Baku: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that debt cannot become the \u201cacceptable new normal\u201d in climate financing, as he addressed the challenges faced by developing countries within the global climate finance framework.
\nHis statement came during a Climate Finance Round Table Conference organised by Pakistan on the sidelines of the two-day World Leaders Climate Action Summit, also known as COP29, currently being held in Azerbaijan\u2019s capital of Baku.
\n\u201cWe stand at a crucial threshold where global climate finance framework must be redefined to effectively meet the needs of vulnerable nations,\u201d PM Shehbaz said.
\nHe explained that financing in the form of loans increases the debt of developing nations and pushes them towards \u201cmounting debt traps\u201d which he referred to as \u201cdeath traps\u201d.
\nHe added, \u201cDebt cannot become the acceptable new normal in climate financing which is why we must resume focus on non-debt financing solutions enabling countries to fund climate initiatives.\u201d
\n\u201cDespite years of promises and commitments, the gaps are growing, leading to aggregate barriers in achieving objectives of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).\u201d
\nPM Shehbaz called climate financing an \u201curgent need of the hour\u201d, stating that developing countries need to deliver Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and \u201cneed an estimated $6.8 trillion by 2030 to implement less than half of their current NDCs.\u201d
\nThe prime minister further urged donor countries to \u201cfulfil their commitment\u201d which is 4.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP) and capitalise on existing climate funds.
\n\u201cOne such commitment is a $100bn annual climate pledge established a decade ago at COP15 [which] is now reported by OECD to have reached only $160bn,\u201d he said.
\nPM Shehbaz said that Pakistan can relate to the \u201cagony and pain of other vulnerable countries\u201d, highlighting how the country faced two devastating floods.
\n\u201cIn 2022, one-third of Pakistan was under water and the country had to repurpose all development and climate funds for financing basic relief and humanitarian efforts,\u201d he said.
\nPakistan is ranked among the top 10 most climate-vulnerable countries, according to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021. It has faced increasingly frequent and severe weather events, such as unprecedented floods, intense monsoon rains, devastating heat waves, rapid glacial melting and glacial lake outburst floods.
\nPakistan witnessed devastating floods during the 2022 monsoon season, induced by climate change, resulting in the loss of at least 1,700 lives.
\nWith 33 million people affected and swathes of agricultural land washed away, the damage incurred losses worth $30 billion, according to government estimates.
\nIn June 2024, a heat wave brought record-high temperatures, severely impacting public health and agriculture.
\nWhile emphasising transparency and coordination in financial commitments made to developing countries, he stated that Pakistan alongside other developing countries, calls for stronger more equitable climate finance mechanisms under the UNFCCC.
\nHe reiterated the pertinent need for reform of international financial architecture saying that \u201cnow is the time to build up on the momentum for international financial reforms\u201d so that no nation is left behind in the global response to climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Baku: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said that debt cannot become the \u201cacceptable new normal\u201d in climate financing, as he addressed the challenges faced by developing countries within the global climate finance framework. His statement came during a Climate Finance Round Table Conference organised by Pakistan on the sidelines of the two-day World Leaders …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":72913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72928,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72902\/revisions\/72928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}