PM warns world of looming climate disaster

Antonio Guterres, centre left, and the Pakistani PM, Shehbaz Sharif, talk with a child at a flood relief camp in Jaffarabad on Saturday. – AP Photo

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has warned that climate change would not spare other countries after flash flooding inundated one-third of the country, leaving a trail of death and destruction and rendering millions homeless.

“What happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” Mr Sharif said in a tweet reiterating his call for urgent action a day after the United Nations issued a revised aid appeal as relief assistance for the flood-stricken people of the country.

Soon after the floods struck a month ago, the UN issued a flash appeal for an initial $160 million to address immediate needs of the multitude of people rendered homeless. However, recent needs assessments led to revise the appeal to $816 million to save those struggling to survive the aftermath of the floods.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Pakistan in September to see the colossal climate-induced natural disaster caused by unprecedented rains and floods across the country.

The UN secretary general visited Sindh and Balochistan provinces and flew over some of the worst-affected areas to witness the flood devastation.

What happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan.
PM Shehbaz Sharif

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in his tweet that more than 1,600 people, among them 400 children, had lost their lives to massive flooding, besides thousands of kilometres of roads and bridges and other infrastructure washed away.

“Entire villages have been swallowed up by raging waters. Nature has been truly unforgiving,” he tweeted.

Recently, Shehbaz Sharif actively pursued the case of the flood-hit Pakistan on international platforms, including at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Uzbekistan, in London, and at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly. In his meetings with over world leaders at the SCO and UNGA, the prime minister called for climate justice and appealed to the world to share the burden of the climate crisis. He also highlighted that Pakistan was responsible for less than one percent of the world’s planet-warming gases, yet it was the eighth most vulnerable nation to the climate crisis.

Wednesday, October 5, 2022