Daily Times

Amir Paracha President of the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) on Wednesday urged collaborative efforts to address the climate crisis in Pakistan.

“Climate change is a global issue but in Pakistan’s case it is evident that climate change is happening now and not a phenomenon that only our future generations will experience,” said Amir Paracha at the 2nd Pakistan Climate Conference.

This is the second consecutive year that the OICCI has organized the Climate Conference with the aim of better climate action in the country.

Despite being responsible for less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming gases, Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis.

Caretaker Finance Minister Shamshad Akhtar, while addressing the conference, said that to address climate-related challenges, Pakistan would require an investment of approximately 340 billion dollars, which is 10pc of cumulative GDP.

“One of the biggest challenges we have internationally is the issue of trade-off between climate finance and developmental finance,” she said. She said that getting money for Pakistan’s climate crisis undercuts other development finance.

However, for the first time, the Ministry of Finance is partnering with the Ministry of Climate and will attend the COP28 together in November and look towards innovative climate finance mechanisms.

The cost of climate change to Pakistan is substantial and is continuously increasing as the country faces severe economic challenges,” said Minister of Energy Muhammad Ali.

Addressing the Conference via a video link, Energy Minister Muhammad Ali said that Pakistan’s energy transition requires substantial investments in energy assets infrastructure by 2040.

Ali added that to achieve this, “we must leverage the capabilities of the private sector, especially OICCI as it consists of most advanced global organizations who have the technologies and know how to contribute towards Pakistan’s climate future.”

“There is no longer a distinction between ‘finance’ and ‘climate finance’. All financial institutions need to have climate considerations embedded in their decision-making processes,” said Philip Skinner, MD, GuarantCo.

Last year’s floods that inundated one-third of the country were a stark reminder that Pakistan is paying a hefty price, not only with lives but also destroyed schools, homes and bridges.

To work towards mitigating climate change impacts, the Pakistan Climate Conference 2023 brought together global and local climate change experts, business leaders, policymakers and social change activists under one roof.

In his opening address, Paracha said that as a collective of more than 200 multinational corporations in Pakistan, the OICCI launched the Conference last year with a sense of responsibility and accountability.

“Taking responsibility for our footprint, we are working towards minimizing our environmental mark as much as we can by implementing changes within our own operations and also engaging with other key players in the ecosystem,” he added.

The themes for the Conference were in line with the upcoming COP 28 scheduled to be held in UAE by the end of November.