Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Saturday said Pakistan expects “COP28 to deliver with actions not just words.”
Addressing the World Climate Action Summit at COP28, being held in Dubai, Kakar said climate change is an existential threat to humankind.
“What science has forecast is happening. Last year, Pakistan suffered super floods, while this year will be the world's hottest year in recorded history,” said Kakar.
The interim PM said that the Global Stocktake is another grim wakeup call. “This must be a COP of action,” he said.
The Global Stocktake is a fundamental component of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty on climate change, which is used to monitor its implementation and evaluate the collective progress made in achieving the agreed goals.
Kakar said that in 2023, Pakistan presented a comprehensive national adaptation plan, and also launched an innovative Living Indus initiative.
“Last year, we led the endeavour to craft an agreement on establishing a global loss and damage fund. This year, we work to activate an adequately financed loss and damage fund and its funding arrangement,” he said.
Kakar stressed the need to activate the means of implementation i.e. climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity building for developing countries, which shall be based on the established principles of equity but differentiated responsibilities.
“Climate justice demands that the developing countries be enabled to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) even as they contribute to climate objectives. The provision of sufficient, additional and predictable grant-based climate finance by developed countries is imperative.
“The $100 billion commitment for climate finance must be fulfilled. Such finance should not be at the cost of development finance nor add to the already high debt burden of the developing countries,” he said.
“We hope the successful conclusion of the Global Stocktake would also provide a recipe for global course correction, especially by keeping the 1.5 degree Celsius goal within reach,” said Kakar.
The interim PM stressed that developed countries take the lead in raising global mitigation ambitions that are commensurate with their economic standing and historical responsibility.
“Finally, we need to achieve global resilience through delivering an ambitious outcome in the form of a framework for the global goal on adaptation, with clear targets and indicators including regular monitoring of progress,” he said.
Kakar said that at least half of climate financing must be allocated for adaptation.
Earlier during the day, PM Kakar, while addressing a round table conference of the Global Stocktake, urged the developed countries “to urgently rectify shortfalls in their finance commitments” made under the Paris Agreement.
Interim PM Kakar arrived on Friday at Dubai Expo City to participate in the climate change conference COP 28.
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.