Pakistan has called for urgent action to limit global warming, which poses an existential threat to humanity, during a high-level debate at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
The day-long meeting on Tuesday came just ahead of the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow for countries to deliver on the promise of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement.
In his remarks, Ambassador Aamir Khan, Pakistan’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, urged developed country to present a clear roadmap at COP26 in Glasgow on their obligations to mobilise $100 billion per year, and to urgently initiate the process within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on setting a new collective quantified goal on finance.
“It is unfortunate that the countries that have contributed the least towards environment degradation are bearing the brunt of climate catastrophe,” the Pakistani envoy told the 193-member General Assembly.
In this regard, he referred to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement at the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) in Riyadh that Pakistan’s per capita carbon emissions are among the lowest in the world; less than 1% of global emissions.
Pakistan was the 8th most affected country in the world by climate change, Aamir Khan said, pointing out that since 2010, more than 30 million Pakistanis have been affected by climate change with the loss and damage exceeding $14 billion.
On its part, Pakistan had taken bold actions, highlighting the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Project (TBTTP) that alone has contributed to sequestration of 8.4 Metric Tons of CO2 during 2016-2021.
By 2030, he said 60% of all energy produced in the country will be generated from renewable energy resources and 30 % of all new vehicles sold in Pakistan in various categories will be electric vehicles.
