ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday urged the international community to deliver on promises it made during last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP27 in Egypt, which included the operationalization of a Loss and Damage Fund for poor countries.
During the COP27 conference at Sharm Al-Sheikh in November 2022, countries adopted a hard-fought final agreement to set up a fund to help poor countries battered by climate disasters.
PM Sharif, who is in Paris to attend the two-day New Global Financing Pact Summit, said on Twitter he is drawing world leaders’ attention to exogenous shocks that have stalled growth, caused supply chain disruptions, and caused extreme weather events in Pakistan, such as the cataclysmic floods of 2022.
“The international community should deliver on the commitments they made at COP 27 in Sharm Al-Sheikh, including the operationalization of Loss & Damage Fund on the principle of equity,” Sharif wrote in a lengthy Twitter post.
He also called for developed countries to provide grants to developing countries without further increasing the indebtedness of developing countries.
“The world should use present economic and climate turbulence as an opportunity for course correction,” the premier wrote, adding that a starting point could be a system where International Financial Institutions (IFIs) make their programs pro-growth and aligned with climate justice goals.
Pakistan, reeling from an economic meltdown, estimates it incurred losses worth $30 billion from flash floods triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rains last year. The floods which killed over 1,700 and millions of livestock and swept away large swathes of crops in the country, exacerbated Pakistan’s economic crisis.
