Pakistan gets $9 billion in promeassistance after floods

“Today was truly a day that gives us a lot of hope. The message from the world is clear: the world will be on the side of those who have suffered natural disasters”, declared Hina Rabbani Khar, after announcing the amount of aid at the end of the meeting.

O Paquistão, which is the fifth most populous country in the world with 216 million inhabitants, is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse effect, but it is one of the most vulnerable to extreme meteorological episodes caused by climate change.

The country has not yet recovered from the unprecedented floods that occurred in August last year, which left a third of its territory underwater, more than 1.700 dead and 33 million people affected.

Pakistan underwater, the death of the “Hole Indian” and +

See highlights from Curto Green this Monday (29): 33 million Pakistanis affected by the rains, considered a “climate catastrophe”; the story of the “Indian of the Hole”, the last indigenous person of his tribe found dead on Saturday (27); study shows that extreme heat waves will be more common by the end of the decade if there is no reduction in emissions; and another victim of the war in Ukraine: dolphins.

Angelina Jolie calls for more help for flood victims in Pakistan; see the video

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie visited flood victims in Pakistan, where she asked for more help and said that this phenomenon should alert the world to the consequences of climate change. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Angelina, emissary of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on Wednesday (21). The American actress had already visited Pakistan during the 2005 earthquake and the 2010 floods.

At the beginning of the conference, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for “massive investments” and a reform of the international financial system to help the Paquistão, an issue that I had already mentioned in the COP27 about the climate in Egypt. “No country deserves what happened to Pakistan,” declared Guterres, requesting funding to support “the heroic response of the Pakistani people.”

In Geneva, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated this Monday (9) that his country is in a “race against the clock” to cope with reconstruction and prevention work. “We are at an inflection point in history,” he highlighted.

The leader asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reduce pressure. “I’m constantly trying to convince them to give us a break,” he said. O World Bank, in turn, asked to “keep expenses within bearable limits”.

“Creative” financing plans

The UN and Pakistan persuaded States, organizations and companies to increase their aid, especially financial, to implement the country's long-term climate resilience and reconstruction plans. “Pakistan is a victim twice over: of climate chaos and of a morally bankrupt global financial system,” Guterres said.

Guterres lamented that the international financial system does not sufficiently help middle-income countries, which need to “invest in resilience to natural catastrophes” by relieving debt, or offering them more financing. In this sense, he called for “creative” financing plans to help these States “when they need it most”.

According to the government plan, called Recovery, Rehabilitation and Resilient Reconstruction Framework, officially presented this Monday, at least US$ 16,3 billion is needed. The Pakistani government plans to cover half of this amount with its own resources, including public-private alliances, but hopes to get the international community to contribute the rest.

(With AFP)

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