ISLAMABAD: Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman has said that Pakistan is currently “bracing for one climate emergency after another, which has put parts of the country in a perpetual recovery trap.”
She shared these views on Thursday in a meeting with Danish delegation led by Denmark’s Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy Dan Jørgensen.
The delegates included Denmark’s Climate Ambassador Tomas Anker Christensen and Danish Ambassador to Pakistan Jakob Linulf.
“I have consistently highlighted throughout the year that Pakistan has become a hotspot for climate change. The acceleration of climate impacts, with a cyclone hitting the same most vulnerable areas, traps entire areas in a cycle of destroyed recovery, where they end up facing the impacts of a fresh disaster while rebuilding from an older one, like the 2022 catastrophic flood,” she told the delegation.
“This has already created an arc of extreme vulnerability in the coastal areas of Pakistan, which are likely to be impacted afresh by the Category 3 cyclone. Once again, we are faced with the responsibility of caring for a significantly large population residing in these coastal areas, which will take a long time to recover,” she added.
Minister Jørgensen emphasised on the enhancement of joint efforts on the green framework cooperation between the two countries.
“Climate change is no longer a distant concept confined to the future. Rather, it is an immediate reality impacting the present.
The devastating floods in Pakistan serve as one of the most severe illustrations of this phenomenon,” the Danish minister said.
The two sides reached consensus on the “imperative need to reform the International Financial Architecture to effectively address the requirements of the 21st century, particularly in the context of climate change.”
They also recognised the “significant milestone achieved” with the establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund during COP27.
Both the sides underscored the responsibility of the Loss and Damage Fund Transitional Committee to deliver “tangible outcomes” prior to COP28.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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