Islamabad: Pakistan has announced an ambitious new target to cut down the national carbon emissions by 50 per cent by the year 2030.
The reduction goal, however, is strictly conditional on the availability of international funding resources such as the Green Climate Fund, said PM’s adviser on climate change Malik Amin Aslam.
External climate financing will be critical for a developing country like Pakistan to invest in low-carbon and greener technologies that require substantial investment, he said. Pakistan’s financial needs for adapting to the impacts of climate shocks stood between $6 to $14 billion per year, critical to protecting lives and livelihoods and ecosystems from the devastating impacts of the climate crisis.
Pakistan is willing to move towards a “climate-friendly trajectory but the world needs to now match their words with action and deliver the climate finance necessary to make this clean transition” Aslam said. Wealthy nations have so far fallen short on the decade-old pledge to deliver US$100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020.
Sharing the details of the roadmap to reducing the carbon emissions levels on to a lower trajectory, the PM’s aide said that while 15 per cent reduction in carbon emissions would be made through the country’s own resources 35 per cent heat-trapping emissions’ reduction would be subject to availability of international financial support from various available UN-supported funding channels such as Global Climate Fund.
Pakistan announced the goal of curbing the country’s future carbon emissions under the revised Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), a climate vision, approved by Prime Minister Imran Khan on October 13 ahead of UN global climate conference COP26 in Glasgow next month.
Climate Change solution
Air pollution, green bonds/nature performance bonds, blue carbon, carbon markets, health, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HFCs), net-zero emissions through renewable energy transition are the areas identified for investment to cut the country’s carbon footprints as a part of global climate action, he added. Pakistan has also announced to generate 60 per cent of all energy through clean and renewable sources by 2030.
Pakistan recently also announced to join a global pledge, led by the US and EU, to cut emissions of methane gas to slow the warming of the planet.
“PM Imran Khan has fully supported and approved the ambitious goal of mitigating planet-warming carbon emissions to address various climate change-caused disasters including floods, heatwaves, cyclones, and glacier melting, being faced by the country,” the climate change advisor said.
Pakistan has been ranked 5th most vulnerable country to climate change despite emitting less than 1 per cent of global emissions. “Though Pakistan is not responsible for the climate disaster it is ready to step forward and be a part of the global solution and implement adaptation and mitigation measures in various sectors including forestry to address the risks associated with climate change.”
Pakistan’s climate change adviser Malik Amin Aslam announced ambitious new target to cut down country’s carbon emissions by 50 per cent by year 2030. Image Credit - Press Information Department
