• Activists hold demos against ‘ecocide’ in Palestine, controversial carbon markets
• Pakistan unveils National Climate Finance Strategy at COP29

A DEMONSTRATION held on the sidelines of COP29 on Thursday dem­anded an energy embargo on Israel.

Organised as part of the ‘Defund Genocide Action’ by the Climate Justice Coalition, around 50 activists with keffiyehs wrapped around their necks held up signs proclaiming ‘no climate justice with blood on our land’.

The number of participants was small because of restrictions imposed by the UN. One of the slogans that dominated the gathering was ‘demilitarisation, collective liberation’.

Speakers at the demo said ‘genocide’ was not limited to a single jurisdiction and compared it to a ‘virus’ consuming livelihoods and destroying humanity.

Saed Hannan, a Palestinian activist, said what was happening in his homeland was not just a ‘genocide’, but an ‘ecocide’, as over 76 per cent of the agricultural land had been destroyed.

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Another activist also compared the non-stop bombing of Gaza with ‘ecocide’, saying Israel was making the land uninhabitable so that people would have no choice but to leave.

He said that three million trees, mainly in olive orchards, had been destroyed as well as agricultural land, he said, adding that there was poison in the air, land, and sea. “We don’t need empty words we want action,” he said, demanding an energy embargo to stop fossil fuels from fuelling the genocide.

“We can do it if there is the will to do so,” he said, adding that the states needed to take action to cut off fossil fuels and coal that were fuelling the genocide.

Speaking to Dawn, a spokesperson for Climate Justice Coalition said many of the countries funding wars were claiming at COP that they did not have money to fund a just transition. “The framework we are relying on to save humanity from climate change is being destroyed by these wars,” Asad Rahman, a UK-based activist, told Dawn.

He reiterated the calls for an energy embargo on Israel, saying the only reason the war was continuing was because the fossil fuels were feeding this war.

‘False Solutions’

A second demonstration targeted the controversial carbon markets, which activists view as ‘green-washing’. The protesters termed carbon markets a ‘get out of just transition free-card’ that affected food sovereignty, biodiversity, and Indigenous people’s rights.

They also carried a large banner reading ‘No Carbon Markets, Don’t Sell Us Out’ and shouted slogans ‘False Solutions Have Got to Do’.

According to experts, the carbon markets are controversial because some of the projects in past had not actually reduced emissions.

Pakistan’s strategy

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Pavi­lion hosted a session its first National Climate Finance Strategy (NCFS) to address the escalating challenges posed by global heating by mobilising financial resources for climate mitigation and adap­tation efforts, focusing on scaling up climate-related investments, attracting international finance and strengthening domestic financial systems.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and PM coordinator Romina Khurshid Alam jointly unveiled the NCFS at Pakistan Pavilion.

Mr Aurangzeb said the strategy provided a roadmap to systematically access and secure climate finance from available funding channels. He further said it outlined the multiple avenues to leverage international, domestic and private finance.

In her keynote, Ms Alam, the PM’s climate aide, said the climate finance strategy outlined a path to bridge the significant climate finance gap facing Pakistan — a gap we estimate at $348 billion by 2030 for our climate-resilient and low-carbon development goals.

“Our NCFS primarily seeks to plug this gap by establishing a climate finance framework aligned with a whole-of-economy approach, aiming to climate-proof investments and allocate resources to our most vulnerable sectors and communities,” Ms Alam remarked.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2024