DNA
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for “real action” on climate change, stressing that expressions of solidarity must translate into tangible measures during climate disasters.
“When climate disasters strike, vulnerable countries need timely help and finance that does not deepen their debt,” the premier said while addressing the COP31 Leaders’ Summit in Antalya, Turkiye on Thursday.
He called for grant-based finance for vulnerable countries, including public-private partnerships and a significant increase in resilience and adaptation funds for struggling economies.
PM Shehbaz recalled his warning four years ago that the climate disaster in Pakistan would have repercussions beyond the country’s borders.
That warning has become a stark reality. The future we feared has become the present we are living. Climate change knows no border. No nation can face it alone,” he said.
Reflecting the impact of climate change on Pakistan, the prime minister recalled the country’s devastating 2022 floods, which submerged a third of the country and affected millions of people.
He said the floods affected approximately 33 million people across Pakistan, highlighting the country’s vulnerability to climate-related disasters.
He also acknowledged Turkiye’s support during the devastating floods, saying it had stood shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan during the crisis.
PM Shehbaz said that Pakistan is pursuing environmentally friendly measures, adding that the country is facing significant climate-related challenges despite being responsible for less than 1% of global carbon emissions.
The two-week COP31 talks kicked off in Turkiye this week with governments under pressure to tackle climate change after a year of searing heatwaves and wildfires in Europe, and deadly floods in Nepal.
A day earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres railed against the oil and gas lobby, telling world leaders fossil fuels “must go the way of the dinosaurs” at a climate summit missing several prominent figures.
“The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us,” Guterres had told dozens of world leaders assembled in Antalya for two days of speeches by heads of state and government.
But few major breakthroughs are anticipated at the COP31 negotiations, which run until November 20, as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fuelled by the US war with Iran and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Since agreeing in 2023 for the first time to transition away from fossil fuels — the main driver of climate change — nations have struggled to advance that goal at the annual UN conferences.
At his final COP before stepping down in December, Guterres had said governments could not keep expanding fossil fuel production while claiming to support the fight against climate change.
“Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs, but that won’t happen on its own. The dinosaurs did not have a lobby, but fossil fuels do,” he had said in another salvo against an industry he has long accused of fuelling climate chaos.
“Their strategy is simple: Distort the science. Delay the policy. Delay the action. Delay the accountability. It’s time to kick the habit — and end the fossil fuel addiction,” he had said to sustained applause.
