Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that Pakistan would need debt relief and would seek climate compensation for climate damage as it recovers from catastrophic floods that cost the country some $30 billion.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday said that Pakistan would need debt relief and would seek climate compensation for climate damage as it recovers from catastrophic floods that cost the country some $30 billion.
Speaking at the COP27 climate conference alongside United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the premier said that Pakistan’s escalating public debt was hampering its recovery.
“Millions of people are going into winter without shelter or livelihood,” PM Shehbaz said. “Women and children are still looking to us to protect their basic needs.”
At the climate talks this year in Egypt, Pakistan and other climate-vulnerable countries are demanding that the UN take steps to mobilize “loss and damage” funds for disaster-hit nations, and some say rich nations have a duty to pay these costs because their historical emissions are mostly responsible for global warming today.
“We have mobilized every available resource toward the national relief effort,” but it is not enough, PM Shehbaz said — describing hundreds of broken bridges across the country, as well as stagnant lake water now fouling Pakistan’s southern agricultural landscape.
Meanwhile, Guterres urged international financial institutions like the World Bank and leaders at the upcoming G20 summit in Indonesia to reform policies that govern debt relief and concessional loan decisions as climate compensation to help middle-income countries like Pakistan focus on rebuilding rather than repayment.
“There should be a way to have a (debt) swap exchanging the payments of the debt to investments in the rehabilitation and recovery and reconstruction from natural disasters,” the secretary general added.
PM Shehbaz arrived in Egypt on Sunday where he was received by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Guterres at the Sharm El Sheikh International Convention Centre.
In his meetings, the premier drew the attention of the international community to help Pakistan overcome the risks of climate change.
The heads of several governments — in their interaction with Shehbaz on the sidelines of the mega climate change summit — termed his continued presence in the flood-affected areas as an “extraordinary gesture”, according to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The premier highlighted the damage suffered by Pakistan in wake of the recent flash floods and emphasised transforming key climate-related decisions into concrete actions and credible plans.
While thanking the international community for helping the flood-struck people in Pakistan, the prime minister stressed that as a developing country most affected by the phenomenon, Pakistan needed urgency of climate solidarity and climate justice, as well as climate compensation.
Originally published at Dawn