ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has
said that he would urge the world, as
Chair of G-77, to deliver on its commitment on climate finance and loss
and damage fund, as he arrived at
the Red Sea city of Egypt, Sharm El
Sheikh, to participate in the ‘Sharm ElSheikh Climate Implementation Summit’. The summit, inaugurated yesterday, will continue till November 18.
On his Twitter handle, the prime
minister said without financial support, the developing countries
would continue to remain exposed
to the multifarious threats of climate
change. “We are asking for climate
justice,” the prime minister posted
in a tweet prior to his departure to
Egypt to participate in the “Sharm ElSheikh Climate Implementation Summit” being held on November 7-8.
“The world should treat Pakistan
as a case study,” he further stressed
referring to the recent devastating floods in the country. The
“Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Implementation Summit” is taking
place as part of the 27th UN Climate Change Conference.
The PM is accompanied by
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto
Zardari, cabinet members and
other senior officials from Foreign Office and Ministry of Climate Change.
Prime Minister Shehbaz
will also co-chair, along with
his Norwegian counterpart, a
high-level roundtable discussion on “Climate Change and
the sustainability of vulnerable
communities” tomorrow.
He will participate in other
high-level events as a speaker, including the UN Secretary
General’s roundtable to launch
the ‘Early Warning Systems for
Executive Action Plan’, and the
‘Middle East Green Initiative
Summit’, being hosted by Saudi
Crown Prince Mohammad bin
Salman.
The Prime Minister is also
scheduled to hold bilateral
meetings with several world
leaders on the margins of the
summit.
One year on from hosting the
COP26 in Glasgow, United Kingdom has handed over the presidency of the United Nations
Climate Change Conference to
Egypt as world leaders meet at
Sharm el Sheikh for COP27.
The UK’s Presidency of COP26
made progress on each of its
four goals of: mitigation (reducing emissions), adaptation
(helping those already impacted by climate change), finance
(enabling countries to deliver
on their climate goals) and collaboration (working together to
deliver even greater action).
Most importantly, if countries
which agreed to the Glasgow
Climate Pact deliver on their
commitments to phase down
coal power, halt or reverse deforestation and speed up the
switch to electric vehicles, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees is still possible.
This will be critical for preventing devastating climate impacts and protecting vulnerable
countries like Pakistan.
At COP26 the UK pledged
£55m in financial support to Pakistan to assist with building climate resilience and tackling climate change. This support is in
addition to £26.5 million provided by the UK government
and £30m donated by UK citizens to provide relief following
this year’s devastating floods.
Having handed over the Presidency, the UK is maintaining its ambitious goals on climate change. This year the UK
is launching the ‘Accelerating to
Zero Coalition’ which will promote the use of more electric
cars worldwide.
The UK is also initiating the
‘Forest and Climate Leaders’
Partnership’ to halt and reverse
forest loss and will be working
with developed countries to increase the availability of climate
finance to the countries such as
Pakistan.
At the opening of the procedural session of the event, President of COP26 Alok Sharma
handed over the presidency of
the conference to COP27 President Designate Sameh Shoukry,
who is also foreign Minister of
Egypt. In his opening address,
new President of COP27 and
Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry urged countries to deliver on the promise
of the 100 billion dollars climate aid to developing nations.
He welcomed the new
sub-agenda item on funding for
loss and damage which creates
for the first time, space for the
discussion on the critical issue
of funding arrangements to respond to the adverse effects of
climate change.
Sameh Shoukry said the current mobilization efforts raised
many concerns, as 100 billion
dollars a year pledge has not
yet been implemented and the
finance available focuses on
mitigation, not adaptation and
the most of it is based on loans.
He said, “we cannot continue
like this.”
The conference will continue
till 18th of November.
At the COP 27, countries come
together to take action towards
achieving the world’s collective
climate goals as agreed upon
under the Paris Agreement and
the Convention. Heads of States
and Governments are also attending the conference.
Nearly 15,000 COP27 participants from 90 countries are attending the summit