PM calls for fulfilment of previous climate pledges

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday said that COP29 should make it clear that financial pledges committed during COP27 and COP28 must be fulfilled, as many had yet to materialise.

He expressed hope that the United Nation’s ongoing COP29 climate summit would transform into a “Finance COP” by restoring confidence in the pledging process and increasing climate finance for vulnerable, developing countries.

“We believe that under Azerbaijan’s able leadership, COP29 can transform into a Finance COP by restoring confidence in the pledging process and scaling up climate finance,” Shahbaz said in his address to the World Leaders’ Climate Action Summit on Wednesday.

“I strongly feel that climate finance must be grant-based and not add to the debt burden of vulnerable developing countries.”

As minimal emitters, countries like Pakistan should not have to bear the brunt of emissions caused by others, Shahbaz added, especially without the necessary tools to finance climate resilience.

“Without climate justice, there can be no real resilience and I don’t want other countries to face the plight Pakistan faced back in 2022,” he added, referring to floods.

Wealthy countries pledged in 2009 to contribute $100 billion a year to help developing nations cope with the costs of a transition to clean energy and adapting to the conditions of a warming world.

Those payments began in 2020 but were only fully met in 2022. The $100 billion pledge expires this year.

Countries are negotiating a higher target for payments starting next year, but some have been reluctant to confirm its size until it is clear which countries will contribute.

Shehbaz Sharif (second right) arrives to attend the COP29 in Baku on Wednesday. AFP

Instead, they are circling around the idea of a multi-layered target, with a core amount from wealthy countries’ government coffers, and a larger sum that includes financing from other sources such as multilateral lending institutions or private investors.

In the past, public money made up the bulk of contributions to the $100 billion goal.

Donald Trump’s victory in the US election has overshadowed the COP29 talks, because of fears he will halt US climate finance contributions.

That would leave a hole in any new global target that other donors would struggle to fill. Some climate negotiators also expect the overall target agreed at COP29 to be smaller, given the expected lack of contributions from the world’s biggest economy.

So far, only a few dozen rich countries have been obliged to pay UN climate finance and they want fast-developing nations, such as China and Gulf oil nations to start paying as well.

Beijing opposes this, saying that as a developing country it does not have the same responsibility as long-industrialised nations like Britain and the United States.

While China is already investing hundreds of billions of dollars in electric vehicles and renewable energy abroad, it does so on its own terms.

US officials touted newly announced plans on Wednesday to triple nuclear energy by 2050 as a bipartisan project that could survive Trump’s incoming administration.

The White House unveiled the big push on Tuesday for new nuclear energy capacity, making good on a commitment made last year.

The move is likely to be one of the final pieces of ambitious energy transition policy that outgoing President Joe Biden can put in place before he departs early next year.

The reelection of Trump, who has questioned the reality of climate change and pledged to withdraw Washington from the landmark Paris agreement, has rattled the COP29 climate talks.

But US officials at the meeting in Baku have sought to reassure counterparts that Trump will not be able to halt American climate action.

And Biden’s climate adviser Ali Zaidi on Wednesday suggested the nuclear plans in particular were an example of that.

“I would remind you that this is an area that has witnessed not only bipartisan support... but also an area where Democratic and Republican administrations have passed the baton, one to the other, to keep progress going,” he said.

“These targets are bold, but they are also achievable.”

Agencies