PM Kakar to represent Pakistan in COP-28 high-level segment

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Prime Minister (PM) Anwaarul Haq Kakar will represent Pakistan during the high-level segment of 28th Conference of Parties (COP-28) being held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

The prime minister chaired an inter-provincial review meeting about the COP-28. The meeting was attended by the caretaker federal ministers for finance, foreign affairs, climate change and planning, and relevant officials, the PM Office Media Wing said.

PM Kakar said that climate change was an issue of national endurance for countries like Pakistan and observed that Pakistan was playing a positive role in the global climate debate through climate diplomacy.

Read More: Pakistan to vigorously present its case at UAE’s COP-28: PM Kakar

He said that despite its less than one percent imprints in the global climate change factors, Pakistan was amongst the countries hugely affected by the changes.

One third of the country’s population was badly affected by the climate induced floods, he added.

The prime minister also lauded the relevant institutions and organizations of the country for their best role in the reconstruction efforts in the post-flood period.

PM Kakar also directed the relevant authorities to make full preparations for representing Pakistan’s stance during the COP-28 on climate finance and other issues effectively.

What is COP28?

Over 30 years ago, more than 150 countries signed a UN treaty to limit the alarming rise of planet-warming pollution in the atmosphere.

The first COP — the “Conference of the Parties” to that agreement — took place in Berlin in 1995. Member states have been convening on climate change almost every year since.

In 2015, at COP21, more than 190 countries approved the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, but preferably to 1.5 degrees.

Although the Paris Agreement was a landmark moment and set the world on a path that scientists supported, it didn’t get specific about how countries should achieve its goal. Since then, COPs have sought to make the plans attached to the Paris Agreement more ambitious and to be more specific about the changes society would need to make.

than 160 member nations, including the UK, France, Germany and Japan, have confirmed their attendance. Heads of states and governments deliver speeches in the first days of the summit.