COP30 | Pakistan

Pakistan has called for rapid, grant-based, and predictable financing for climate-vulnerable developing countries, warning that recurring climate disasters are exacerbating debt distress and undermining development gains in nations that have contributed the least to global emissions. The appeal was made at a high-level side event titled “Operationalising Loss and Damage: Financing Resilience and Recovery in Vulnerable Countries”, organised jointly by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination and Unicef at the Pakistan Pavilion during the UN climate summit (COP30) in Belém, Brazil. Secretary for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Aisha Humera Moriani, in her keynote address, stated that Pakistan was investing heavily in strengthening national resilience despite contributing less than one per cent to global greenhouse gas emissions. She recalled the catastrophic floods of 2022 and 2025 that displaced millions, damaged infrastructure and caused multi-billion-dollar economic losses....

World governments agreed on Saturday to a compromise climate deal at the COP30 conference in Brazil that would boost finance for poor nations coping with global warming but omit any mention of the fossil fuels driving it. In securing the accord, countries attempted to demonstrate global unity in addressing climate change impacts even after the world’s biggest historic emitter, the United States, declined to send an official delegation. “We should support it because at least it is going in the right direction,” the European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, told reporters before the deal was gaveled through. The Belem deal launches a voluntary initiative to speed up climate action to help nations meet their existing pledges to reduce emissions, and calls for rich nations to at least triple the amount of money they provide to help developing countries adapt to a warming world by 2035. Scientists have said existing national commitments to cut emissions have cut projected warming significantly, but ar...

Minister for Climate Change Dr Musadik Malik has called for expedited efforts to address climate-induced glacial melt in the Himalayas-Karakoram-Hindu Kush (HKH) mountain range, warning at the sidelines of COP30 that glacial melt was occurring at an “unprecedented rate”. Pakistan is home to about 13,000 glaciers. According to a 2023 report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Hima­layan glaciers, which provide critical water to nearly two billion people, are melting faster than ever before due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters. The minister made the remarks at the sidelines of COP30, at an event titled “Cryosphere Adaptation & Disaster Risk Reduction”, where he delivered the keynote address via video, the Press Information Department (PID) said on Saturday. Malik told the participants that “climate-induced glacier melt is occurring at an unprecedented pace,” calling for the “urgent need” to protect the HKH cryosphere, which he de...

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, together with former New Zealand Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern, inaugurated the Pakistan Pavilion at the COP30 climate conference being held in Belem, Brazil, according to a handout issued by the Punjab information department.

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Thursday departed for Belém, Brazil, to participate in the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30).

Climate change is one of the toughest opponents facing any athlete, warns Brazilian soccer player Tamires Dias, one of around 40 elite sportsmen and women involved in the launch of a new global campaign that will feature at next month’s COP30 summit in her country. Dias, who played in two Women’s World Cups, has been joined by the likes of Brazilian tennis player Beatriz Haddad Maia, surfer Maya Gabeira, Romanian Olympic swimmer David Popovici and former England soccer player Raheem Sterling to support Adapt2Win. With climate change already impacting elite sport, the global multimedia campaign launched on Monday and backed by the Gates Foundation and Wellcome Trust, is urging governments to prioritise investment in climate adaptation ahead of COP30. Dias, 38, describes the challenges of playing soccer in Brazil, where extreme heat and damaging rains pose challenges, and says adapting to climate change is no longer optional. “In sport, we learn to adapt every day — to new teams, new tactics, new opponents. But...

UN climate chief Simon Stiell urged countries on Thursday to accelerate negotiations ahead of the COP30 in Brazil, as there was a lot left to be done. Speaking after two weeks of technical talks in Bonn, Stiell closed the annual climate diplomacy event saying: “We need to go further, faster and fairer.” Bonn is home to the UN Climate Change Secretariat, which coordinates international climate policy and hosts preparatory talks each year ahead of climate summits. “I’m not going to sugar coat … we have a lot more to do before we meet again in Belem,” he said. COP30 is due to be held on November 10-21 in the Amazonian city, which is the capital of Para state. At last year’s UN COP29 summit in Azerbaijan, rich nations agreed to increase climate finance to $300 billion a year by 2035, an amount decried as woefully inadequate. Azerbaijan and Brazil, which is hosting this year’s COP30 conference, have launched an initiative to reduce the shortfall, with the expectation of “significant” contributions from internation...