PRIME MINISTER Shehbaz Sharif has rightly reiterated his stand that climate change is a joint global responsibility and that the international community must take collective action to address it and cover the financing needs of nations on the front lines of climate catastrophes. Speaking at the COP27 summit in Egypt’s Sharm El Sheikh, he sought to emphasise Pakistan’s stance that the country is seeking ‘climate justice’ in the wake of enormous economic losses of $30bn caused by the devastating floods induced by climate change, and not debt or aid. “We’ve to fight and rebuild a resilient and adaptive infrastructure which can only be done through additional funding, not loans … but the financing gap is widening by the day,” he said in his National Statement as he called for prioritising the Global Goal on Adaptation in terms of financing and timelines to support countries forced to bear the heavy impact of climate change despite contributing negligibly to global warming. He also suggested that loss and damage needed to be part of the core agenda of COP27 to meet the humanitarian needs of those trapped in the crisis of public financing fuelled by debt. Lastly, he called for clearly defining climate finance as a new, additional and sustained resource, with transparent mechanisms, to meet the needs of the vulnerable countries with the required speed and scale.

The premier has been speaking of climate justice for the vulnerable states at every international forum he has been to ever since the unprecedented deluge struck a third of the country, killing hundreds and displacing more than 30m people, in addition to causing large-scale damage to crops and infrastructure. But is the world listening to him? World leaders may mostly agree with his words. Some have promised additional funding to help the flood-affected people and the economy of Pakistan. Yet, UN calls for cash to save the affected people, including children, remain underfunded. The prime minister was correct in telling COP27 participants that the world had failed to agree on the basics, despite talking about these issues for years. Pledges made at the Copenhagen COP15 in 2009 for mobilising $100bn annually by 2020 have still not been realised, for example. The climate conference may help carve a common path towards achieving the objectives of the climate change convention and the Paris Agreement. But the exercise will not yield results unless the rich polluters realise the urgent need to save the planet and start playing their part.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2022