COP28 (November 30, 2023)

• Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq

Kakar, accompanied by Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas
Jilani and Minister for Climate Change Ahmed Irfan
Aslam, will call for the implementation of the Loss
and Damage fund — established last year after
Pakistan successfully argued that “what happens in
Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan”.
• The PM will also urge developed countries
to deliver on the long overdue commitment of $100bn
per year as climate finance for developing countries.
• Pakistan, despite its minimal contribution to
global greenhouse gas emissions, has been a repeated victim
of extreme weather events, with temperatures soaring to 53°C
in recent years.
• The World Bank estimates Pakistan needs $348bn
by 2030, merely to maintain resilience.
• The United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) released its flagship report on
the adaptation gap. The report claims that the
adaptation finance gap is between $194 billion and
$366bn per year.

IMPACTS:
Climate-induced shocks and stresses will threaten fiscal stability,
resulting in undermining the developing progress and worsening
the prevailing economic downturn.

The last floods inflicted a loss of $30bn. This amount was more than
the total disbursement by all UNFCCC funds since their inception:
the Global Environment Facility (1991), the Adaptation Fund (2001)
and the Green Climate Fund (2014). According to some estimates,
they have collectively disbursed about $22bn globally.

:CAUSES
-Inefficient gas transmission and distribution system or an
inefficient electricity transmission and distribution network also
contribute towards higher emissions.
-Prioritising more roads, bridges, motorways, and underpasses
over public transit infrastructure and railway logistics will always
have a much higher carbon footprint and incentivise greater
emissions, rather than a more efficient project that reduces carbon
footprint.
•
• RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Developing technical and institutional capacity to
seek adaptation finance.
• Mobilising resources to invest in climate
adaptation from international, domestic and private sources
of finance.
• Reforming domestic financial institutions to
eliminate hostility, and adopt modern practices which
encourage financial flows and pave the way to financial
inclusion, including adaptation finance investment flows.
•
• There is an evolving understanding that no
global financial fund, including the anticipated Loss
& Damage fund, will have resources anywhere close
to meeting the climate investments needed in
Pakistan and estimated by the World Bank to be five
per cent of the country’s GDP, or $20 billion
annually. It is an intimidating figure, but arguably
manageable particularly since it is an existential and
national security threat.
•
• This leaves Pakistan with no option but to
mobilise domestic resources, in spite of its extremely
narrow fiscal space.
• Pakistan’s best practical option is to weave
climate considerations into ongoing and future
projects and mobilise domestic public and private
sector resources, rather than ignoring reforms for
climate-smart development.It is important to
underline that allocations by climate funds are based
on a project’s merit and alignment with their
objectives, and not on any country’s specific needs or
requests.
• Public transit infrastructure that operates on
hybrid vehicles not only reduces reliance on imported fuel
(and improves trade position) but also significantly reduces
emissions. It also enables access to a greater number of jobs
while improving household income.
•
• CRITICS ON COP28:
• Some organisations even boycotted the event,
protesting the appointment of Dr Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of
UAE’s national oil company ADNOC as the president of
COP28.
• Critics were sceptical about holding the summit in
one of the world’s top 10 oil-producing countries, fearing bias
towards the fossil fuel industry.
 • According to the Guardian, the amounts pledged
to LDF will cover less than 0.2 per cent of the amount needed
• A big concern for developing countries is how
much of the financing will be in the form of grants and how
much in loans that will increase their debt. The debate now
centres around the growing financial gap: how much of it will
be covered by the domestic and how much by the international
private sector investment?
• Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Union of
Concerned Scientists, observed that the UAE Consensus
represents a critical step forward in addressing fossil fuels but
“falls significantly short” in its considerations of finance and
equity provisions needed to ensure a transition to clean
energy.
• Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO of the World
Resources Institute, has summed it up aptly: “The COP28
outcome opens the road for a fossil fuel free world, but this
road is full of potholes, dangerous distractions and, if allowed,
could lead to a dead end. The shift from fossil fuels must be
fair and fast — and no one can be left behind.”
•
•
• ACHIVEMENTS:
• The COP28 president has actively engaged with all
participating parties, stakeholders, NGOs, civil society,
observers, businesses, and industry to advocate for
unprecedented ambition in COP history.
• Some argue that, for-profit and innovative tech
companies can handle climate challenges more efficiently.
• Amid COP28, significant progress has been
achieved, including the establishment of a Loss and Damage
Fund, launching a $30 billion private market climate vehicle,
and commitments from 51 oil companies and 119 countries to
decarbonise and triple renewable energy, respectively.
• Dubai is striving to attain 75 per cent of its total
power generation from clean energy sources by 2050 — a
potentially transformative move.
• the Loss and Damage Fund (LDF) was
established, a pledge to replenish the Green Climate
Fund (GCF) was made, and the UAE-led Declaration
on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems,
and Climate Action was adopted.
• The total pledges amounted to over $57 billion in
the first four days of the conference, including $725 million for
LDF, $3.5bn for GCF, $2.7bn for health, $2.6bn for nature-
based solutions, $2.5bn for renewable energy, $1.2bn for relief
recovery and peace, another $1.2bn to reduce methane
emissions, $568m to encourage investment in clean energy
manufacturing, and $467m for urban climate action. All these
are areas of primary investment interest to Pakistan.
•
• AGREEMENTS AT COP28:
• the agreement includes a commitment to triple
renewables and double the energy efficiency by 2030 that
should see wind and solar energy displace some coal, oil and
gas.
• The world must cut greenhouse gas emissions 43
per cent by 2030 and 60pc by 2035 relative to 2019 levels to
limit global warming to 1.5-degree Celsius, a 2015 Paris
agreement goal.
•
•
• Reaction to the agreement of different
countries:
• During climate negotiations, the middle-
income developing countries were very uncertain about the
phase-out of fossil fuels. Nigeria, Uganda, Colombia and
others pointed out that “they needed revenues from the sale of
coal, oil and gas to ensure they could pay for transition to
greener energy”. Colombia complained that by moving away
from fossil fuels, credit agencies had downgraded their rating,
meaning that international loans to go green would cost them
far more. Likewise, several developing countries, including
Bolivia, Cuba, China and others, expressed dissatisfaction
with the final text on fossil fuels, stating it eroded the
principles of equity and climate justice.
•
• PAKISTAN AND COP28:
• From Pakistan’s perspective, four developments
deserve closer examination.
• First, the multilateral development banks (MDBs)
have announced the adaptation of existing frameworks to the
new realities of climate change by pausing (not cancelling)
debt service in case a country faces an environmental disaster
• Second, multilateral climate funds (Adaptation
Fund, Climate Investment Funds, the Global Environment
Facility, and the GCF) at COP have adopted a joint declaration
to simplify their processes and enhance direct access to
finances through joint programming, mobilising private
sector finance, and increasing funding for climate adaptation.
 • Third, the MDBs have signed at the climate
summit a co-financing framework agreement with 16
financial institutions to partner with private financial
institutions and cooperate with other partners.
• Fourth, the World Bank launched an initiative
onglobal methane reduction from rice production, livestock,
and waste management at the national or sub-regional levels.
Pakistan joined the Global Methane Pledge in Glasgow in 2021
and committed to cut methane emissions by 30pc by 2030.
The World Bank has announced that it will mobilise catalytic
financing for scaling up successful projects in 15 countries in
the next 18 months, but Pakistan is not on their list even
though we are one of the world’s top 10 methane emitters. The
World Bank’s representative at the Pakistan pavilion urged
the government of Punjab to proactively engage and become
the first country in the queue.
•
• Since Pakistan is presently not an attractive
destination for FDI and faces debt vulnerability, it is essential
for us to leverage a diversity of funds, particularly by
mobilising domestic private sector financing
• The State Bank of Pakistan needs to take the lead
in the coming years and remove five barriers to green finance:
i) develop a green taxonomy, ii) use information disclosure
strategies, iii) promote financial markets, iv) design effective
policy measures, and v) facilitate cooperation in green
finance.
• the UAE banking sector has pledged to leverage
$270bn in green finance lending by 2030 aimed at financing
climate projects in countries like Pakistan.
• Establishment of cop cells in 2024.