Country needs global climate finance to initiate steps under revised INDC: experts

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan immediately needs international climate finance for taking measures under the revised Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC). A group of experts on climate change gathered at the National Press Club on Saturday to discuss the developments related to the climate change.

Experts stated that being one of the most vulnerable countries, Pakistan has the least climate finance provision to control or manage the outcomes of climate change.

The INDC submitted to the 2015 Paris Agreement, aimed to reduce up to 20 percent of its 2030 projected Green House Gases (GHGs) emissions.

The official data of Ministry of Climate Change showed that Pakistan has received a grant of 3.8 million dollars since 2015 for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) through a competitive process by Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank.

According to an expert Khan Faraz, the public sector never has the capacity to finance climate action, while the private sector is unable to contribute much on account of poor incentives and lack of trust. Another reason is that the capital market of Pakistan has average efficiency to attract foreign and local capital finance from the private sector.

Despite facing these kinds of conditions, Pakistan is on the right way to achieve stabilisation of GHGs in the atmosphere, with a timeframe that adequately allows for adaptation to the climate change.

Take this into account, the country needs international climate finance to further intensify the measures and actions being taken under the revised INDC, Faraz added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021