9 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, defended this Monday the need for “an unprecedented reform” of the global financial system to deal with climate change and the disasters it causes, such as the deadly floods last summer in Pakistan.
“If there is any doubt about the loss and damage it causes, go to Pakistan. There is loss. There is damage. The devastation of climate change is real. From floods to droughts to cyclones and torrential rains. And, as always, the least culpable countries they are the first to suffer it,” Guterres said in his speech at the International Conference on a Climate Resilient Pakistan held this Monday in Geneva.
In particular, Guterres has referred to the international banking system and the need to reform it “to correct a fundamental error”. “Pakistan is doubly the victim of climate chaos and a global financial system that is morally bankrupt,” he has asserted.
“That system routinely denies middle-income countries debt forgiveness and the funding they need to invest in resilience to natural disasters. Creative ways must be found for developing countries to access debt forgiveness and financing because they are the ones who need it the most”, he underlined.
The administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Achim Steiner, has pointed out other extraordinary events as a consequence of climate change: “look to the east, to Austraria, floods; look to the west, to California, extreme weather; look to Europe and people wondering why it doesn’t snow in winter. We live in times of profound change.”
PAKISTAN
Guterres has estimated the cost of covering the most basic needs of communities affected by the monsoon rains in Pakistan at “more than 16,000 million dollars” and “much more will be needed in the long term,” he warned.
Guterres has met with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, and has defended that these reforms that they are demanding are not a matter of aid, but of justice. Not just a gesture of solidarity. However, the head of the UN has expressed his “deep frustration” that world leaders “are not giving the necessary response to this life and death emergency.”
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that “up to four million children continue to live near polluted or stagnant water that threatens their survival and well-being” while acute respiratory infections “have skyrocketed” in the flooded areas. The number of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition has also doubled and 1.5 million need life-saving intervention.
More than 33 million people were affected by the monsoon floods last summer in Sindh and Balochistan and the waters have not yet receded from all flooded areas. Eight million people continue to be displaced and the deaths total more than 1,700.
The storms destroyed more than 2.2 million homes, as well as 13 percent of health facilities, 4.4 million acres of crops, and more than 5,000 miles of roads.
