ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman received a phone call yesterday from United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. During the phone call, Kerry congratulated Sherry Rehman on assumption of her office and expressed the desire to continue working together for tackling climate change issues.
The Federal Minister underscored that Pakistan is consistently placed in the top ten ‘most vulnerable’ countries in the world impacted by climate change which has now become an existential threat to the country. Rehman apprised Senator Kerry about Pakistan’s accelerated vulnerability to the climate crisis, saying that despite producing less than one percent of GHG emissions Pakistan is now the ground zero of a global climate catastrophe. The country is experiencing unprecedented heat waves, to critical glacial melt, draught one month and flooding in another. While high climate ambition commitments are important, including NDCs that include an enormous energy transition, Pakistan is facing down the costs of global warming at 9.1 % of its GDP, which is the highest in the region as identified by a recent UN-ESCAP 2022 report.