Antalya (TDI): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for grant-based climate finance and a substantial increase in resilience and adaptation funding for climate-vulnerable countries, warning that nations least responsible for global warming continue to bear its most severe consequences.
Addressing the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, on Thursday, the prime minister said national climate efforts must be matched by a fair and effective global response.
“When climate disasters strike, vulnerable countries need timely help and finance that does not deepen their debt,” Shehbaz said, urging the international community to provide grant-based financing, including through public-private partnerships.
He described resilience and adaptation funding as “survival funds”, particularly for developing economies struggling to cope with the growing impacts of climate change.
The summit has brought together delegates from nearly 200 countries to discuss the transition towards a low-carbon future amid persistent global greenhouse gas emissions and competing geopolitical and economic crises.
Highlighting Pakistan’s domestic climate initiatives, Shehbaz said clean energy sources now account for nearly 55 per cent of the country’s energy needs. He added that Pakistan was advancing electric mobility and had set a target of reducing projected emissions by approximately 50 per cent by 2035.
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However, he stressed that national measures alone could not address a crisis that transcends borders. “People who have contributed the least to climate change bear its heaviest consequences,” he said.
Recalling the devastating floods in Buner district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in August 2025, the prime minister shared the story of a young man who was just two days away from his wedding when flash floods swept through his village.
“A home preparing for celebrations became a house of mourning,” Shehbaz said, adding that the tragedy reflected the experiences of millions of people in Pakistan and across the developing world.
He also referred to Pakistan’s catastrophic 2022 floods, which killed more than 1,700 people, displaced millions and caused economic losses exceeding $30 billion, according to figures cited in his address.
Recalling his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in 2022, the prime minister said he had warned that the consequences of climate change witnessed in Pakistan would not remain confined to the country.
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“I had warned that what is happening in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan, and unfortunately, that warning has become a stark reality,” he said. “The future we feared has become the present we are living.”
PM Shehbaz called for stronger international solidarity, arguing that climate change required coordinated action rather than isolated national responses. “Climate change knows no borders and no nation can face it alone. Solidarity must mean real action,” he said.
He also thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for Türkiye’s support to Pakistan during the devastating floods of 2010 and 2022.
