Pakistan to present its climate change vulnerability case at global conference in Paris

Islamabad
Federal Ministry of Climate Change Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan has reaffirmed that Pakistan stands firm in its commitments made under all international obligations and agreements and will take all-out measures in collaboration with governmental and non-governmental sectors concerned to reduce Pakistan’s vulnerability to the negative impacts of climate change.
To present Pakistan’s case of vulnerability to these negative impacts of climate change in upcoming 21st global Conference of Parties (COP21) being held in Paris in December this year, Pakistan has started to hammer out a country position.
Addressing a high-level meeting here at the Committee Room of the Ministry of Climate Change on Thursday, the secretary told the participants from government and non-governmental sectors that we the need to approach this important event nationally with intense preparation of the ‘Country Position’ documents on the various issues and topics that will be under discussion at the COP21 that will be organised by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
“The COP21 will be attended by over 198 countries including Pakistan. He, however, expects that the up-coming 21st Conference of Parties COP 21 will bring a positive and balanced way forward for the globe as a whole. Arif Ahmad Khan directed the Ministry officials concerned to get into details and work out clarity of intended and pledged cooperation from the participants,” he said.
“For, this conference will be a defining event for the entire globe and the commitments and decisions of this event will have global implications for every country including Pakistan,” he added.
He said that The COP-21 (UN climate talks) in Paris in December 2015 is supposed to produce a global decision in a legal form to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and way forward on other elements like adaptation, technology development and provisions of finance etc. The decision will start in 2020, and last until at least 2030, and probably until 2035. Keeping in view the importance the Conference, Pakistan should start preparations on the stance of GHG Emission cuts through intended Nationally Determined contributions (INDCs) and on other elements and means of implementation.
The Ministry at the meeting hosted various relevant embassies, foreign and local donors and UN implementing agencies and for the first time included members of the private sector and civil society.
The meeting was arranged to gauge all these organisations under one platform to request support in their areas of expertise in this respect. The help was solicited in areas such as, technical, scientific, logistical arrangements and other human resource inputs to add value in this national level effort