As the poor continue to pay the price of climate action, demanding action and change in climate policies by using stick on the developing countries will only result in displacing carbon emissions instead of advancing climate action, said Dr Adil Najam, President WWF International and Dean Emeritus, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University while speaking at a seminar with Dr Abid Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI. He further said that there is no single solution to resolving climate change and each institution and sector including government, civil society, private sector, developing and developed countries have different roles to play. 

Green dumping of policies on developing countries is diverting unnecessary pressure, rather than building pressure on the developed countries to take action for climate change mitigation. There is a fundamental inequity in climate finance which is a predictable outcome and as climate disasters increase in intensity and frequency, the will to take committed action is declining. He said that the best approach for loss and damage is not to transform it into a fiscal tool but rather as a political tool. He suggested rather than developing new institutions to administer loss and damage finances, the existing global financial institutions should be utilized as they have mechanisms in place already.

The governance inadequacies cannot be addressed by developing new institutions, rather building institutional capacity and reforming them to address the contemporary challenges should be focused, he added. He further stressed developing real value in climate adaptation by articulating policies that bridge climate with sustainable development. He stressed the need to correct the discourse on resilience, it should not be considered as the ability to redevelop after a disaster rather the ability to reduce the losses.

He stressed that rather than talking about carbon emissions, we must utilize the Indus to raise awareness on the impact of climate change in Pakistan. The Indus which has sustained civilizations for centuries is threatened by our actions and is a tangible consequence of human decisions and choices. Societies like Pakistan have a built-in rationality for circular economy and rather than adopting western or foreign circular economy practices, he urged building on the traditional practices that have been forgone in recent years.

He said that the belief that climate is an either/or issue rather than a collective issue and shifting the responsibility of action and finding solutions on others is only going to do more damage than good. He further said that green washing comes inevitably with the magnitude of the issue and as pressure for climate action mounts, connecting everything with climate action and financing will not advance the agenda any further. He emphasized on transforming the practices and business of private sector to green practices and green economy rather than financing corporate social responsibility to consolidate action on climate.

“Should climate financing only be climate penalty or should it be financing to support the development agenda”, he added. Dr Abid Suleri, Executive Director, SDPI said that while many species of flora and fauna face the threat of extinction, the species of homo-sapiens is faced with the dual conundrum of extinction from climate change as well as poverty and food insecurity. He added that making a choice between sustainable development and collective climate action is not possible and must occur in unison.

Credit: INP Pak-China