WASHINGTON: Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has termed climate change as a serious threat and a survival challenge for Pakistan.
On the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb addressed the high-level dialogue of the ‘Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD)’ established to deal with climate damage and disasters in Washington.
Addressing the dialogue, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb termed climate change as a serious threat and a survival challenge for Pakistan.
He said that the purpose of establishing the ‘Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD)’ is to help developing countries against climate change, including extreme weather events or slow-onset disasters.
The Finance Minister said in his address that Pakistan was one of the countries that advocated the establishment of the “Loss and Damage Fund” and on this occasion, he highlighted the need to activate the fund as soon as possible.
Muhammad Aurangzeb, while supporting the process of making it as transparent as possible, highlighted the importance of subjecting the fund to proper checks and balances and stressed the need for early disbursements under the fund.
He said that the fund needs to be run on simple and effective principles, and that the least developed and environmentally vulnerable countries should not face difficulties in obtaining funds under the fund as before.
