By: OUR CORRESPONDENR
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar said on Thursday that the flood loss estimates by Pakistan account for $32 billion whereas the world estimate is $16 billion. Commenting on the rising global warming, he said the world had to change its behaviour and stop overeating the planet and cut its galloping carbon emissions. He said that Pakistan needs to rely on local resources and develop advanced skills to overcome today’s pressing challenges such as economic crisis, climate change and devastating flood losses.
The Minister noted that the country in 2010 and 2011 witnessed floods, but after a decade the same occurred and if we had to repeat the same things then it was wrong with the governance model. “We will have to support our people within our limited resources whether the world helps us or not. Commenting on the rising global warming, he said the world had to change its behaviour and stop overeating the planet and cut its galloping carbon emissions.
He was speaking at the concluding plenary titled: ‘Looking Beyond 75’, on the last leg of 25th Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) organized by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and jointly held alongside UNESCAP’s 6th South and Southwest Asia High-level Political Forum and Policy Dialogue on SDGs.
The Minister said Pakistan is in the eye of a storm after catastrophic floods and in many ways, it will be starting from the scratch in building forward better. However, he said, SDPI is a primary think tank that has grown over the years under the leadership of Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri.
He said the country has pledged to convert its energy mix over renewables, which is ambitious and rightly decided as it cannot afford power generation on import-based resources. The Minister underlined that the country has quit reliance on import-based power and it has to adapt to the new flood and drought cycles.
Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri, SDPI Executive Director, said the conference has been the silver jubilee event this year and it was linked to the UNESCAP’s South and Southwest Asia forum. Dr Suleri said there have been 38 consecutive panels and 11 plenaries that discussed Ukraine-Russia War, Climate Change, COVID-19 and other cross-cutting issues. He extended his gratitude to the government, President of Pakistan and Ministers for participation in this mega event. He said there has been great consensus on the issue of sustainable development, which is a healthy sign amid polarization in the society.
Dr Ishrat Husain, Former Advisor to the Prime Minister on Institutional Reforms and Austerity, said the SDC is becoming as a pace setter for exchange of ideas and new ways of thinking. He said the latest study of 32 countries come to the conclusion that there is no cut off between growth and carbon emissions and there is no binary between the carbon emissions and growth. He stressed the need for building strategy integrating climate change and extensive growth agenda as the country’s economy is not going to be isolated from global trends, he added. Amid changing global trends, the first is the demographic change where the countries with aging population are demanding trained labour to fill the gap like Japan having 0.7% population decline, it demands 80,000 IT professionals from Pakistan till 2030. “We have huge information exposure where there is fake news, disinformation and sensationalism; the youth must not be persuaded by television talk shows and social media fake news rather make efforts to make this country a great country,” he maintained.
Ambassador (R) Shafqat Kakakhel, Chairman of SDPI Board of Directors, said this has been an unprecedented event, the longest with richest agenda comprising dozens of discussions on all aspects of sustainable development in Pakistan in the light of global and regional developments.
The launch of SDPI’s anthology was also done by the panelists whereas the best performance award of SDPI has been awarded to Uzma Haroon, the head of SDC unit, for her efforts to make the event a great success.
In his special remarks Sartaj Aziz, former finance minister said the conference emerged more significant lauded the theme of the conference “preparing for SDGs in unusual times” as very appropriate to the prevailing scenario.
Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Joint Executive Director, SDPI in his vote of thanks said the forum discussed multifaceted issues with workable recommendations from the local and international experts. He said the Institute also signed memorandum of understandings with government and private sector orgnanisations.
Speaking at an earlier plenary titled: ‘An Alternative Paradigm’, Malik Amin Aslam, former Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Climate Change has termed the COP-27 reaching on an agreement on New Loss and Damage Fund for Vulnerable Countries a big achievement. However, he said, it would remain a hollow victory till the actual availability of funds to compensate the climate-induced losses. Pakistan, before the occurrence of monstrous floods this year, had already faced several disastrous climate change impacts, including heatwave, and forest fires and hence, has been focus of the attention at COP-27.
Malik Aslam said that we have to take measure to balance the imbalances we have created in connection with the nature. He added that climate change is pushing the developing countries towards the debt traps. “Pakistan would be needing 30 billion dollars to overcome the losses rendered by recent floods. However, in addition to the unprecedented nature of the crisis, it has also been a governance failure that aggravated the crisis, he added.
Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, SDPI Executive Director, elaborated as to how the discussions during this mega annual event highlighted various key contemporary developmental issues, including climate change, disaster risk reduction, progress on SDGs in South Asia, and with the participation of experts from the government, academia, private sector, and civil society. While facing Triple-C crises, including climate change, conflict, and health-related emergencies (especially COVID-19), we have several challenges, including social protections, food security, and engaging local communities in a meaningful manner and build their resilience. Therefore, an alternate paradigm on these issues is very important to be heard, being a democratic country.
Senator Dr Sania Nishtar said that climate risk insurance is feasible and it is important keeping in view that climate change is a reality to stay. “We need to enhance the resilience of our population. She said that the policies of our government were not elite but poor centric,” she said.
Earlier, speaking at a panel discussion titled: Business Cooperation and Political Will: The Way Forward for SAARC’ experts urged the South Asian governments to play a facilitating role to promote business in the region. They suggested that the governments should help business communities in the region in overcoming the barriers and hindrances instead of the regulations that are deterring business and trade cooperation in the region.
Dr Rajan Sudesh Ratna, Deputy Head of UNESCAP, said that in our region, private sector is not being taken on aboard in the key decision-making, which is unfortunate whereas in other parts of the world, private sector has huge say in the business and trade related decisions, especially that impact the businesses. He said: “We have lost business opportunities in the region and now it is high time to take decisions from public perspective.”
Dr Posh Raj Panday, representing SAWTEE, deliberated on new trust building measures to cultivate a favourable business and trade environment in the region. He said that unfortunately, the previous measures could not achieve the desired results and build trust amongst the stakeholders in the region, therefore, we need to devise our design and measures. Earlier, Dr Fareeha presented an overview of the current business and trade environment in the region.
Speaking at the Policy Dialogue: Regional Cooperation for Sustainable Development in South Asia – Role of the South Asia Network on SDGs (SANS), Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and Coordinator for Commerce and Industries, Rana Ihsan Afzal, said South Asia, because of its shared geography and culture had a viable chance to ensure cooperation under SANS forum to counter cross-cutting issues like climate change.
He said the conclusions of this dialogue should be used by the governments of the South Asia region to improve SDGs progress. South Asian regional cooperation is ideal for trade, but despite its shared geography the region is least integrated. “It is high time to shun political differences for addressing shared challenges and problems due to multifaceted issues.
During the presentations at the dialogue, Dr Posh Raj Panday, SAWTEE, Nepal said COVID-19 is a disruptor in economic development and SDGs’ achievement progress. However, the Ukraine-Russia war further aggravated progress on many of them.
He added that there has also been deceleration on SDGs progress in many countries whereas the UNESCAP’s report indicates timeline to achieve SDGs pushed by 13 years.
Dr. Arwin Kumar from India Water Foundation said the forces driving South Asian growth are fuelling some common challenges and there is need to address those challenges for future progress. He added that enhanced regional cooperation is necessary due to bounded geography and natural resources.
Speaking at another panel titled: ‘Policy Dialogue on Bridging the Financing for Achieving SDG-7’, Shah Jahan Mirza, Managing Director, Private Power and Infrastructure Board (PPIB), said Pakistan has formulated ambitious renewable energy policy under which 26,000 MW (13000 MW from solar/wind energy and 13000 MW from hydropower) of renewable energy would be added to the national grid by 2030 and the country would need $100 billion by 2030 to achieve this ambitious target.
While launching the annual “State of the Renewable Energy Report”, Shah Jahan Mirza called upon the international financial institutions (IFIs) to make distinction in terms of interest rates while providing loans for renewable energy and coal and gas-based power plants.
Vincent Wierda, Regional Coordinator, Asia and Pacific – UNCDF, reiterated UNCDF’s commitment to support energy service companies for the promotion of clean and green energy.
Jade Shu Wong, Infrastructure Finance Specialist of World Bank, said mobilizing finances on the global level is essential to provide affordable electricity to households and the businesses in the developing countries.
Kimberly Roseberry, UNESCAP, said that IFIs can provide adequate financing and technical support to countries to achieve their clean energy targets, however, they should prioritize utilization of their domestic resources.
Deanna Morris, Economic Affairs Officer, ESCAP said the annual SDG financing gap is around $4.3 billion globally and most of this gap is driven by energy sector.
Michael Williamson, Chief, Sustainable Energy Development Section, Energy Division, ESCAP said we need enormous financing to reach SDG 7. He said the current slowdown in economy has made it very difficult for the international financers to finance the projects.