Paris climate conference : Pakistan set to miss INDCs submission deadline

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has yet to approve final draft

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is set to miss submission deadline for its intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) as the prime minister has yet to approve its final draft. The deadline for the INDCs submission to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat is October 30 (today).

Despite expressing commitments during his recent visit to the US for an ambitious agreement on climate change at the Paris Climate Conference scheduled to be held in December this year, Pakistan is set to miss the date for submission.

“The country suffered its worst [ever] earthquake, soon after the return of the prime minister from the US, due to which [we are going to miss the date]. But the prime minister’s sensitisation about the INDCs in the US was very useful, and would help policy makers develop and approve meaningful INDCs,” the Pakistan Meteorological Department’s former director general, Dr Qamar Zaman Chaudhry told The Express Tribune.



He said that countries that had missed the deadline would have to take their INDCs to the climate change conference in Paris.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the US President Barack Obama had underscored the importance of continued, robust financial support to help developing countries build low carbon and climate-resilient societies.

The two leaders also affirmed that their respective countries intended to work together to amend the Montreal Protocol this year to curb the production and consumption of hydro fluorocarbons.

Around 146 countries across the world have submitted their INDCs to the UNFCCC’s Secretariat as yet.

This includes 104 developing countries or almost 70 per cent of UNFCCC developing member states so far.

Last Friday a draft text of new universal climate change agreement and its accompanying decisions were dispatched to Paris from Bonn (Germany) where a final agreement will be reached in December this year.

The draft text of the agreement enjoys full ownership by the governments of the world and represents a balanced text that will constitute the starting point for the final round of negotiations.

Negotiations will resume in Paris when governments meet at the Paris Climate Change Summit from 30 November to 11 December 2015.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2015.