CANCUN (Mexico), Dec 9: Pakistan's Minister for Environment Hameedullah Jan Afridi addressed here the high-level segment of the UN Climate Change Conference on Wednesday, urging other ministers and heads of state from around the world to settle upon “an agreed outcome and to show flexibility in the quest to meet the challenge of climate change”.

He pointed out that a “fair, balanced and equitable decision was not just important but imperative to Pakistan” given the context of the disastrous flooding that hit the country this summer.

Other ministers also referred to the flooding in their speeches, making the link with the increasing impacts of climate change.

Mr Afridi pointed out that “intense climatic events have given a new dimension to the vulnerability debate” and that the recent flooding in Pakistan caused colossal damage amounting to $10 billion.

He called for the need to review the definition of vulnerability in a more holistic manner. Currently, Pakistan is not included in the group of “particularly vulnerable” countries like the small island states, African countries and Least Developed Countries who will be the first in line to receive climate funding in the near future.

Despite resource constraints facing the country, he said that a national framework on climate change was being prepared with the help of the United Nations.

This new national policy would look at energy, water, forests and disaster management. It would also lay down emissions reduction targets for the country. Since Pakistan is a low forest country, another priority would be to curb deforestation and increase forest cover. There is currently a mechanism called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) that will be decided upon here.

Negotiators are currently meeting behind closed doors with their ministers and a final decision is expected on Friday, officially the last day of the conference.

“If we look at the historical trend, we might not get a decision until very late Friday night or even Saturday. That is what happened in Copenhagen and Bali”, pointed out Pakistan's Lead Negotiator, Farrukh Iqbal Khan, currently serving in Pakistan's permanent mission at the UN in New York.

“I am still hopeful though, that there will be some agreement.”

According to him, Pakistan would like to see clarity on the future of the Kyoto Protocol and “a new global international fund established of a significant size.

We also look forward to an agreement on an adaptation framework and a loss and damage framework”. The latter would cover losses incurred from extreme weather events such as floods.

“Western countries are not prepared to do this but we are pushing for it”.