The Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee held a protest demonstration at Charing Cross on The Mall to demand an end to the Chinese funding of fossil fuels in Pakistan.

The protest marked the first anniversary of Beijing’s pledge to stop fossil funding in the world.

The climate campaigners held a rally outside the Punjab Assembly building here to remind Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s policy announcement that his country would no longer build new coal-fired power projects abroad. They called on Beijing to “fully honour this pledge and showcase China’s renewable energy leadership by converting those planned but yet to be constructed, coal power projects to renewable energy.”

A number of organisations and movements in Asia have also signed on an open letter to Xi to remind him of the urgency of his climate pledge and underscore how China could take on a much stronger role in the rapid, equitable and just energy transition in the Global South.

Farooq Tariq, PKRC general secretary, said “Pakistan is the biggest recipient of China’s fossil fuel energy funding even after the announcement of President Xi Jinping to stop the overseas projects, the effects of which are visible as the country grapples with devastation of climate change.”

He said Pakistan needed to be serious in dealing with these energy projects and must negotiate with China to change them into renewable and sustainable projects.

Lidy Nacpil, the coordinator of Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development, under whose call the protest was organised in Lahore, said: “We strongly urge China to end all forms of support and involvement of its institutions in all coal projects overseas, shift its public and commercial overseas energy financing to renewable energy for southern countries, and stop building its domestic coal energy system as well. We reiterate the urgency of these actions to combat climate change and address its impacts that are devastating many countries now and endangering the future of life on the planet.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1711512/end-to-chinese-funding-of-fossil-fuels-sough