BAKU, Azerbaijan: When more than two dozen world leaders deliver remarks at the United Nations’ annual climate conference on Wednesday, many are likely to detail their nations’ firsthand experience with the catastrophic weather that has come with climate change.
That could include Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose nation has seen deadly flooding this year from monsoon rains that scientists say have become heavier with climate change. Just two years ago, more than 1,700 people died in widespread flooding. Pakistan has also suffered from dangerous heat, with thousands of people hospitalized with heatstroke this spring as temperatures soared to 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit).
Also on the list of speakers Wednesday is Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Edward Davis. Like many other countries in the Global South, the Bahamas has piled up debt from warming-connected weather disasters it did little to cause, including Hurricanes Dorian in 2019 and Matthew in 2016. Leaders have been seeking help and money from the Global North and oil companies.
Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is also on the list. Along with the rest of southern Europe, his nation this summer was hammered by successive heat waves after three years of below-average rainfall. In Greece, the misery included water shortages, dried-up lakes and the death of wild horses.
Leaders from Italy, Tuvalu, Russia, Morocco, Congo, and the secretary of state of the Holy See — the government of the Catholic Church — are among others scheduled to speak.
Plenty of big names and powerful countries are noticeably absent from COP29 this year. That includes the 13 largest carbon dioxide-polluting countries — a group responsible for more than than 70 percent of the heat-trapping gases emitted last year — were missing. The world’s biggest polluters and strongest economies — China and the United States — didn’t send their No. 1s. Neither did India and Indonesia.
But UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was there, and he announced an 81 percent emissions reduction target on 1990 levels by 2035, in line with the Paris Agreement goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. That’s up from the 78 percent the UK had already pledged.
The main focus of this year’s talks is climate finance — wealthier nations compensating poor countries for damages from climate change’s weather extremes, helping them pay to transition their economies away from fossil fuels and helping them with adaptation.
Wednesday’s agenda also includes an update on the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, an idea modeled on predecessor treaty movements that sought to build international support for controls on nuclear weapons, plastic pollution and chemical weapons. Supporters say the treaty could help stop the expansion of climate-causing fossil fuel production, create a plan to fairly phase out oil, gas and coal and accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
The idea has been endorsed by countries and groups including Fiji, Colombia, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, Indigenous nations in Peru, the World Health Organization and the European Parliament.
At UN climate talks, nations like Pakistan get chance to bear witness to climate change
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At UN climate talks, nations like Pakistan get chance to bear witness to climate change
- World’s biggest polluters and strongest economies, China and US, didn’t send their No. 1s, nor did India and Indonesia
- Main focus of this year’s talks is climate finance or wealthier nations compensating poor countries for damages from climate change effects
Pakistan highlights economic reforms at Davos, eyes cooperation in AI, IT and minerals
- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif speaks at breakfast event in Davos at sidelines of World Economic Forum summit
- Pakistan, rich in gold, copper reserves, has sought cooperation with China, US, Gulf countries in its mineral sector
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif highlighted Pakistan’s recent economic reforms during the sidelines of the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos on Wednesday, saying that his country was eyeing greater cooperation in mines and minerals, information technology, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence with other states.
The Pakistani prime minister was speaking at the Pakistan Pavilion in Davos on the sidelines of the WEF summit at a breakfast event. Sharif arrived in Switzerland on Tuesday to attend the 56th annual meeting of the WEF, which brings together global business leaders, policymakers and politicians to speak on social, economic and political challenges.
Pakistan has recently undertaken several economic reforms, which include removing subsidies on energy and food, privatization of loss-making state-owned enterprises and expanding its tax base. Islamabad took the measures as part of reforms it agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for a financial bailout package.
“We are now into mines and minerals business in a big way,” Sharif said at the event. “We have signed agreements with American companies and Chinese companies.”
Islamabad has sought to attract foreign investment in its critical minerals sector in recent months. In April 2025, Pakistan hosted an international minerals summit where top companies and government officials from the US, Saudi Arabia, China, Türkiye, the UK, Azerbaijan, and other nations attended.
Pakistan is rich in gold, copper and lithium reserves as well as other minerals, yet its mineral sector contributes only 3.2 percent to the countrys GDP and 0.1 percent to global exports, according to official figures.
Sharif said Pakistan has been blessed with infinite natural resources which are buried in its mountains in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Kashmir and southwestern Balochistan regions.
“But we have now decided to go forward at lightning speed,” he said. “And we are also moving speedily in the field of crypto, AI, IT.”
He said the government’s fiscal and economic measures have reduced inflation from nearly 30 percent a few years ago to single-digit figures, adding that its tax-to-GDP ratio had also increased from 9 to 10.5 percent.
The prime minister admitted Pakistan’s exports face different kinds of challenges collectively, saying the country’s social indicators needed to improve.
“But the way forward is very clear: that Pakistan has to have an export-led growth,” he said.
SHARIF MEETS IMF MANAGING DIRECTOR
Separately, Sharif met IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on improvements in Pakistan’s macroeconomic indicators, efforts toward stability and progress on institutional reforms, a statement from Sharif’s office said.
He emphasized Pakistan’s commitment to fiscal discipline, revenue mobilization and sustainable development, it added.
The IMF managing director acknowledged and appreciated Pakistan’s reform efforts, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
“Both sides exchanged views on the global economic outlook, challenges facing emerging economies, and the importance of multilateral cooperation in safeguarding economic stability,” the PMO said.
