hold enormous potential for building adaptation and resilience, for mitigation, and for enhancing food security and nutrition, and for the Four Betters in Pakistan: better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

 

Thank you.