Pakistan will not be satisfied until UN climate summit negotiators release emergency funds to rebuild the country after this year’s devastating floods, Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman said on Thursday. .
“Dystopia is already at our doorstep,” he said in an interview.
He lamented the glacial pace of climate diplomacy, saying it could not meet the needs of a country struggling to recover from a deluge of climate fuels that has cost more than $30 billion in economic losses. .
“The political progress we make here will mean little on the ground unless there is a transfer of resources that revolves around how people face the future,” he said.
Pakistan is playing a prominent role in this year’s COP27 summit in Egypt, serving as one of the two co-chairs invited by Egypt, the host of the conference, the other being Norway.
Pakistan also represents the G77 umbrella group of developing countries, which has called for doubling finance to help poor countries adapt to climate impacts.
To date, only a third of climate finance has gone towards adaptation projects, and the full amount pledged – $100bn per year – has never been fully disbursed. Last year alone saw more than $80 billion in transfers.
Pakistan was key in getting the thorny issue of “loss and loss” on the official agenda of the UN summit – a diplomatic coup after decades of resistance from rich countries. The move opened the door to negotiations to address the demands of vulnerable countries for compensation for climate-fueled disasters.
But the gradual progress in these discussions, which could continue for years, would still not be enough for Pakistanis back home to consider the talks a victory, he said.
“If I say, ‘Well, adaptation is now prioritized’ … or ‘discounts are split 50-50 in preference between adaptations’, that doesn’t mean anything to someone who A house has burned down. A forest fire or someone who has lost a family member in a flood,” he said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called on rich countries to offer compensation and debt relief to complement Pakistan’s efforts to rebuild and strengthen the country against more severe climate impacts.
September’s floods engulfed large areas of the country, affecting some 33 million people and displacing millions.
Rehman said any new money pledged either for loss and damage or for adaptation needs to be channeled with “speed and agility”, as countries like Pakistan have time to waste. do not have.
He said that he supports the demand by the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries to restore the international financial institutions to better respond to the disasters expected due to the warming of the atmosphere.
“There is a recognition [at COP27] that we are facing a new climate for the world,” he said. “But there is still no recognition that the financial system that runs the world … Not worth bailing out millions dying and needy.”
