Daily Times

Pakistan will urge developed countries to fulfill past pledges and provide easy access to climate funding without attaching conditions as it attends the Conference of the Parties (COP29), which formally started in Baku on Monday.

The annual UN climate summit will see tough talks on finance and trade, following a year of weather disasters that have emboldened developing countries in their demands for climate cash. Nearly 200 countries are gathering for the summit, where reaching a consensus for a deal among so many will be difficult.

“Pakistan is very clear on our stance on what we need from all the developed countries when it comes to the pledges, one, they need to complete their pledges, they need to fulfill their pledges, and two, easy access to the fundings,” Romina Khurshid Alam, PM Shehbaz Sharif’s coordinator on climate change, told Arab News in an interview.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has left Riyadh for Baku, Azerbaijan, after attending the Extraordinary Joint Arab-Islamic Summit on Monday.

At the International Royal Terminal in Riyadh, the prime minister was bid farewell by the Ambassador of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia Ahmed Farooq, the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Pakistan Nauf Al Saeed Al-Maliki and other diplomatic staff.

During his three-day visit to Azerbaijan, the prime minister would attend the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP-29) Climate Action Summit in Baku.

In addition, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will represent Pakistan at Climate Finance Roundtable Conference, bringing together multiple world leaders and experts to discuss financial strategies to support climate action in developing countries.

The prime minister would also attend the “Glaciers 2025: Actions for Glaciers” high-level event organised by the President of Tajikistan, His Excellency Emomali Rahmon, focusing on glacier preservation.

Pakistan is ranked the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. In 2022, devastating floods killed over 1,700 people and affected over 33 million, with economic losses exceeding $30 billion.

International donors last January committed over $9 billion to help Pakistan recover from the ruinous floods but little of that cash has yet to trickle in, according to officials.

Pakistan also regularly faces other climate change-induced affects such as droughts, cyclones, torrential rainstorms and heatwaves.

Currently, record-high air pollution levels have triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, school closures and stay-at-home orders in the eastern city of Lahore and other cities in the populous Punjab province, which has been enveloped in a thick, toxic smog since last month.

A mix of low-grade fuel emissions from factories and vehicles, exacerbated by agricultural stubble burning, blanket Lahore and its surroundings each winter, trapped by cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds. The city of 14 million people stuffed with factories on the border with India regularly ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, but it has hit record levels this month, as has New Delhi.

Pakistani authorities have said archrivals Pakistan and India need to coordinate actions to temper toxic smog, which winds carry across the border.

“We are open to dialogues and open to come up with the solution, we want to get the things done by dialogue,” Alam said, noting that the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab had also urged India to pursue diplomacy to resolve this issue.

“This is not a game, the main thing is to think about the children and to think about the future.”

Last year, the Punjab government tested artificial rain to try to overcome the smog, and this year, trucks with water cannons have sprayed the streets, with no results.

The WHO says air pollution can trigger strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. It is particularly punishing for children and babies, and the elderly.