ANTALYA (The Thursday Times) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General António Guterres received Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday as he arrived for the leaders’ summit of COP31, the UN climate conference in Antalya, his office said.
The prime minister is due to set out Pakistan’s climate priorities to world leaders at the summit. The Foreign Office has said he will call for climate finance for vulnerable countries that is “predictable, adequate and accessible”.
A country on the front line
Pakistan produces less than one per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions but is among the countries most exposed to climate disasters. The 2022 floods caused $14.9 billion in direct damage and $15.2 billion in economic losses and pushed up to 9.1 million people into poverty, according to the Asian Development Bank. Last year’s monsoon killed 1,039 people, the government’s Economic Survey says.
On the day the prime minister arrived in Antalya, the bank approved $500 million in contingent disaster financing for Pakistan, to be released as budget support soon after an eligible disaster.
Türkiye is hosting COP31, which runs from November 9 to 20.
