Victim of “devastating” floods | Pakistan makes desperate appeal to UN to save the planet

(United Nations) Pakistan, victim this summer of “devastating” floods, launched a desperate appeal to the UN on Friday to save the planet threatened by the climate change caused by the rich countries and which unfairly hits this poor nation of South Asia, according to its prime minister.

When the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres visited this country under water on September 10, he exclaimed that he had “never seen a climatic carnage of this magnitude”.

At the rostrum of the UN General Assembly on Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif drove home the point: “Pakistan has never seen such an absolute and devastating illustration of the impact of global warming”.

But the Prime Minister, in a stirring speech, added a grim prediction.

Climate “calamity”

He warned the international community that this climatic “calamity” due to “monstrous monsoon rains” was only a prelude to what awaits the rest of the world. “One thing is very clear: what happened in Pakistan will not remain confined to Pakistan”, launched Mr. Sharif, his voice sometimes taken by anger and his face closed.

“The very definition of national security today has changed, and unless world leaders come together and act now on a minimum agenda, there will be no Earth to carry it out,” the leader said. wars “.

“Nature will counter-attack and humanity is no match for that,” warned the 71-year-old leader, who has been in power in Islamabad since April.

Caused by torrential monsoon rains, the force increased by global warming according to experts, the floods had covered a third of Pakistan – the area of ​​​​the United Kingdom – and caused the death of nearly 1,600 people since June, according to the last report.

Homes, businesses, roads, bridges and agricultural crops were destroyed.

$30 billion in losses

Islamabad has assessed its financial losses at $30 billion and its Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announced on Twitter on Friday that he would seek debt relief from bilateral creditors.

In this country wedged between Afghanistan, Iran, India and China, more than seven million people have been displaced, many living in makeshift camps without protection against mosquitoes and lacking drinking water and the toilets.

On site at the beginning of September, Mr. Guterres urged the world’s major polluters to “stop this madness” consisting of further investing in fossil fuels.

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, who also visited Pakistan this week as an envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said she had “never seen anything like it” and that it should serve as a warning to the rest of the world.

But for Islamabad, the effects of the climate are particularly unfair for a poor developing country of 220 million inhabitants and barely 350 billion annual GDP (in 2021 according to the World Bank).

0.8% of global CO emissions₂

“Why are my people paying the price for such global warming” when Pakistan accounts for 0.8% of global CO2 emissions₂, wondered the Prime Minister. He raged against a “Nature (which) unleashed its fury against Pakistan without even looking at our carbon footprint”.

“Pakistan and the Pakistanis did not create this crisis of which they are (now) the victims” because of “the industrialization of larger countries”, added to the press at the UN the young Minister of Foreign Affairs Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

“We don’t do charity, we don’t want arms or help. But justice for our people and for the other countries hit by the (disruption of the) climate”, launched this son of the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto killed in 2007 and of the former President Asif Ali Zardari.

In the lobby of the United Nations Palace in New York, photos and maps of Pakistan under water are on display. One is struck by this statement: “Today is Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be any other country! ! ! ! “.