Sherry Rehman highlights the urgent need for climate financing

Islamabad: Federal Minister Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman was invited to deliver a keynote for a webinar organized by UNDP on Pakistan’s Climate Financing Landscape: Innovative Solutions for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.

The Minister started the address by highlighting the urgent need for climate financing, “ It is crucial to address climate financing at a time when the world is reeling from missed goals and targets that aren’t being met following the previous COPs. As I speak here today, I would bring to our attention the headlines of casualties in Sindh and Balochistan due to the devastating monsoon spells that have been ongoing since the start of July. I have visited some of the flood damaged areas in Karachi and the interior Sindh. The effects of climate change are reaching unprecedented standards right before our eyes, and it is the vulnerable that are suffering the most. In the last three months we have been continually fighting fires, sometimes literally, racing against time to catch up to climate change.”

The Climate Change Minister also mentioned the lack of institutional capacity to deal with climate change events, “So how do our climate change sufferings match up to a broader policy ambition? States like Pakistan that do not have the institutional capacity, or a policy buy-in beyond a certain point to climate goals have had a struggle with even understanding that they need to focus on adaptation. We don’t have a national adaptation plan right now, nor an adaptation policy, our plans are mitigation-focused. We have made promises to transition 50% of our operations to renewable energy by 2030, and this type of ambition is matched by very few of the developing countries, and many haven’t come this far. If there is a limited climate finance bag to be delivered across the board in Pakistan, then priorities will have to be set and an institutional capacity has to be built, and that too not just for private markets. Furthermore, we see a clear gap between the Conference of Parties where the private sector and the sovereign governments make commitments to either reduce their emissions or enhance their ambitions. Previously, there was no formal agreement on climate finance in the previous COPs and as of right now Pakistan, in terms of international climate financing, has one adaptation fund, and 5 projects from the Green Climate Fund, all of which total to a USD 134 million and ongoing projects worth USD 19.4 Million from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). To put in perspective, our adaptation and mitigation needs will range from USD 7 billion per annum to USD 14 billion per annum. 2030 is likely to be a turning point for climate action plans, and for that the public sector finance is not ready nor available. Which means larger polluters internationally need to step up, fulfill their commitments and reduce that gap between ambition and action. However, we also need to be cognizant that interventions like Climate Debts end up harming the indebted and many developing countries like Pakistan are already under debt distress, exacerbated since the pandemic, to accept such unsustainable alternatives.”

She then concluded by commenting on the lack of action by international communities, or large polluters, “This year in the COP27, as the Climate Change Ministry we are determined to push for action on loss and damage especially in the context of climate financing. The multilateral climate system of compensations of losses, of building resilience, and of making NDC contributions have not been matched by either pipelines or processes. Nationally, we are doing well on the disaster mechanism front, better than many countries. But given the scale and ferocity of climate stress that we are facing, everyone is undergoing a serious existential climate crisis. It threatens our very existence. As a country facing climate change faster than ever, we need to create a National Climate Change Fund to park funds received from international climate finance windows, public and private finance through financial instruments of grants, equity, loans etc. Our climate finance strategies should be programmed according to long-term strategies for low-carbon resilient development of the country. We need adaptation to foster resilience so that the monsoon story of today is not repeated next year or the years after.

“I would like to thank UNDP for arranging this panel discussion, climate finance, climate catastrophe, all of it has taken over our talking points, our plans, and our headlines. I fear that slow action, or the lack of it might land us in a more catastrophic condition next year as opposed to what we face today.”

The Federal Minister was joined by His Excellency Mr Knut Otsby, Resident Representative of UNDP Pakistan, Mr. Haroon Sharif, UNDP Technical Advisor, Ms Radhika Lal, SDG Finance Policy Advisor UNDP, and Ms. Sobiah Becker Senior Climate Change Advisor Foregin Commonwealth & Development Office.