New York: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif while addressing the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) highlighted the flood crisis in Pakistan, urging world leaders to act now against climate change. Take action.
The Prime Minister said that he has come to inform the world about the devastating superflood as Pakistan is paying the double price of climate injustice, heightened global warming and inaction and one-third of the country is facing a situation that no one has ever imagined. saw in living memory”
“For 40 days and 40 nights, the biblical flood was upon us. Even today, large parts of the country are under water. 33 million people, including women and children, are at greater risk of health hazards. More than 1,500 of my people have died. including 400 children. Very much at risk,” he said.
He said that Pakistan has never seen such a disastrous example of global warming. Life in Pakistan has changed forever. People were asking the reason for this disaster. The indisputable truth is that this calamity was not caused by anything we did,” he said.
“We had a monster monsoon. It was a monsoon on steroids as described by the UN Secretary General. Pakistan emits less than one percent of greenhouse gases.
The prime minister said the impact on the health and wealth of Pakistan was beyond calculation at this point. “So my real worry is about the next stage of this challenge. When the cameras leave, and the story just shifts away to conflicts like Ukraine, will we be left alone to cope with a crisis we did not create?” he asked.
I have come to explain the scale and magnitude of climate catastrophe that has pushed one-third of the country under water – PM Shehbaz Sharif#PMShehbazAtUNGA pic.twitter.com/NZvkqKIrDw
— PML(N) (@pmln_org) September 23, 2022
He stated that the future was “dimmed by new fragility, lost homes, decimated livelihoods, deluged croplands, permanent food insecurity and exposure to uncertain futures”. He said 11 million people will be pushed further below the poverty line while others will drift to cramped urban shelters.
The prime minister said the government has mobilized all available resources towards the national relief efforts but the manpower and resources were totally overwhelmed.
“The question to raise here though is quite a simple one. Why are my people paying the price of such high global warming through no fault of their own. Nature has unleashed her fury on Pakistan without looking at our carbon footprint, which is next to nothing. Our actions did not contribute to this,” he reiterated.
PM Shehbaz Sharif said the “dual costs of global inaction and climate injustice were having a crippling effect on both our treasury and our people.”
“It is high time we took a pause from the preoccupations of the 20th century to return to the challenges of the 21st. The entire definition of national security has changed today, and unless the leaders of the world come together to act now behind minimum agreed agenda, there will be no earth to fight wars. Nature will be fighting back and for that humanity is no match.”
He said Pakistan’s urgent priority was ensuring rapid economic growth and lift millions out of destitution and hunger which needs a stable external environment.
“We must avoid another civil war in Afghanistan, or a rise in terrorism.
— PML(N) (@pmln_org) September 23, 2022
I call upon the world community to release funds to revive the economy of Afghanistan.
The world community must address their dire humanitarian situation.”
– PM @CMShehbaz #PMShehbazAtUNGA pic.twitter.com/iSIEQAuywJ
