Honour climate financing, PM asks developed world

DUBAI: Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar stressed on Saturday the need to fulfill the growing needs of developing countries to implement climate change actions.

“The financial needs of the developing countries are way more than the unfulfilled $100 billion pledge,” he said in his address to the Global Stock Take (GST) event on means of implementation here.

He said that even to fulfill less than half of their existing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), the developing countries needed $6 trillion by 2030.

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The Prime Minister pointed out that adaptation needs alone were $387 billion per year until 2030, whereas with respect to the current estimates for loss and damage, they were around $400 billion annually, which were expected to grow to $1 to 2 trillion by 2050. He urged that the outcomes of GST and the COP28 clearly highlight this enormous gap between the finance mobilized and the needs of developing countries.

The Prime Minister also called upon the developed countries to urgently rectify shortfalls and their financial commitments under the Paris agreement, unlocking scaled-up and improved financial support that would enable developing countries to contribute to bridging the implementation gaps in their mitigation and adaptation actions.

“We believe the outcomes of the GST are well timed to guide the critical discussion in 2024 on setting the post-2025 new collective quantified goals on finance commensurate with the needs of the developing countries,” he remarked

He also stressed that the GST should strengthen the effectiveness of the technology mechanism in scaling up the development and transfers of proven climate technologies and enables a better degree of capacity building for developing countries.

“The need for reform of the international financial architecture also requires focus,” he added.

Regarding the technology transfer, PM Kakar said, “We proposed to focus on key and high-emitting sectors with joint indicators of functioning solutions, time frames, and enabling conditions needed to put in place green technologies.”

On capacity building, he said the developing countries required support and greater coherence and coordination across the UN system.

“To attract the required private and public investment, developing countries must be provided capacity-building support to develop appropriate instruments and create pipelines of bankable projects for adaptation and mitigation,” he remarked.

He hoped that the discussions and deliberation here and throughout the COP could result in ambitious outcomes on the means of implementation that were equitable and responsive to the needs of developing countries.

He said, “We have all come here with one aim: ensuring that the planet remains liveable for our children and our children’s children.”

“Our assembly here recognizes the acuteness of challenges faced in the realm of climate extremes. The notion of implementation and support is a critical element of the Global Stock Take report,” he added.

The Prime Minister maintained that climate change was happening now; some were witnessing it on television screens, while others, like people in Pakistan, were witnessing it firsthand.

“The critical concern for developing countries like Pakistan is the recurring natural disasters and consequent adaptation needs in the impacted sectors of water, agriculture, urban resilience, natural capital, and human health,” he said.