Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman addressed the First Plenary of the Stockholm+50 Meetings on behalf of the G77 and China, Chair to the group of 134 countries attending the event. The general debate was attended by more than 10 heads of state and 90-plus ministers from 130 participating member states, as well as representatives from civil society and the private sector. The Federal Minister emphasized on the “need for simplified, long-term and long-overdue climate financing for developing countries to address biodiversity loss and damage caused by fossil fuel emissions and the anthropogenic activities of the developed countries."
On the role of developed countries, she expressed “We need ambitious and bold actions today to reduce the impacts of climate change to ensure the protection, conservation and sustainable use of our environment and natural resources. COP26 resulted in positive and ambitious mitigation targets to meet the long-term global goal of maintaining the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Developed countries have been historically responsible for majority of global emissions and should make an absolute and significant reduction in their emissions. In the transition to global net-zero, developed countries must take the lead and this transition should be based on the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capacities. We welcome the agreement at COP 26 in Glasgow to initiate further discussions on enhanced commitments for a new collective, quantified goal on climate finance from the floor of $100bn and prior to 2025.”
Federal Minister Sherry Rehman welcomed the development by the Board of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns (10YFP) of a global strategy for sustainable consumption and production beyond 2022 and urged all stakeholders of United Nation system for strengthening the implementation of the 10YFP by 2030 through enabling partnerships and commitments for action. She also welcomed the holding of the first “One Planet Network Forum” to promote global and inclusive dialogue for the implementation of SDG12 and sustainable consumption and production. Talking about underrepresentation of the Global South in UNEP, she highlighted, “We also need to address the deep and persistent imbalance in the geographic representation within the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) must be addressed and the under-representation of the Global South. Without new, additional, adequate and predictable financial, technological and capacity support from developed countries, the developing countries are unable to achieve these goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement.”
In a similar vein, Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman addressed the ministerial-level segment of the Meetings of the COP to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions at Stockholm+50 as a panelist among the Ministers, Mr Vaughn Miller Minister of Environment & Natural Resources of Bahamas, Dr Battina Hoofman Parliamentary secretary at the Federal Minister for the Environment, nature conservation, nuclear safety & consumer protection of Germany, Ms Zakia Khattabi Federal Minister for the Climate, the Environment, Sustainable Development and Green Deal moderated by the Egyptian Minister for Environment, HE Yasmine Fouad.
She stated, “Globally, the industrial sector alone produces an excess of 7.6 billion tonnes of waste annually; 75% of this waste has the potential to be recycled. However only 30% is actually recycled. The rest makes its way to already festering landfills and waters. Conventions like the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm are very useful to build national action plans and sober the minds of governments that are distracted by multiple compounded crises such as in Pakistan where its geolocation makes it one of the hottest areas on earth.”
She continued, “The mass of this climate catastrophe are in no way restricted. We are facing multiple compounded crises in one long Country. Half of the country is facing multiple floods and flash floods whereas the other half is arid with droughts and desertification. Pakistan for the last three years has been home to one of the hottest urban dwellings on this planet, this year we crossed. We look to these conventions to guide us, at least our governments, to build synergies between pollution, biodiversity loss and the climate crises and understand when we are developing as a country we do not always have the leap frog money or technology, much like other developing countries, which leads to a passing of the responsibility. These conventions need to ensure stricter checks and balances to prohibit the export of hazardous waste to other countries.”
She concluded by saying, “The conventions need to reassess the checks and balances to ensure there is smart recycling and waste is redirected to countries which can sustain the large amounts of waste that is being shipped to them, or at the very least provide the adequate means to streamline the procedures for developing countries to recycle this waste.”
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