RIYADH: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday heaped praise on Saudi Arabia for launching initiatives to combat climate change, saying that greening Riyadh was idealistic and romantic.
The premier made these remarks while addressing a launching ceremony of the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) Summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh, hosted by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.
“Greening Saudi Arabia is idealistic and romantic. We will share our experience of planting two and a half billion trees in Pakistan,” the premier remarked while thanking the crown prince for inviting Pakistan to the summit.
The Prime Minister divulged the number of initiatives taken by his government to tackle climate change in the country. “Our target is planting 10 billion trees… 10 per cent of the countries are responsible for 80 per cent of world emissions,” he added.
The premier lamented that Pakistan is among the 10 most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change. He said before the world takes any action, Pakistan has taken scores of measures to cope with the effects of global warming and climate change.
“We will shift 60 per cent of all our energy into clean energy by 2030. We have already shelved coal power projects and no new coal power plant will be established,” the premier highlighted.
PM Imran pointed out that by 2030 Pakistan was aiming to shift 30 per cent of its transport to electric vehicles to cut greenhouse emissions. Moreover, the premier said Pakistan is also focused on nature-based solutions.
“Pakistan is the only country where mangroves cover is growing which absorb the highest amount of carbon emission,” he said, adding that his government had planned to plant 1 billion more mangrove trees by 2023.
The number of national parks, he said, had been increased by 50 per cent during his tenure and his government also provided 85,000 “green jobs” during the Covid-19 crisis in an attempt to increase the green cover of the country.
He expressed hope that the world would take the challenge of climate change more seriously. “I hope that all of us collectively take this challenge much more seriously than what we have done so far,” the premier added.
Terming climate change “one of the biggest crises” the world faced today, PM Imran said the problem was visible 20 years ago, but unfortunately, the world failed to realise its implications.
