ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will soon ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change, Federal Minister for Climate Change Zahid Hamid said on Friday.
He was addressing a pre-22nd Conference of Parties (COP-22) event: ‘Pakistan se Marrakesh: Framing the Pakistan Agenda for COP-22’ held in Islamabad. The event had been jointly organised by the Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change, the Ministry of Climate Change and the Embassy of France.
“This dialogue is taking place at very opportunistic time when we are going to participate in COP-22 being held in Morocco next month,” he said.
He told the audience that Pakistan would soon sign the Paris Agreement on climate change. “The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions are in their final phase and will soon be submitted,” he said.
“It is a great pleasure to share that Pakistan Climate Change Bill is also being finalised. Pakistan is facing many challenges in the form of floods, melting glaciers, droughts, rising sea levels and temperatures. These disasters have affected millions of people in Pakistan. We have taken many initiatives at policy level such as formulating a climate change policy and a disaster risk reduction policy. Pakistan became the first country to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals as its own national goals,” the minister said.
French Ambassador in Pakistan Martine Dorance said that young people in Pakistan were more aware of climate change issues. She also appreciated that Pakistan would be ratifying the Paris Agreement very soon.
Ayesha Khan, Mountains and Glaciers Protection Organisation CEO, said that the presence of minister at the event showed the government’s commitment on climate change issues.
The European Union ambassador, the Moroccan Embassy representative and the United Nations Development Programme in Pakistan representative also addressed the event.
The purpose of the event was to facilitate a dialogue between civil society and public sector stakeholders. The dialogue was designed to engage legislators, policymakers and civil society.
In the meeting, input from a wide range of stakeholders was collected to compile concrete suggestions that reflected the views of the diverse sectors.
A large number of people from the civil society, government and academia participated.
