The UN chief called Monday for “huge investments” to help Pakistan recover from last year’s devastating floods and better combat climate change, amid financial pledges.
“No country deserves to suffer what happened in Pakistan,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at an international conference in Geneva, which is seeking billions of dollars to support recovery from the disaster.
Guterres opened a one-day event that drew the world’s attention to help Pakistan recover from floods that have devastated a third of the country, killing more than 1,700 people and affecting more than 33 million others.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told the conference that his country was “racing against time” to address the overwhelming need.
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“This is the biggest climate disaster in the history of our country,” Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said, calling it a “colossal disaster.”
According to Pakistan’s so-called Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework, which will be officially presented during Monday’s conference, it needs $16.3 billion over the next three years.
Pakistan’s government says the country should be able to cover half of the cost, but has asked the international community to finance the rest.
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– ‘Life-line’ –
“I am asking for a permanent international support plan. I am asking for a new lifeline,” Sharif said.
Countries appeared to be heeding the call, pledging hundreds of millions of dollars even before the pledging portion of the conference began.
Speaking via video link, French President Emmanuel Macron told the conference that his country would contribute 360 million euros ($384 million).
He also said France was ready to join an international support group created to help Pakistan implement the plan, and said it would also provide an additional 10 million euros in emergency aid.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union is contributing 500 million euros to Pakistan’s reconstruction, as she announced a new injection of 10 million euros in humanitarian aid.
Also read: UN prepares for worse to come in Pakistan floods
Months after the rains stopped, the situation in Pakistan remains dire.
Eight million people were displaced, millions of hectares of agricultural land were destroyed and around two million houses were destroyed, while another nine million people were pushed into the abyss of poverty.
Guterres said Pakistan and its people responded to “this epic tragedy with heroic humanity”.
“We must match the heroic response of Pakistanis with massive efforts and investments to strengthen our communities in the future,” he said at the conference.
– Loss and damage –
The UN chief said the international community has a special responsibility to help Pakistan, which is “doubly a victim of climate chaos and a bankrupt global financial system.”
With representatives of the World Bank and several multilateral development banks listening, he slammed the system that “routinely denies middle-income countries the debt and concessional financing needed to invest in natural disaster resilience.”
Monday’s event is broader than a traditional pledging conference, as it seeks to create a long-term international partnership focused not only on recovery, but also on improving Pakistan’s climate resilience.
Pakistan, with the world’s fifth largest population, is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions but is one of the countries most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by global warming.
Guterres said Pakistan’s “monsoon on steroids” proves the need for an agreement reached at the UN climate summit in November to create a “loss and damage” fund, which aims to cover the damage related to climate endured by developing countries less responsible for the global. warming from rich polluters.
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“When in doubt about loss and damage, go to Pakistan,” he said.
“There is a loss. There is damage.”
Before the conference, Achim Steiner, head of the UN development agency, told AFP that Pakistan will face “an extraordinary amount of suffering” if the world does not step up and help.
“Today the waters may recede partially,” he said at a Monday conference, “but what remains is a monumental reckoning for the world.”
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