Pakistan eyes foreign grants to reduce GHGs by 20pc

Islamabad: Pakistan intends to reduce up to 20 percent of its 2030 projected Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) emissions, subject to availability of international grants to meet the cumulative abatement costs amounting to billions of dollars.

According to a draft Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) prepared by the climate change ministry, the country’s adaptation needs have been identified to range between $7 billion and $14 billion per year under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The official data showed that Pakistan offered to the Paris Climate Summit in 2016 that it would reduce GHGs emissions by 5 per cent and then up to 18 per cent if supported by rich nations. Now Pakistan is ready to reduce emission of GHGs by 20 per cent till 2030 but it needs financial support from the rich countries as already pledged by them in the past.

An official said among the less developed countries, Pakistan is a country where ever growing urban centers are greatly contributing to the increase of GHGs emissions.

“Increasing size of the urban centers and improvement of living standards are collectively responsible in the increase of GHGs emission rate from the household sector,” he said. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam has said that Pakistan has officially begun the process of developing a National Adaptation Plan for building resilience to climate change.

“Pakistan contributes less than one percent of the global GHGs emissions but yet, every year we keep on climbing up the ladder of climate vulnerability,” he said. He said, “We have decided to submit revised Intended Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations as Pakistan has already achieved 9 percent decrease in the GHGs emissions due to its massive plantation drive as projected by the international studies and is well ahead of its global commitments made to fight climate change.”