Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has called upon the international community to honour its commitment on climate finance.
He was speaking at the Special Climate Event convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres along with the President of Brazil in New York.
The Prime Minister stressed that debt-driven finance cannot address the climate catastrophe confronting vulnerable nations like Pakistan.
Shehbaz Sharif reminded delegates that Pakistan is still reeling from the scars of the 2022 floods, which inflicted losses exceeding 30 billion dollars and displaced millions.
He also apprised the delegates about this year’s intense monsoon rains that have impacted more than five million people, destroyed four thousand one hundred villages and claimed over one thousand lives.
The Prime Minister pointed out that Pakistan has suffered the most from climate change despite its minimal contribution to global greenhouse.
As part of the overall target of cutting emissions by fifty percent, he said that Pakistan has already delivered on its unconditional pledge of a fifteen percent reduction.
The Prime Minister also announced to increase the share of renewables and hydropower to 62 percent of the country’s energy mix by 2035 and shifting 30 percent of transport to cleaner mobility and advancing the plantation of 1 billion trees.
He said that the Paris Agreement had made a difference as in the last 10 years and “now, we need new plans for 2035 that go much further, and much faster.”
The UN chief stressed that “COP30 in Brazil must conclude with a credible global response plan to get us on track and “show a credible path to mobilizing the $1.3 trillion annually in climate finance by 2035, as agreed at COP29 in Baku,” including identifying funding sources, making finance accessible, and ensuring accountability.
He also underlined that “developing countries that did least to cause the crisis are suffering most,” and called for “effective debt relief, and scaled-up solutions like debt swaps and disaster pause clauses.”
