. Take a Deep Breath in Pakistan: Regarding climate change, the overwhelming consensus among scientists is “joint and collective action.”
It’s time to talk about climate action.
• The capital of Pakistan hosts the start of the DawnMedia Global Climate Change Conference.
• World Bank officials have called for an end to grants, demanding less than 20% of funding for the Global South.
• Finance minister highlights capacity building, says public-private partnership boosts businesses
• Ahsan Iqbal calls climate change an increasingly frequent and severe “reality of life”.
• Former SBP governor foresees annual national climate challenge of $40-50 billion by 2050
• KP forests act as carbon sink, accounting for 50% of Pakistan’s carbon emissions, according to Gandapour.
ISLAMABAD: To tackle climate change and mobilize finance, experts have called for mobilizing the necessary resources to address climate change, especially adaptation, across the public and private sectors.
On the first day of Dawn Media’s International Climate Change Conference, “Breathe Pakistan,” Valerie Hickey, Global Director for Climate Change at the World Bank, stressed the need to end unnecessary subsidies. through policy reforms, such as national taxation and mobilizing spending for resource financing. the mother of all policy reforms that mobilize climate finance, for which water is essential, is subsidies, She claimed there was no need for subsidies. In her defense of subsidy reform, she cited $1.5 trillion in worldwide subsidies for energy, agriculture, and fisheries alone.
Opening the keynote speech, Hickey acknowledged that money is tight and that the $300 billion climate finance target agreed in Baku at COP29 is not enough. “It’s not (a lot of money). It’s not like a loan. It’s not like a grant. It’s already there. It’s not that much,” he said, noting that money is running out, whether from national or state budgets, from private sources or from international public funds.
“Even with climate finance, we’re not optimistic. Seventy percent of climate finance goes to climate change mitigation, but what we’re hearing now is that mitigation is not the right issue. The issue is adaptation,” he added. “The Global South, where the effects of climate change are most noticeable, receives less than 20 percent of all climate finance,” he stated.
He said carbon markets have great potential in the compliance market, but the voluntary carbon market has fallen from $2 billion in 2022 to less than $725 million a year later. Even if they grow, there will be no shortage of carbon markets. The second best solution discussed is private finance, which can incentivize climate action. One reason climate finance is not happening is because of disincentives. He said that the private sector was being obstructed.
A World Bank official said there is no data available to address the climate challenge and we don’t want to know what works and what doesn’t until the problem is addressed. “While there is no perfect solution for climate finance, we need to remember the title of the movie: find it everywhere, for everyone, and for everyone at the same time,” he said.
Two existential questions
Regarding climate financing, Pakistan confronts two existential challenges: climate change and population control, according to financing Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb. He said that while mitigation is a challenge, the real and bigger challenge is adaptation.
“We know what and why,” he remarked in reference to climate change. A policy prescription does not exist. He also brought up the green taxonomy framework, the National Climate Finance Strategy that was introduced in Baku, and the National Adaptation Plan. It is the V20 (Vulnerable 20) Climate Development Plan.
