Growing financing gap major challenge to Pakistan’s roadmap to 2030 climate resilience: Sherry

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Senator Sherry Rehman said Thursday a growing financing gap was a major challenge to Pakistan’s efforts to cope with climate change, APP reported.

She was speaking to a national stocktake on Pakistan’s climate journey organised by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination.

“Pakistan needs state-of-the-art productization, resources, and money to scaffold adaptation and transformational municipal, rural, and agri-water governance for the years of unpredictability ahead,” Rehman said.

The event was aimed to showcase the government’s collective efforts and accomplishments in combating climate change over the past year, underscoring the critical importance of ongoing commitment and collaboration in tackling the global challenge.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was the chief guest of the event who exemplified the nation’s dedication to addressing climate issues and building a sustainable future.

Senator Sherry Rehman in her speech said, “We stand at the crossroads of history during this crucial decade leading up to 2030. Our people have been uprooted from their homes repeatedly due to the climate carnage, and in many areas, often when we start to rebuild, disaster strikes once more, pushing us into a recovery trap.”

Climate change interrupted human history in ways that only world wars and the nuclear bomb did, bringing the human race and those at the epicenter of the carnage in an arc of extreme vulnerability, she added.

The minister informed that the government recently launched the National Adaptation Plan, which needed ownership and inputs from the provinces to actually create the resilience needed at a local level.

She emphasised that the implementation of the plan would pivot on three crucial pillars; inclusion of local communities, coordination between federal, provincial, and local levels, and adaptation mainstreaming into the budget and development plans of all ministries.

“There is an immediate need to scale up the climate finance flowing to developing countries. While we understand that securing domestic financing is crucial, structural reforms involve pain,” the minister said.

IMF stresses Pakistan to accelerate efforts to adapt to climate impacts

Pakistan’s elites are willing to undergo more pain, not its poor, especially for enabling resilience, but some amount of change has to come from the Bretton Woods system meant to lead the world out of egregious inequality and now climate distress as the financing gap continues to grow, according to Rehman.

She shared Pakistan’s expectations from the upcoming COP28 in the UAE, stressing key points that required urgent attention and action. “First and foremost, adaptation needs to be front and center at COP28, as the billions required have become trillions, mainly because the billions have never materialised.”

Building adaptation costs four times as much as normal development, but highly climate-vulnerable countries receive less than $1 per person in climate adaptation or disaster risk reduction funding, she explained.

“The world must learn its lessons from the unfulfilled goal of $100 billion by 2020 to aid developing countries. The Global Goal on Adaptation remains to be fully funded, and we must ensure that the Loss and Damage Fund does not become another under-capitalised ghost fund,” the Climate minister urged.

“IFI’s need to vastly expand grant and concessional lending to developing countries and link the distribution of new IMF SDRs to development and climate goals. They should provide portfolio and budgetary support to developing countries, rather than project finance only,” she added.

Rehman further stated that the summer of 2023 was already showcasing global dispatches from an overheated future.

“Earth has passed from a global warming phase into an era of global boiling. As scientists strive to colonise the red planet Mars, let us not forget that our own home, Earth, could transform into a red planet of its own.”

The clock is ticking, and multilateralism must not fail those that are on the frontline of the climate crisis. Critical assistance for the most climate-vulnerable countries must not further burden the poor, and actions will be as important as pledges and plans at this point, according to the minister.

“Our people are looking to us with renewed hope for action, and we must not fail them.”

The minister hailed the government's efforts to ensure that the critical topic of loss and damage received due attention and inclusion on the COP27 agenda.

She also expressed her gratitude to the UN agencies and development partners, including the World Bank and ADB, for their invaluable support and assistance to the government.

At the event, Additional Secretary MoCC&EC, Syed Mujtaba Hussain, underlined Pakistan’s vulnerabilities to climate change and underscored the ministry’s significant efforts in combating climate stress.

He highlighted crucial policies and initiatives undertaken by the ministry, including the National Adaptation Plan, National Clean Air Policy, National Hazardous Waste Management Policy, Single-Use Plastic Prohibition Regulations 2023, Living Indus Initiative, Recharge Pakistan, GLOF-II, and Upscaling of Green Pakistan Programme.