‘Climate change effects will not confine to Pakistan’

Islamabad : Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman has said that the devastating recent floods in Pakistan were Nature’s memo to humanity delivered through Pakistan.

She was speaking at an event on ‘Pre-COP 27: from Paris to Sharm-el-Sheikh’ jointly organised by Institute of Regional Studies (IRS), the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change (CSCCC) and Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here Wednesday.

Senator Sherry called for inclusive global decision-making on climate change and urged the international community to not only meet the commitments made under Paris Agreement but also to set more ambitious goals at COP 27. She stressed that the vulnerable population of Pakistan was already experiencing impacts of climate change on their lives through changing weather patterns, crop losses and water shortages placing them among bottom 1% of climate risk pyramid.

With reference to the upcoming COP 27, the Minister said that Pakistan’s slogan would be premised around questioning the world on how long it was expected of a country like ours to tolerate this dystopia at our doorstep.

She reiterated that while Pakistan’s share in global contribution to climate change was minimal, there is serious need among elite faction in the country to rethink their carbon-rich lifestyles which directly affected vulnerable communities.

In addition to major behavioural and lifestyle changes, Senator Sherry added, a comprehensive risk reduction mapping, developed consultatively with the provinces and the federating units was vital for effective engagement on climate change globally.

Most importantly, climate financing must be reoriented toward facilitating the developing countries, she said adding that the materialisation of approved projects followed unrealistic timelines, amplifying the root cause(s) of the crisis in the process.

She stressed that responsible and effective mitigation lied in capacity-building in three areas, i.e., resilience, adaptation, and financing.

Ambassador of France to Pakistan Nicolas Galey highlighted the assistance provided by the French government to Pakistan in providing relief to the victims of floods. He called for greater attention toward the needs of the vulnerable communities in the aftermath of natural disasters in Pakistan.

Tarek Dahroug, Ambassador of Egypt, shared that climate change could reduce global economic output by 4% by 2050. He added that efforts will be made during COP 27 to urge the international community to meet its climate financing goals without any delay.

Samey Shoukry, Egyptian Minister for Foreign Affairs and COP 27 President said in his video message to the audience of the event that it was time the world realised that it needed to do more, act swiftly and rather decisively to ensure a qualitative response to climate change.

He added that COP 27 was the COP of implementation and required urgent consideration of normative frameworks and operational needs. Earlier, President IRS Nadeem Riyaz welcomed the participants.