ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif co-chaired the United Nations climate conference, or COP27, last year to gather global support in addressing catastrophic climate change impacts that caused unprecedented devastation in Pakistan in the form of historic monsoon flooding.
The prime minister effectively reminded the world that the natural catastrophe triggered by the climate impacts of developed countries that hit Pakistan could engulf other regions in the future.
Due to Pakistan’s proactive leadership and global efforts to cope with climate change, the COP27 announced the vice-chairmanship of the conference for the prime minister, jointly chaired by the Egyptian president and the Norwegian prime minister.
The prime minister’s continued presence in flood-affected areas was praised by different heads of governments during the mega climate change summit as an “extraordinary gesture”.
The prime minister drew attention to the risks posed by climate change in his meetings with United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon, Indonesian Vice President Maruf Amin, Iraq’s President Abdul Rasheed Rashid, and Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati. He stressed the need for climate solidarity and climate justice as Pakistan needed urgent attention.
Nature-based solutions were at the heart of Pakistan’s “ambitious” climate action agenda under the convention and Paris Agreement. The prime minister thanked the international community for helping Pakistan’s flood victims and discussed bilateral, regional, and global issues with them.
He also urged the international community to come together to create a common charter for the survival of the planet.
Pakistan needed additional funding, not debts, to rebuild resilient and adaptive infrastructure, the prime minister said. He emphasised prioritising the Global Goal on Adaptation both in terms of financing and timelines.
The current financing gap was too high to sustain any real recovery needs of those on the frontlines of climate catastrophe. Loss and damage needed to be part of the core agenda of COP27 to meet the pressing humanitarian needs of those who were trapped in a crisis of public financing fueled by debt and yet had to fund climate disasters on their own.
The prime minister called for clearly defining climate finance as new, additional, and sustained resources with a transparent mechanism to meet the needs of developing and vulnerable countries with the required speed and scale.
The COP27 concluded with a historic decision to establish and operationalise a loss and damage fund. The prime minister stated that “it is now or never” to achieve the objectives of the Convention and the Paris Agreement.
