ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will urge developed countries attending the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Baku to fulfill their pledges and provide easy access to climate funding without attaching conditions, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s coordinator on climate change said on Thursday.

The COP29 climate conference, scheduled to take place in Baku between November 11 and 22, will layout new policies and bring together representatives from various nations to discuss the adverse impacts of climate change and evaluate available solutions for adaptation.

Pakistan is ranked as the 5th most vulnerable country to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. In 2022, devastating floods affected over 33 million people and caused economic losses exceeding $30 billion, highlighting the country’s high susceptibility to extreme weather events.

“Pakistan is very clear on our stance that we need all the developed countries when it comes to the pledges, one, they need to complete their pledges, they need to fulfil their pledges, and two, easy access toward the fundings,” Romina Khurshid Alam, PM Sharif’s coordinator on climate change, told Arab News in an exclusive interview.

Due to the rising temperatures, extreme climatic phenomena, including floods, droughts, cyclones, torrential rainstorms and heatwaves, have been occurring more frequently and with greater intensity across Pakistan.

The South Asian country is among the most severely threatened countries in terms of climate–induced challenges, especially in the context of its dependency on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water, natural resources and the environment, and socio-economic issues such as poverty. The country’s adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change is inevitable and likely to become critical in the future.

Alam said vulnerable countries were suffering from their own economic challenges and vulnerabilities, while at the same time, many countries faced additional restraints on climate funding.

“It’s not fair that we always get demands to ‘do more and to do this, to do that, these sanctions are coming,’ that is something which is on the human rights violation as well,” she said, adding that Pakistan wanted to raise its voice on what happened to the pledges, how many countries benefited from them and what straightforward mechanisms could be pursued to provide effective support.

Asked about the total amount pledged by developed nations, Alam said she would provide the exact figure after COP29, but noted that “the number is very low.”

“At COP29, we are talking about the data bank system like in a way that what countries are suffering and looking forward for the carbon credits policies,” she added.

Last month, Pakistan proposed the establishment of a regional climate data bank to help Vulnerable Twenty (V20) group of countries prepare an evidence-based response to climate disasters.

Alam said the South Asian country had planned “many things” to showcase at Pakistan Pavilion during COP29.

Speaking about the prevailing smog issue, she said Pakistan would take it up with the Indian team at COP29.

“We are open to dialogues and open to come up with the solution, we want to get the things done by dialogue,” she said, noting that the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, had also urged India to sit together to resolve this issue.

“CM Punjab very clearly said that ‘let’s sit together to sort out this issue because this cannot be done in a way that we are not doing this or you are doing this’,” Alam said.

“This is not a game, the main thing is to think about the children and to think about the future.”

Winter smog has become an annual crisis in Pakistan’s Punjab, particularly the provincial capital of Lahore, with air quality deteriorating to hazardous levels each season. The city consistently ranks among the world’s worst for air pollution, leading to a significant rise in respiratory issues and hospital admissions, especially affecting children and the elderly.

Last year, severe pollution levels prompted a surge in cases of asthma, lung infections and other respiratory problems among residents, according to media reports.

The problem this week prompted Punjab CM Nawaz to propose cross-border cooperation with Indian authorities to tackle shared pollution sources, such as crop residue burning, which exacerbate the region’s smog problem.

LONDON: The father of a 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl on Thursday denied her murder and instead blamed the girl’s stepmother, calling her “evil” and “psycho.”

Sara Sharif was found dead in her bed in Woking, southwest of London, on August 10, 2023 with injuries including broken bones, burns and bite marks.

Her father, Urfan Sharif, 42, had fled to Pakistan a day before the body was found, along with his wife Beinash Batool, 30, and the girl’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29.

Sharif then called police in the UK shortly after arriving in Islamabad and said he had “beat her up too much.” During the trial, Sharif said he made up this and another confession to “protect my family.”

All three adults were arrested upon their return to the UK a month later. They deny charges of murder and allowing the death of a child.

Details of the extent of Sara’s injuries have been detailed at London’s Old Bailey court, including claims from Batool that Sharif would beat his daughter badly.

Giving evidence for a third day, Sharif admitted slapping Sara “multiple times” but denied beating, burning, or biting her, insisting that he was “never at home” when she was injured.

Sharif broke down when his lawyer, Naeem Mian, questioned him about beating Sara, who was home schooled, with a cricket bat.

The taxi driver denied burning his daughter with an iron and instead said he was “made to” slap Sara by Batool, who constantly accused the girl of behaving badly.

Pointing to Batool sitting in the dock, Sharif shouted: “I should not have believed her... I didn’t realize I’m living with evil and a psycho.”

He also suggested that Batool was the one who bit her “like an animal.”

The jury was previously told that Sharif and Malik had provided their dental impressions but Batool had refused.

“I didn’t do it. Faisal didn’t do it. Who else was at home?” Sharif said.

He denied ever being aware of Sara being in pain. “She never told me that,” he said and indicated that he did not see injuries because Sara wore full-sleeve tops and long bottoms as well as a hijab head covering.

In the month leading up to Sara’s death, Mian said Sharif was out of the house at work from early in the morning to late at night while holing frequent telephone conversations with Batool, who would largely be at home.

Sharif wept as he recalled a time he came home and saw that Sara’s hands had been tied behind her back with brown packaging tape, accusing Batool of the act.

Asked why he did not call the police or ask Batool to leave, Sharif said that his wife was “manipulative” and that he believed her apology.

“I have been an idiot,” he added.

Forensic evidence shown to court included bundles of packaging tape and a white plastic carrier bag fashioned into a hood that could have been used on Sara’s head.

The bag had packaging tape stuck to it as well as long, brown hairs that matched Sara’s DNA, the court was told.

Both the bag and the non-sticky side of the tape had fingerprints that matched Sharif’s, who denied fashioning a hood out of the plastic bag or using it on Sara.

He said the fingerprints could be a result of him handling the items while sorting the garbage.

Sharif had previously accused Batool of being abusive toward him and preventing him from asking Sara about how she obtained her injuries.

In 2022, Batool texted her sister that Sharif had suggested using make-up to cover up bruises after beating Sara, to which the sister replied: “LOL it was going to happen you can tell.”

In the days before her death, Sharif said Sara, who did chores around the house, had asked him to “not go to work.”