ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday highlighted Pakistan’s solar power boom at the COP31in Turkiye, where world leaders gathered to discuss joint solutions to combat climate change.
This year’s summit focuses on transitioning toward a low-carbon future.
Delegates from nearly 200 countries are meeting in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya as global greenhouse gas emissions show little sign of falling and wars, inflation and other crises compete for political attention.
Addressing a high-level dialogue on clean energy transition, titled ‘35 by 35: Powering the Future’, PM Shehbaz said: ‘In my country, an extraordinary transition has already taken place.’In just two years, Pakistan has added nearly 22 gigawatts of rooftop solar capacity a quiet revolution by ordinary citizens seeking affordable power and a cleaner, more predictable future.He affirmed that Pakistan fully supports the ‘35-by-35 Global Electrification Pledge’, wherein countries agree to aim to increase electricity’s share of total final energy consumption to around 35 per cent by 2035 in line with global climate objectives.
The premier recalled the recent inauguration of a ‘key section’ of Pakistan’s seventh nuclear power plant, Chashma-5, referring to its domeplacement. He explained that the project will add 1,200 megawatts of clean energy to Pakistan’s energy mix.
The prime minister then highlighted that Pakistan’s newly drafted auto policy builds on the country’s aim to have 30pc of its new vehicles be electric by 2030 by offering ‘incentives for them through lower tariffs’.
‘All future government buses and motorcycles will be electric. This year, for the first time, more than one in every 10 motorcycles sold in Pakistan was electric,’ he stated.
‘The momentum is real and it is accelerating,’ PM Shehbaz remarked, while cautioning that ‘momentum without finance cannot be sustained’.
The prime minister noted that Pakistan alone needs around $138 billion by 2035 for low-carbon power and $50 billion more to replace coal with solar.
He stated that the ‘35 by 35’ clean energy goal could only be achieved ‘if finance flows at the speed of ambition through concessional capital and the transfer of affordable technology’.
‘Let us resolve to power our economies without impoverishing our people and light up our homes without darkening our planet. That is the promise of 35 by 35, and it is a promise we must deliver together and under all circumstances,’ the premier remarked.
He thanked Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country has the COP31 presidency, for convening the ‘important dialogue’.
Earlier in the day, PM Shehbaz was received by Mr Erdogan and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres upon his arrival at the venue, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said.
In his speech at the Antalya Leaders’ Summit, PM Shehbaz will highlight Pakistan’s climate priorities and initiatives and emphasise the urgent need for enhanced global climate action and strengthened international cooperation to mitigate the adverse impact of climate change, the PMO said.
According to the PMO, a ‘Pakistan Pavilion’ has been established at the COP31 venue where 54 events will be hosted on various themes.
PM meets world leaders On the sidelines of the summit, the prime minister held conversations with leaders of various countries and international bodies. The premier and his delegation also had a separate meeting with Iran’s Pezeshkian and his team.
The meeting was to ‘discuss bilateral relations and the promotion of mutual cooperation between Pakistan and Iran’, as well as the regional situation and matters related to regional peace, PMO stated.
PM Shehbaz, in a post on X, said he was ‘delighted to meet my brother’.
While reaffirming the ‘deep and enduring bonds’ between the two neighbours, the prime minister said he ‘conveyed Pakistan’s deep concern over the pro-longed conflict in our region’.
‘Dialogue, restraint, de-escalation and sustained diplomacy are the only path to lasting peace,’ he stressed.
‘Building on the understandings reached under the Islamabad MoU, Pakistan continues to play a sincere and constructive role for peace and stability in the region and beyond.
PM Shehbaz also met Kuwait’s Prime Minister Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and reviewed the longstanding fraternal relations between their countries.
They ‘reaffirmed their resolve to further strengthen cooperation in several areas of mutual interest, including trade, investment, energy, development cooperation and people-to-people exchanges’, the PMO said.
The two premiers expressed the hope that the recent ratification of the Pak-Kuwait defence agreement would ‘further promote bilateral cooperation’. They also exchanged views on developments on the international scene and challenges to regional peace.
Prime Ministe Shehbaz’sinformalmeetingsincluded those with his Bangladesh counterpart Tarique Rehman, Palestinian Premier Mohammad Mustafa, Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, Saudi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Adel binAhmed al-Jubeir and Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
He also met Organisation of Islamic Cooperation chief Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, World Bank President Ajay Banga and Turkiye’s First Lady Emine Erdogan.
In his conversation with his Palestinian counterpart, Shehbaz Sharif expressed Pakistan’s full solidarity with Palestinians.
Mohammad Mustafa thanked the government and the people of Pakistan for ‘effectively raising their voices on the global level against the injustices inflicted on the Palestinian people and for supporting the Palestinian stance’.