- Pakistan is doing its bit
By Maryam Inam
Despite being one of the smallest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, Pakistan remains one of the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. As a result, the country continues to suffer both socially and economically. The situation is further exacerbated by the lack of financial resources and technical capacity, causing Pakistan to incur human and economic losses worth billions of dollars due to climate change.
The international community realised the dynamics where the developed countries’ emissions were adversely affecting the world. Therefore, in order to stabilise the emissions, the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, an international environmental treaty, was established. Under it, countries meet twice a year in climate change conferences to advance the global climate policy and agenda. In the annual meeting of 2015, however, all the nations agreed to transform their development trajectories so that the average global rise in temperature can be limited to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level. This is now commonly known as the Paris Agreement.
One of the major components of the Agreement was the flow of climate finance from the Global North to the Global South. This was largely based on the idea of climate justice; since the developing countries continue to experience the adverse impacts of climate change because of emissions caused by the most developed parts of the world.
Another important feature of the Paris Agreement consists of the climate action plans, which are also called the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in which countries highlight their plans and efforts to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions and adaptation measures to counter the negative impacts of climate change. However, the least developed and developing countries lack financial resources, and based on the concept of climate justice, rely on the developed countries to fund their mitigation and adaptation efforts.
Given Pakistan’s vulnerability, internal resources are not enough and significant financial and technical support is required from the developed countries for it to fully realise its climate action plans
Pakistan abided by the Paris Agreement and the Ministry of Climate Change submitted its first intended NDC in 2016, where it committed to reduce the projected emissions till the year 2030 by 20 per cent, subject to receiving $40 billion from the international community. Pakistan also agreed to enhance its adaptation efforts if it received $7-14 billion a year. The government has also aligned NDCs with the country’s strategic plan, the ‘Vision 2025’, and has streamlined it into plans, policies, and sectoral growth targets, which are set by various ministries and government entities. Moreover, Pakistan is also revising its NDCs according to higher ambition in terms of greenhouse gas reductions and will be submitting its revised draft by 2020.
While Pakistan is making efforts to fight climate change and keeping all its promises under the Paris Agreement, it is perhaps not being supported as much by the international community, particularly in terms of climate finance. Before the Agreement is implemented in 2020, the developed countries had to disburse $100 billion a year to the developing countries to support their NDCs and climate actions. Unfortunately, that has not been the case and as a result, many developing countries, including Pakistan, lack the financial resources to fully implement their planned climate actions.
Although Pakistan has started receiving support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), it is far less than anticipated. Two projects have been accepted, one for mitigation and one for adaptation for which collectively GCF has approved $86 million, although the total value of these projects is $621 million. This is perhaps because the developed countries have not been pitching the required amount and as a result, less is available for disbursement to the developing countries.
Climate finance has been a much-debated topic in the international climate change discussions. Even in the ongoing UN climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, developing countries have been pushing developed countries for more finance for their climate actions. In one of the side events of the conference, Eddy Perez, International Policy Analyst, Climate Action Network, Canada said, “There will not be implementation of NDCs if there is no support, because developing countries need that support to prepare and implement climate plans domestically.” Mandy Barnett, from South African National Biodiversity Institute, in one of the sessions also talked about the need for steady flow of climate finance and said, “We need to bring climate finance as close to the ground as possible for lasting and transformative results.”
The government of Pakistan is committed towards addressing the grave issue of climate change. Despite having financial constraints, it allocates over five per cent of its annual budget to climate-related expenditures compared to approximately two per cent for education and less than two per cent for health. However, given its vulnerability, internal resources are not enough and significant financial and technical support is required from the developed countries for it to fully realise its climate action plans.
The writer is a freelance columnist.