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Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday called for grant-based climate financing for climate-vulnerable countries, urging the global community to turn solidarity into tangible action during climate disasters.
"When climate disasters strike, vulnerable countries need timely help and finance that does not deepen their debt," he said while addressing the COP31 Leaders' Summit in Antalya, Turkiye.
The prime minister also called for significant enhancement of resilience and adaptation funds for climate-vulnerable countries and struggling economies.
PM Shehbaz recalled his warning four years ago that the climate disaster in Pakistan would have repercussions beyond the country's borders.
"That warning has become a stark reality. The future we feared has become the present we are living. Climate change knows no border. No nation can face it alone," he said.
Reflecting the impact of climate change on Pakistan, the prime minister recalled the country's devastating 2022 floods, which submerged a third of the country and affected millions of people.
He said the floods affected approximately 33 million people across Pakistan, highlighting the country's vulnerability to climate-related disasters.
The prime minister also acknowledged Turkiye's support during the devastating floods, saying it had stood shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan during the crisis.
PM Shehbaz said that Pakistan was pursuing environmentally friendly measures, adding that the country was facing significant climate-related challenges despite being responsible for less than 1% of global carbon emissions.
The two-week COP31 talks kicked off in Turkiye this week with governments under pressure to tackle climate change after a year of searing heatwaves and wildfires in Europe, and deadly floods in Nepal.
A day earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres railed against the oil and gas lobby, telling world leaders fossil fuels "must go the way of the dinosaurs" at a climate summit missing several prominent figures.
"The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is outrunning us," Guterres told dozens of world leaders assembled in the Mediterranean city of Antalya for two days of speeches by heads of state and government.
But few major breakthroughs are anticipated at the COP31 negotiations, which run until November 20, as countries grapple with an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions fuelled by the US war with Iran and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Since agreeing in 2023 for the first time to transition away from fossil fuels — the main driver of climate change -- nations have struggled to advance that goal at the annual UN conferences.
At his final COP before stepping down in December, Guterres said governments cannot keep expanding fossil fuel production while claiming to support the fight against climate change.
"Fossil fuels must go the way of the dinosaurs, but that won't happen on its own. The dinosaurs did not have a lobby, but fossil fuels do," he said in another salvo against an industry he has long accused of fuelling climate chaos.
"Their strategy is simple: Distort the science. Delay the policy. Delay the action. Delay the accountability. It's time to kick the habit — and end the fossil fuel addiction," he said to sustained applause.
