At COP28, PM Kakar urges swift action on $100bn climate finance commitments
Pakistan
At COP28, PM Kakar urges swift action on $100bn climate finance commitments
DUBAI (APP) – Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Saturday called for immediately executing the $100 billion commitments for climate finance to ensure the implementation of climate change actions by developing countries and to mitigate the climate change impacts.
“Such finance should not be at the cost of development finance, nor should it add to the already high debt burden of developing countries,” the prime minister said while delivering the national statement at the 28th Conference of Parties (COP 28) of the United Nations here.
PM Kakar also called upon developed countries to take the lead in raising global mitigation ambition commensurate with their economic standing and historical responsibility and then help developing countries do the same.
“We need to achieve global resilience through delivering an ambitious outcome in the form of a framework for the global goal on adaptation with clear targets and indicators, including regular monitoring of progress,” he said, adding that at least half of climate finance must be allocated to adaptation.
The prime minister said expectations from COP28 were high, but not unrealistic, hoping that this COP would deliver with action, not just words.
He laid emphasis on providing adequate means of implementation, including climate finance, capacity-building, and technology, to developing countries to tackle this growing challenge.
Kakar highlighted that Pakistan suffered from super floods last year, while this year would be the world’s hottest year in recorded history.
At COP 26 in Glasgow, he said Pakistan increased its ambitions, presenting the revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) with a target of 60 percent overall reduction in projected emissions by 2030.
“This year, Pakistan presented a comprehensive national adaptation plan and has also launched an innovative Living Indus Initiative that brings together our care for climate and for nature,” he said. “We will also be presenting our first update report during this COP.”
Kakar stated last year that Pakistan led the endeavor to craft an agreement on establishing a global loss and damage fund, while this year “we worked to activate an adequately financed loss and damage fund and its funding arrangement.”
He said that climate justice demanded that developing countries enable achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) even as they contribute to climate objectives. “The provision of sufficient additional predictable grant-based climate finance by developed countries is imperative.”
