Pakistan’s Elected as Vice President of COP to UNFCCC

Adviser to Prime Minister on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam Khan on Friday said that at Conference of Parties (COP) 24, Pakistan effectively presented its case during climate negotiations that despite least polluter and most vulnerable, Pakistan is committed to fighting climate change. This year owing to proactive participation and contributions in climate talks, Pakistan has been elected as Vice President of COP to UNFCCC, which is real change and success of this government, he added.  

Pakistan’s Elected as Vice President of COP to UNFCCC

He said this while speaking at media debriefing on ‘COP24: Poland and Way forward for Pakistan’, organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) in collaboration with Ministry of Climate Change and Climate Action Network South Asia (CANSA) Pakistan here at Islamabad.

Malik Amin Aslam Khan, said that climate change is a stark reality for us and we cannot ignore it. We have to adapt and prepare ourselves to fight climate change. He said that despite least polluter to the world environment, Pakistan is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and ranked at 8th among top ten vulnerable countries, whereas 2nd in term of economic loss due to the impacts of climate change. Pakistan lost around 4 billion dollars due to climate change in the last 20 years, he added. While responding to the question he said that we should have a dialogue with India on the issue of glaciers-melt, air pollution and smog, as climate change knows no boundaries.

“Pakistan this year took the smaller-ever delegation of 8 members, four from foreign office and four from ministry, to the COP24 meeting and save around PKR 20 million. With small delegation we have contributed a lot”, said Amin Asalm. He said that we participated in 8 side events and chaired three of them which realizes the world that Pakistan is capable and understand the issue well on climate change. He said that Pakistan also secured a seat in the Executive Board of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is an important institute of climate finance, where Pakistan can have opportunities to secure fund for climate-related projects.

Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI said that we are already witnessing a change in weather pattern, such as erratic rainfalls, droughts, heat and cold waves and the issue of smog. These are the challenges that the whole world is confronting and not an issue of a single country. He said that hard work of Malik Amin Asalm, Advisor to PM on Climate Change at COP24 has enabled Pakistan to play an effective role in forthcoming climate negotiations in 2019. Full credit goes to Malik Amin Aslam, who work tirelessly at COP24 and get Pakistan elected as Vice President for the forthcoming COP. This is a big moment and achievement for Pakistan, he added.