BAKU, Nov 12 (NNI): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday urged the developed nations to play role to fulfil their commitments to developing countries for boosting climate resilience.
Addressing the opening plenary “World Leaders’ Climate Action Summit” of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) in Baku, the premier stressed the need for implementation of the United Nations’ Framework to tackle the environmental challenges.
The Prime Minister urged the world leaders, especially the developed countries, to accept their responsibility regarding climate change and provide an assistance to the developing countries in dealing with these challenges.
He said in order to meet climate challenges, developing nations need $6.8 trillion assistance by 2030 so that poor nations can counter the climate challenges. He lamented that at COP 15, climate financing reached merely $160 billion dollar which is too less than the actual requirement.
The Prime Minister calls for strong and climate finance mechanism.
At the COP-29 climate action summit, the prime minister also championed the cause of millions of Pakistanis affected by the devastating floods and convince the world that Pakistan, which has a negligible share of greenhouse gas emissions, was facing hard time.
PM Shehbaz said along with economic conditions, we are struggling with the harmful effects of climate change.
Earlier in the day, the prime minister joined the global leaders as they gathered to participate in the opening plenary “World Leaders’ Climate Action Summit” of the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29).
Accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar and Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi, the prime minister landed in the capital city of Azerbaijan to attend the moot and several high-level events and roundtable discussions hosted by Pakistan.
On arrival at the summit venue, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev welcomed the prime minister.
Later, he also posed for a family photo along with the participating leaders at the venue which followed the opening of the World Leaders Climate Action Summit.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan is ranked the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. In 2022, devastating floods killed over 1,700 people and affected over 33 million, with economic losses exceeding $30 billion. International donors last January committed over $9 billion to help Pakistan recover from the ruinous floods but little of that cash has yet to trickle in, according to officials.
Pakistan also regularly faces other climate change-induced affects such as droughts, cyclones, torrential rainstorms and heatwaves. Currently, record-high air pollution levels have triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, school closures and stay-at-home orders in the eastern city of Lahore and other cities in the populous Punjab province, which has been enveloped in a thick, toxic smog since last month.
A mix of low-grade fuel emissions from factories and vehicles, exacerbated by agricultural stubble burning, blanket Lahore and its surroundings each winter, trapped by cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds. The city of 14 million people stuffed with factories on the border with India regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, but it has hit record levels this month, as has New Delhi. NNI
