Islamabad
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday, expressing Pakistan’s commitment to address the issue of climate change, proposed to the developed countries to mobilize $100 billion annually for urgent climate action.
In his virtual address at Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting, he said for Pakistan alone, the total abatement cost for the intended 20 percent greenhouse gas emissions reduction till 2030, was around $40 billion.
Secretary General Commonwealth Patricia Scotland, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Dominic Raab and the foreign ministers from Commonwealth countries attended the virtual meeting.
Qureshi said an urgent and ambitious climate agenda could only be pursued if adequate and additional climate finance was made available.
Despite Pakistan’s limited contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, it was among the most climate-vulnerable countries.
“We owe it to posterity to take urgent climate action, build resilience and adapt,” he said, adding that the government was making efforts to shift towards a ‘clean and green Pakistan’.
The Foreign Minister said no action would be sustainable unless based on the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities as set out by Paris Agreement.
He said Pakistan highly appreciated the Commonwealth’s climate change related initiatives including its ‘Climate Finance Action Hub’ and mentioned the already expressed willingness of his government to benefit from the services offered by the Hub.
He mentioned that Pakistan had joined the Commonwealth Blue Charter Action Group on ‘Mangrove Ecosystems and Livelihoods’ and also launched an ‘Eco-System Restoration Initiative’ at national level aimed at planting 10 billion trees throughout Pakistan in the upcoming three years.
Qureshi said Pakistan’s first Electric Vehicle (EV) policy was meant to replace 30 percent of road vehicles with electric vehicles by 2030.
