Senator Faisal Javed Khan while addressing the COP26 meeting, said that Pakistan had already met the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 13: “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”, a decade before the deadline of 2030.
Pakistan becomes one of the first countries to meet the global ‘Bonn Challenge’ after restoring more than 600,000 hectares of land into forests and planting a billion trees in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Senator Faisal Javed Khan while addressing the COP26 on Monday said that Pakistan has launched a number of initiatives under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan to counter the threat of climate change.
He said, “Now we have committed to planting another 10 billion trees across the country, and of that 10 billion, Pakistan has already planted over 1.5 billion trees”.
Apart from Senator Faisal, MNA Munaza Hassan — Chairperson of the Climate Change Standing Committee—and Senator Mushahid Hussain also attended the talks on the invitation of Scottish Parliamentarians to deliberate climate action under the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) held on November 7.
Senator Faisal in his address to the IPU called for an “action-oriented approach”. He added, “Pakistan contributes less than 1% of the global greenhouse gas emissions but yet it is constantly amongst the top 10 countries affected by climate change”.
The COP26 parliamentary meeting was held in Glasgow over the weekend, co-organized by the IPU along with the British Group of the IPU (BGIPU).
The IPU has long been a supporter of the engagement of parliaments during the annual COP meetings. The parliamentary meeting was open to all parliamentarians attending COP26 in Glasgow.
More than 200 parliamentarians were in attendance at the IPU session held in the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow.
He further mentioned a number of other important initiatives taken by the country to combat climate change including the Protected Areas Initiative, Ecosystem Restoration Fund, and the Clean Green Pakistan Index for cities.
Senator Faisal stressed the need for devising concrete pledges and commitments at COP26 adding,“We are playing our part but developed countries really need to come forward and collaborate with developing countries”.
The purpose of the meeting was the promotion of open dialogue and cooperation among international parliamentarians and inspiring the delegates to call on national governments to develop ambitious plans to meet all the obligations of the Paris Agreement targets.
The sessions discussed a broad range of topics regarding climate change and the pathway to attaining the net-zero objectives.