• The Dawnmedia Breathe Pakistan International Climate Change Conference begins in Capital
• The World Bank officer requires the end of subsidies, regrets the way in which the funds are less than 20 percent to the south of Global South
• The Minister of Finance emphasizes capacity construction, says that the private public association will boost the action
• Ahsan Iqbal calls climate change ‘a lived reality’ that intensifies in frequency and severity
• The former SBP governor sees the national climatic needs at $ 40-50 billion every year until 2050
• Gandapur says that KP forests act as carbon sink, eliminating 50 percent carbon in Pakistan
Islamabad: To address climate change and mobilize finance, experts have requested reforms in the public and private sectors that collect the very necessary funds to address climate change, particularly adaptation.
The first day of Dawnmedia’s The International Conference on Climate Change Breathe Pakistan, the global director of the World Bank for Climate Change Valerie Hickey stressed the need for the elimination of superfluous subsidies through policy reforms, such as mobilizing national finances through taxes and expenses. “… The mother of all policy reforms that will mobilize the climatic finances for which the plumbing is absolutely critical is subsidies,” he said.
He alluded to a debatable desertification of the UN in which it was revealed that $ 1 billion per day were needed to combat drought and desertification, while $ 2 billion per day in agricultural subsidies were being distributed. She said these subsidies were counterproductive. She said worldwide that there were subsidies for a sum of $ 1.5 billion in energy, agriculture and fishing alone, while they requested subsidy reforms.
At the beginning of its opening, Mrs. Hickey admitted that there was not enough money and that the climate financing objective of $ 300 billion agreed in COP29 in Baku was insufficient. “It is not (much money). Most of it is on loans. It is not in subsidies. Most is already there. It is not an addition, “he said, claiming that there was not enough money, whether national or public budget, private finance or international public finances.
“Even with climatic finances, we have not optimized it. Seventy percent of climatic finance is destined for mitigation, but today we hear that mitigation is not really the problem […]. The problem is adaptation, ”he added. “Of all climatic finances, less than 20pc go to the south global, where the impacts of climate change are real,” he said.
She said that carbon markets had great potential in compliance markets, but in volunteer carbon markets, it has gone from $ 2 billion in 2022 to less than $ 725 million only one year later. Even as they grow, carbon markets will not be enough. The second silver bullet that is being discussed is the private financing that can promote climatic action. One of the reasons why climatic finances do not flow is because there were disincentives. “The private sector is sitting apart,” he said.
The World Bank official said there was no data to base the climatic action and until this problem was not solved, we do not want what works and what does not work. “While there are no silver bullets when it comes to climatic finance, we must remember the title of the film that we have to look for it everywhere, for all, and all at the same time,” he concluded.
Two existential problems
Speaking in the climatic finance session, the Minister of Finance, Muhammad Aurengzeb, said that Pakistan faced two existential problems: one is the control of the population and another is climate change. He said that although it was necessary to deal with mitigation, the real and greater problem was adaptation.
On the issue of climate change, he said: “We have known what and why. There is no shortage of policy recipes. Ultimately, it is about how and who.” He also mentioned the National Adaptation Plan, the National Climate Finance Strategy launched in Baku and a green taxonomy frame. He disseminated that the V20 climate prosperity plan (vulnerable) would probably be launched in April.
The minister also mentioned a recent long -term framework of the World Bank, saying that as part of his focus focused to take advantage of global funds, Pakistan agreed to take measures on the control of the population and the climatic action that involves climate resilience and decarbonization .
Debt Swaps for Nature are viable to advance in terms of climatic finances, said the minister, added that, in addition to financing, capabilities development to implement climatic objectives was also required.
According to the minister, public-private partnerships will boost the action for climatic finances.
The finance minister also mentioned bureaucratic obstacles in access to climatic finances, saying that the green climate background takes a long time to process the money requests required directly and urgently.
The World Bank official, Mrs. Hickey, agreed that green climatic funds have a “convoluted” procedure and it was very cumbersome to take advantage of these funds. The paperwork could be simpler, he said when he agrees with reserves on bureaucracy in these funds.
The former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Shamshad Akhtar, described climate change a lethal threat, which has interrupted the economy, textiles, cattle, as well as displacement. “Pakistan’s climatic challenges require investments in the range of $ 40 to 50 billion per year until 2050. Ironically, Pakistan’s current climate flows are sixth to an eighth of the requirements,” he added.
The cost of climatic inaction is $ 250 billion for 2030 and $ 1.2 billion by 2050, warned, saying that the weather was an evolving challenge with the consequences throughout the economy, since it affects food security, biodiversity and The economy. Former Governor SBP Salim Raza spoke about carbon markets, both compliance and voluntary, to unlock finance for climate action.
‘Lived reality’
Previously, the Minister of Planning, Ahsan Iqbal, delivered the inaugural discourse at the scene of the Prime Minister. He said that Pakistan was paying for the emissions produced by the global north and climate change was a “lived reality” for the country.
“We have suffered catastrophic floods, fast glacial mergers, abrasing heat waves and paralyzing droughts, all intensified in frequency and severity.”
He said the conference was not only a discussion but a call to action. “We must move from awareness to impact, policy to execution and efforts independent to collective responsibility,” said the minister, emphasizing the need for the execution of policies and frameworks that already exist in the country to combat the impact of change climatic.
The same session was approached by the UN Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator, Mohamed Yahya and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Prime Minister Ali Amin Gandapur. “Climate change is no longer a distant threat. It is happening now, ”said Mr. Yahya.
Remembering the monsoon floods of 2022 that submerged a third of the country under water, the UN official said: “A disaster of this magnitude should have been a call for attention to the world, but emissions continue to increase.”
KP CM Gandapur said that 37 percent of KP’s lands comprised the forest area, representing 40-45 percent of Pakistan forest coverage. He stressed: “As a carbon sink, they were eliminating 50 percent of Pakistan’s carbon.” “According to UNDP research and the World Bank, for this large forest area, we need at least RS332B per year. I can’t invest so much money, but at least my province and my people can do a job that requires this large amount, ”he said.
The Minister of Finance made these comments in a session on the climatic finances at the conference in which Valerie Hickey, the world director of climate change at the World Bank, and the former governors of the State Bank of Pakistan, Shamshad Akhtar and Salim Raza also They spoke.
On their first day, the federal ministers for finance and planning approached the two -day disclossor, the Coordinator of the Climate Change of the Prime Minister, UN officials and experts in civil society from different countries. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz could not participate in the conference despite making a prior commitment.
Posted in Dawn, February 7, 2025
