ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Petroleum Division Musadak Malik has said that developing and under-developed countries have played a minimum role when it comes to carbon emissions but are still paying the huge price for climate change.
Addressing the fourth Asian Infrastructure Investment (AIIF) report–Moonshots for the emerging World: transforming state capacity and mobilising private sector toward net zero, jointly organised by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in collaboration with the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), here on Monday, he said the developed world has reaped the fruits of industrialisation but every country was affected by the carbon emissions.
The minister said, “We understand that the contributions toward net-zero transition come from each and every economy since we are in it together, but there should also be a realisation that this transition should be just in nature”.
He said that the world cannot overcome the severe problems overnight, as countries cannot simply start counting carbon emissions from today and start asking every economy to decarbonise at the same rate, irrespective of the level of development. He said that some economies in the world achieved faster economic growth in the past and achieved a higher level of development, but it came at a higher cost, in terms of polluting the world and environmental degradation.
The minister said that the world is living in very uncertain times and climate scientists are highlighting that even the current targets will not be enough to protect the world from the devastating impacts of climate change.
As a result of higher economic growth, the benefits were mostly reaped by the developed world, but the costs, in terms of environmental degradation and climate change, were borne by the whole planet. The economies left behind did not add much to pollution but they have been adversely affected by the worsening climate and left on their own to fend for themselves, he maintained.
In his presentation, the AIIB’s Chief Economist, Erik Berglöf, shared the key findings of the report with the participants.
Key findings and points of the annual report of the AIIB, through insight and data, the report cogently argues for the acceleration and scaling up of the state capacity and the collective global effort needed to accelerate the net zero transition.
It shows how, through innovative and technology adoption frameworks, public-private partnerships (PPPs) can work together with state-owned enterprises and financial institutions (SOEs and SOFIs) to bring about moonshots-inspirational, once-in-a-generation project breakthroughs-that can decarbonise emerging world economies, giving renewed momentum to their development and growth.
And it underlines why global multilateral development banks (MDBs) through a combination of capital, convening power and investment in green innovation, which are so vital to enabling wider institutional reform.
The “moonshots” detailed in the report outline what governments, particularly those in emerging economies, can do to begin their transition from fossil fuels to less carbon-emitting energy sources. A key highlight in the report is for state-owned institutions and state-owned enterprises to begin adopting green measures such as phasing out dependence on fossil fuels. They also need to focus more on providing support for national environmental sustainability projects.
The report also pushed for state-owned financial institutions—that is, central banks and national banks—to realign funds and investments in fossil fuel projects and invest more in clean energy production programs.
In addition, private sector participation must also share in committing to net-zero by implementing green programs in the value chain—from acquiring their energy needs to delivering their services.
“State-owned commercial banks, national development banks, sovereign wealth funds and central banks must come together and help drive the net-zero transition,” Berglöf said.
“We must also mobilise private capital into the net-zero process and these state-owned institutions must partner with the private sector.”
Behavioural changes in a population are also a necessary step as people in households and businesses must take some level of responsibility to produce positive results. But to a larger extent, these changes must first be met by actions taken by governments and large private institutions that are involved in industries that produce greenhouse gases.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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