New York: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged the international community to provide urgent and adequate assistance to countries suffering from the impact of climate change.
Addressing G77 and China annual meeting of Foreign Ministers in New York on Friday, he said Pakistan has suffered massively by floods global warming in the wake of devastating floods.
He said Pakistan emits less than one percent of global greenhouse emissions, yet it is now the epicenter of the impacts of climate change. He said one-third of Pakistan is under water. A thousand people were killed and thousands more injured. He said thirty-three million people have been affected and six million are absolutely destitute. He said around 1.7 million homes, over twelve thousand kilometers of roads, 350 bridges and five million acres of crops, have been destroyed.
The Foreign Minister said that the total damage is estimated at over 30 billion dollars.
The Foreign Minister called for mobilizing urgent humanitarian, economic and financial support to the more than 50 developing countries which are in economic distress. He, however, welcomed the proposal of UN Secretary-General for a “SDG stimulus” of 500 billion dollars to enable those countries which are in extreme economic distress to revive their economies and development objectives.
