ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday assured the international community that Pakistan would make every contribution to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, and stated the government had decided that by 2030, 60 percent of all energy produced in the country would be "clean" and through renewable resources.
Addressing, the "Climate Ambition virtual Summit" co-hosted by the UK, France, and the United States, and held in partnership with Chile and Italy, the prime minister said that Pakistan had also decided that by 2030, 30 percent vehicles would be switched to Electric Vehicles (EVs).
Pakistan is moving towards clean energy as it is fifth most-affected country from the climate change, he said, and added Pakistan is the county whose contribution to the global emissions is less than one percent, yet and sadly, Pakistan is fifth most vulnerable country to climate change.
"We have decided firstly to have nature-based solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change and first by planting 10 billion trees in the next three years, and second, the government has decided to increase the number of national parks from 30 to 45," the prime minister stated.
The prime minister stated that "at the same time "we have decided we will not have power base on coal". He added that the country has already scrapped two coal power projects, which were supposed to produce 2,600MW of electricity, and replaced these with hydro-electricity.
As far as indigenous coal is concerned the country has decided to produce energy either by "coal to liquid" or by "coal to gas" so that coal doesn't have to be burned.
The prime minister said, "We have also decided to increase the number of parks from 30 to 45 and plant 10 billion trees in the next three years."
The Climate Ambition Summit represents a vital step on the road to next year's COP26, providing an opportunity for countries to set an agenda for the next year.
The summit marks the five-year anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, the groundbreaking international commitment to climate action, which set an overall ambition for the world to be no warmer than 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures by 2100.
The Prime Minister's Office stated that being part of the Paris agreement means governments have to set targets called "Nationally Determined Contributions", or NDCs, which determine, among other things, how fast they are going to cut carbon emissions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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