ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Climate Change has submitted a national plan to reduce carbon emissions with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). On Thursday, the prime minister approved the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC).

Over 190 countries have signed the UNFCCC which has bound them to submit their action plans on how they would reduce carbon emissions to bring down global temperatures, in order to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

More than 150 countries, including Afghanistan, submitted their INDCs before the October 1 deadline. Pakistan was one of the nations that missed the deadline.

More than 40,000 delegations from around the world will be attending the climate change conference in Paris at the end of this month.

According to the climate change secretary, Arif Ahmed Khan, developed countries attending the conference are expected to commit their assistance to developing nations by providing financial and technological support.

Speaking to the press, Mr Khan said that Pakistan was among the lowest emitters and accounts for less than one per cent of the global carbon footprint.

“Pakistan remains committed to the global efforts to reduce climate-altering carbon emissions to tackle global warming and its impacts, by adopting low-carbon development pathways, particularly in energy, agriculture and transport,” he said.

“However, Pakistan will not compromise national development trajectory to achieve economic growth, fight poverty and boost living standards,” Mr Khan said.

He said Pakistan’s INDC was rooted in Pakistan Vision 2025, which was a roadmap of economic growth, social inclusion and sustainable development aimed at transforming the country into a vibrant and prosperous nation by 2025.

Mr Khan added that Pakistan’s development needs were expected to grow, leading to the need for affordable sources of power generation, infrastructure development and facilitating industry to take a leading role to meet this transformation.

“Pakistan will continue to push for a global agreement that addresses the challenges it faces in a timeline that is necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. Developed countries will hopefully mobilise adequate funding and technology transfers to enable developing countries to achieve INDCs,” he said.

Developing countries, which are vulnerable to the impact of climate change, are faced with the challenge of utilizing assistance from developed nations and adaptation and mitigation measures to minimize risks from natural disasters such as floods, droughts and extreme weather conditions caused by the altering climate.

In the last UNFCCC session in December 2014, all countries were required to submit in their INDCs the kinds of commitments, contributions and actions they planned to undertake in the period between 2020-2030 to achieve the objections of the convention.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2015

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