Imran Khan says climate change is one of humanity’s biggest crises
The Prime Minister of Pakistan says the country must plant billions of trees and shift energy towards clean sources
Speaking at the Middle East Green Initiative (MGI) summit in Riyadh, prime minister Imran Khan of Pakistan said climate change is one of humanity’s “biggest crises”.
“This crisis was quite visible 20 years ago, but somehow we were all in self-denial. No one thought that this would actually happen, that the temperature was getting warmer. No one believed there would be effects of this,” he said.
Khan said that Pakistan is taking steps to combat climate change and reduce its carbon emissions by planting billions of trees and converting coal projects to hydroelectricity.
He said told delegates that 60 per cent of the country’s energy would come from renewable sources by 2030.
Earlier in the MGI summit, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced a series of regional programmes for climate action to an audience of dozens of heads of state.
These include joint action across the region to preserve and develop the importance of the environment and vegetation cover in Africa and the establishment of the Green Initiative Foundation as an independent non-profit entity to support the MGI summit and raise levels of coordination.