Financial architecture of 20th century cannot meet today's challenges: Sherry Rehman.

ISLAMABAD -- 'The financial architecture of the 20th century can no longer meet the needs and challenges of today,' said Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

'It's high time we address this because the established boundaries and frameworks are now outdated, and there is a need to revisit them and prepare for the challenges of this century which requires a collective approach at a global scale,' she stated.

According to a news release received here on Friday, the minister was speaking at a panel discussion titled "How to Turbocharge Development Finance" where she highlighted the need for reorienting and expanding the role played by IFIs to bridge the financing gaps.

She was joined by Minister of International Cooperation of the Government of Egypt, Rania Mashat, President of Center for Global Development, Sir Masood Ahmed, and Grantham Research Institute Chair Lord Nicholas Stern. The session was moderated by The National Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi.

Sherry said: 'There has to be some sensitivity to the scale of vulnerability and human fragility. When your topographies are transformed forever after a climate disaster, it is immediately followed by food security and a severe energy shock. Right now, 55 countries around the world are in extreme debt distress, which begs the question that is Bretton Woods addressing the challenges of the 21st Century? I am not saying that we instantly go from Bretton Woods to Bridgetown, but this is now a problem that cannot be ignored anymore.'

The minister also spoke at the Pakistan Investment Forum at the Pakistan Pavilion on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting in Davos, where she presented the Living Indus Initiative to private and public investors.

'The global warming that triggers our heatwaves will not go away whatever actions Pakistan takes, because we are a one percent polluter, so we must act to adapt. The Living Indus Initiative is conceived as a veritable axis of adaptation, and it is a cohesive and collective effort to reverse the ecological degradation of the Indus basin. This initiative is...