ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman stressed the need for countries in the Global North to realise their pledges to finance resilience and adaptation for the countries facing the brunt of global warming by decades of wealth creation, based on fossil fuel development.
“Th bargain between the Global North and the Global South needs to be reviewed as it is not working for countries like Pakistan that is paying the price for emissions by others without contributing even 1 per cent to the problem,” she said.
Addressing a session on ‘Building Resilience to Preserve our Common Future’ moderated by Chairman Senate’s Defense Committee Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed at the Third Regional Seminar for the Asia Pacific Region Parliaments, Sherry Rehman stressed the need to build climate resilience by stating that as far as climate resilience is concerned, SDG 13 is of particular interest and gravity as building climate resilience is key for Pakistan, situated on the path of changing weather systems driven by climate stress,’ she said.
The Minister for Climate Change said the problem is not just local, it originates in other countries, and we need to plan better, but where are we supposed to find the resources for building back better? “All climate funds we had have already repurposed for urgent humanitarian needs for people living on the brink of destitution,” she said.
She said in Sindh, areas are still reachable only by boat because the water is just standing there, as the land is below sea level. “This has created internal displacements of climate refugees looking for dry land, while economic losses will likely go into USD forty billion,” she said.
She said adaptation finance now needs to be front and centre of climate talks, with a serious scaling up of the financial envelope for the same at the COP 27 agenda. She said it is troubling to countries like us that so far pledges for Loss and Damage have not even appeared on the formal menu for climate finance. “The costs of inaction by the big emitters will be on us on the geographical frontlines of climate stress. This needs to change.”
Chairman Senate’s Defense Committee Senator Mushahid Hussain, who moderated the session, lamented that though Pakistan contributes less than 1% to global emissions still it is one of the top affected countries due to climate change.
Senator Mushahid Hussain concluded by stating that humanity’s last hope is by putting in a combined effort by all countries. Ms Georgina Lloyd, Regional Coordinator (Asia and the Pacific) of Environmental Law and Governance at UNEP, explained Leave No One Behind (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. She said the green economy can generate more than 2.4 million jobs by 2030. In this regard, parliaments need to take a 3-prong approach; Legislative, Budgetary, and Oversight Actions towards sustainable development.
Meanwhile, at the concluding session of IPU Seminar, Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervaiz Ashraf termed the National Assembly’s move a resounding success to make members of the Asia-pacific region agree to an emergency resolution at the forthcoming IPU General Assembly in Rwanda. Raja Pervez Ashraf said the unwavering solidarity that all participating countries have expressed in support of the resilient people of Pakistan stands tall in an exemplary and united effort to face the devastation caused by the recent floods.
The Speaker extended felicitations to all participants for the successful organization of 3rd IPU Regional Seminar for the Asia Pacific Region Parliaments on Achieving SDGs. He also expressed his gratitude to the President of the IPU Mr Duarte Pacheco and the entire IPU staff for their continuous and close cooperation with the National Assembly of Pakistan.