Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Saturday urged the developed countries “to urgently rectify shortfalls in their finance commitments” made under the Paris Agreement.
The interim PM remarks came while addressing a round table conference of the Global Stocktake (GST), being held at the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai.
The Paris Agreement, often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change.
Meanwhile, the GST is a fundamental component of the Paris Agreement which is used to monitor its implementation and evaluate the collective progress made in achieving the agreed goals.
“We have all come to Dubai with one aim, ensuring that the planet remains livable for our children and our children’s children,” Kakar said.
“Climate change is happening, we are witnessing it ourselves,” he said.
The interim PM highlighted that the critical concern for developing countries like Pakistan is the recurring national disasters and consequent adaption needs in the impacted sectors of water, agriculture, urban resilience, natural capital and human health.
Citing the IPPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) sixth assessment report, the interim PM said that the world “is entering into a new normal, an era of cascading effects of climate change in the near future”.
Kakar emphasized that finance remains a key enabler for climate action.
“Financial needs of the developing countries are way more than the unfulfilled US’s $100 billion pledge. Even to fulfill less than half of their existing nationally determined contributions they (developing countries) need $6 trillion by 2030,” he said.
Kakar informed that the adaptation needs of developing countries alone stand at $387 billion per year till 2030. “With the current adaptation finance estimated at around $21 billion, there is a yawning gap,” he said.
The interim PM said that the outcomes of GST at this COP “must clearly highlight this enormous gap, between the finance mobilized and needs of the developing countries”.
“It should also obligate the developed countries to urgently rectify shortfalls in their finance commitments under the Paris Agreement,” said Kakar.
The interim PM called for unlocking a scaled-up and improved financial support that would enable developing countries to contribute to bridging the implementation gaps in their mitigation and adaptation actions.
“It is also imperative that the GST should strengthen the effectiveness of the technology mechanism in scaling up the development and transfer of proven climate technologies. It should also enable a better delivery of capacity building for developing countries.
“The need for reform of the international financial architecture also requires sharper focus,” he said.
Interim PM Kakar arrived on Friday at Dubai Expo City to participate in the climate change conference COP 28.
Earlier the PM Office had said that the interim prime minister will attend the World Climate Action Summit on December 1 and 2.
A day before he arrived in Dubai, in an interview with CNN, Kakar stressed the need to immediately operationalise the loss and damage fund - a global financial package to ensure the rescue and rehabilitation of countries facing the effects of climate change.
His comments come as nearly 200 nations agreed Thursday to launch the fund, in a “historic” moment at the start of climate talks.
The formal establishment of the fund long sought by climate-vulnerable nations provided an early win at COP28, where sharp divisions over the phasing out of fossil fuels were immediately apparent.
COP28
The 28th UNFCCC COP commenced in Dubai’s Expo City on Thursday with 52,000 party delegates and 90,000 non-party delegates joining this year’s proceedings.
A central focus of COP28 will be a stocktake of the world’s limited progress on curbing global warming, which requires an official response at these talks.
Double the size of last year’s COP27, the conference is billed as the largest ever.
More than 140 heads of state and government will deliver speeches over Friday and Saturday, starting with Britain’s King Charles III who will ceremonially kick things off.