Sept 30, 2021: UK’s COP26 ambassador says Islamabad’s initiatives can pressure other countries to do more as he praises Pakistan’s climate change action saying it can serve as a model for others to follow.

Ken O’Flaherty, the UK government’s regional ambassador for Asia-Pacific and South Asia’s COP26, said measures to tackle climate change in Pakistan could set a precedent for the rest of the world.

The UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) will be a meeting, where leaders from across the world will discuss how they can ensure greater action on climate change.

“This could put pressure on countries that are not yet doing enough to tackle climate change,” said the British diplomat, who is in the country as part of preparations for the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November this year.

In an interview with the Express Tribune, he said “Pakistan is a world leader in the area of tackling climate change. It has an opportunity to cement its status as a regional and global leader on the issue.”

Commenting on PM Imran Khan’s vision and initatives to counter climate change, he said, “I think the messages coming from Prime Minister Imran Khan are very clear, they are very cogent, they make economic sense for Pakistan and carry a moral weight as its position of a developing country.”

Ken said that during his trips to Asia, he often referred to Pakistan’s 10 billion tree tsunami initiative and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s commitment not to build new coal plants.

He further said that he is very optimistic about the direction Pakistan is heading in. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has made ambitious plans in terms of adaptation in terms of tsunami initiative of 10 billion trees and energy transfer.

In response to Prime Minister Imran’s article in the Times that COP26 would end in failure without a financial plan, Ken said it was clear that the implementation of mitigation and adaptation required to counter climate change needed significant climate finance at the international level.

Five years ago in Paris, the ambassador recalled, it was agreed that the international donor community would provide $100 billion for international climate finance every year but that was not the case when UK took up the presidency role.

From the perspective of the UK’s COP26 presidency, Kane said it was not about trying to impose any development model on Pakistan. On the contrary, he said, it is clear today that in countries around the world, investing in renewable energy is cheaper than investing in fossil fuels and “we know that the government of Pakistan is aware of this fact. ”