ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday said that climate justice demanded timely provision of climate funds to developing countries.

He also said that further delay in disbursement of pledged funds for mitigating miseries of flood victims could result in irreparable damage to the cause of achieving a cleaner and greener world for all.

The speaker expressed these views in his meeting with the Islamabad-based diplomats of the African Bloc of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), at Parliament House, said a news release.

The meeting was aimed at garnering the support of the IPU’s African Member Parliaments for the National Assembly’s proposal of the creation of a global climate fund through a passage of a resolution in the forthcoming 145th IPU Assembly in Rwanda from October 15, 2022.

The speaker underscored that climate change was one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century.

He also said that it had played havoc in Pakistan as millions of people had lost their lives and livelihoods. “Today it is Pakistan but tomorrow it can be any other country,” he added.

He stressed that it was essential to sensitize the world about the existential threats faced by the developing nations both in Asia and Africa. He remarked that the international community had come forward to support Pakistan but unfortunately there was more talk than action.

The speaker made it clear that Islamabad was not seeking aid or assistance but the rightful share.

He raised the question that why Pakistan would bear the brunt of climate change, caused by the actions of “big polluters”.

He said that developed nations had to take responsibility for their inability to cut their carbon emissions.

He also outlined that the National Assembly of Pakistan had proposed an emergency item in the forthcoming 145th International Parliamentary Union Assembly in Rwanda from October 15, 2022.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022