Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called on wealthy nations to provide grant-based climate finance to countries most exposed to climate change, telling the COP31 Leaders' Summit in Antalya that vulnerable states need help that does not add to their debt burden.

Addressing the summit on Thursday, 12 November, the prime minister said the world must turn solidarity into tangible action when climate disasters strike. "When climate disasters strike, vulnerable countries need timely help and finance that does not deepen their debt," he said, calling for a significant increase in resilience and adaptation funds, which he described as survival funds for struggling economies.

Pakistan's flood losses at the centre of the appeal

Mr Sharif built his case around Pakistan's own experience of climate disaster. He recalled the devastating floods of 2022, when one-third of the country was submerged, affecting about 33 million people, claiming more than 1,700 lives and causing economic losses of more than $30 billion.

He noted that Pakistan was facing severe climate-related challenges despite being responsible for less than one per cent of global carbon emissions, and thanked Turkiye for standing shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan during the 2010 and 2022 floods.

The prime minister also recalled a warning he gave four years ago that the climate disaster in Pakistan would have repercussions beyond the country's borders. "That warning has become a stark reality. The future we feared has become the present we are living. Climate change knows no border. No nation can face it alone," he said.

Clean energy plans and a warning on water

Mr Sharif told the summit that Pakistan was leading by example in the shift to clean energy, with clean sources now accounting for nearly 55 per cent of the country's energy mix. He said Pakistan was advancing electric mobility and had set a target of reducing projected emissions by up to 50 per cent by 2035.

He also pointed to the Chashma-5 nuclear power plant, saying he had witnessed the placement of its dome while travelling to Antalya, and that the plant would add 1,200 megawatts of clean, emission-free electricity once commissioned.

At a COP31 side session a day earlier, the prime minister told delegates that Pakistan needs about $138 billion by 2035 for low-carbon power generation, and a further $50 billion to replace coal-based electricity with solar, pressing international partners for concessional finance and affordable technology to reach a 35 per cent clean energy target by 2035.

He also warned against the weaponisation of water, saying national efforts to combat climate change could not replace a fair and just global response.

Three-day visit ends with bilateral meetings

The prime minister left Antalya for Pakistan on Thursday after a three-day visit to Turkiye, during which he held bilateral meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the leaders of Finland, Iraq and Sudan.

The two-week COP31 talks, which run until 20 November, opened this week with governments under pressure to tackle climate change after a year of heatwaves and wildfires in Europe and deadly floods in Nepal. Few major breakthroughs are anticipated at the negotiations, which are taking place against an oil price shock and geopolitical tensions.

A day before Mr Sharif spoke, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders that fossil fuels "must go the way of the dinosaurs", telling the summit that governments cannot keep expanding fossil fuel production while claiming to support the fight against climate change.

Sources: The News; Associated Press of Pakistan via Tez Khabar; Business Express.