Shift away from fossil fuel-based economy: Akhtar

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) Chair­person Dr Shamshad Akhtar has said the country’s “extreme dependence” on fossil fuels to achieve gro­wth has ruined the environment at a high economic cost. Speaking at a seminar on the role of business in protecting the environment organised jointly by the Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance (PICG), Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Indus­try (OICCI) and Unilever Pakistan Ltd, Dr Akhtar said the economic bill of climate change is so huge that accounting for it would double the country’s annual external financing requirements of around $29 billion. Pakistan is the fifth most vulnerable country in terms of its vulnerability to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. The OICCI estimates the country has incurred $3.79bn in economic losses in 20 years while losing nearly 10,000 lives to climate-related disasters between 1998 and 2018.