Local funding urged to combat climate crisis

Pledge of $100bn remains unfulfilled by wealthy states

LAHORE:

Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Deputy Executive Director Dr Shafqat Munir said on Thursday that the Global North had pledged $100 billion to aid developing countries take climate action by 2020, but the pledge remains unfulfilled.

With climate change affecting countries indiscriminately, climate financing from the Global North has become a far-fetched dream.

"In this situation, the developing countries must take responsibility of their own future, harness indigenous solutions and mobilise local funding to combat the climate crisis," he stressed.

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Discussing national policy instruments on climate action, Dr Munir said that the National Adaptation Plan must be referred, while PC1 projects are developed for concerted national climate action and the financing gap is bridged by leveraging local financing. He further added that the Action Plan identifies financing avenues linking it to the mid-term budgetary framework.

Dr Munir shed light on the country's position on climate finance, institutional capacities for climate action, policy frameworks and the loss and damage created at the global level. He added that the crisis of climate change had no boundaries and it impacted all nations without any distinction.

However, the country is lagging in terms of effective implementation of its policy instruments to cope with the climate disasters.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2023.