UNITED NATIONS: A senior Pakistani envoy told a UN panel on Wednesday that development planning now needs to take into account the climate risk for the most climate-vulnerable states, such as Pakistan, which was affected by devastating floods last August.
Addressing the UN Development Cooperation Forum (DCF), the principal global platform for policy discussion on development cooperation, Pakistani ambassador Munir Akram said that with the evolution of climate change and global warming, the concept of development itself has evolved, with a focus now needed not only on the basics of economic growth but also on nations’ resilience to climate shocks.
Pointing out that in response to the huge flooding in Pakistan, he said the government prepared a reconstruction plan determining that approximately 16.5 billion dollars were required to repair lost homes, infrastructure, and agricultural land. But after taking into account how to reconstruct in such a way to withstand similar calamities in the future, an additional 13.5 billion dollars were required.
Development to be more expensive
While this shows that building development with resilience is going to be more expensive, the silver lining is that adaptation — in most cases — needs sustainable infrastructure, which is a basic aspect of development, he said.
Akram added that is where the countries need to merge the concepts of financial development and climate resilience.
