13 February 2024, New York: Madam President, I congratulate Guyana on assuming the Presidency of the Council and acknowledge the presence today of His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali (President of Guyana). I thank all the briefers for their comprehensive presentations.
Madam President, Climate change and food insecurity are enlarging and exacerbating inter-state and intra-state conflicts. The disputes over water – at the state, sub-national and the local-community levels – are rising. Competing claims to agricultural and animal pastures, for instance in Sub-Sahara and Central Africa, are being exploited by terrorist groups and criminal gangs. The scramble for exploitation of fisheries and fishing rights, and potentially for seabed minerals and resources, is causing increased friction between neighbouring coastal countries.
Addressing the looming water crisis will be critical. Pakistan welcomes the outcomes of the UN Water Conference last year. The glaciers in Pakistan’s northern territories and adjacent regions are the largest store of water, apart from the Northern and Southern ice caps. Extreme temperatures are melting these glaciers at an alarming rate, and together with heavier monsoons, lead to massive foods, like the epic floods which devastated Pakistan in 2022, causing damage over US$ 30 billion.Urgent action is required to preserve the Himalayan glaciers and adapt to the impacts of global warming.
Increasing water demand, coupled with climate change impacts, creates the potential for trans-boundary water disputes in several parts of the world. Pakistan attaches high priority to the strict implementation of the Indus Water’s Treaty. Pakistan aims to reinvigorate the Indus River basin – the largest contiguous irrigation system in the world – which provides food security to over 225 million people. To this end, Pakistan has launched the multi-dimensional ‘Living Indus’ projects.
Madam President, We must avoid ‘securitizing’ the climate and development agenda. Nor should we divert the already scarce funding from development and climate change actions to security-related approaches. Scarcity is the mother of all conflicts. The best means of conflict prevention is sustainable development – achieving the SDGs and climate goals. At COP 28, we adopted some important decisions:
• Charting a pathway to swift, just and equitable energy transition;
• Agreeing on targets for the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA);
• Operationalising the Loss & Damage Fund.
Madam President, Two issues are critical to achieve the climate goals:
• One, the reduction of emissions by at least 43% by 2030, mainly by developed countries, in line with the principle of CBDR and respective capacities;
• Two, provision of adequate climate finance. It is estimated that the transition from a fossil fuel economy to one based on ‘clean energy’ will require an annual investment of around $1.5 trillion in sustainable ‘green’ energy infrastructure. The challenge is how to mobilise this amount of investment.
At present investment both public and private in sustainable infrastructure in developing countries excluding China is less than $100 billion annually. Even the promise by developed countries to provide $100 billion annually in climate finance has not been fulfilled. Unless the commitments made at COP-28 and other Conferences are implemented, it will become almost impossible to achieve either the goals of climate change or the SDGs. The Security Council could make a singular contribution to both the climate and development goals by endorsing the commitments made on climate change and sustainable development so as to transform these into binding obligations.
Sub Editor: Ghufran