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News > Pakistan

Developed Nations Responsible for Greenhouse Gas Emissions: UN

  • A villager affected by floods near Lake Manchar, Pakistan, Sept. 2022.

    A villager affected by floods near Lake Manchar, Pakistan, Sept. 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @ditaniastore

Published 12 September 2022
Opinion

In the wake of the flood-disaster Pakistan has been suffering, Antonio Guterres called upon the international community to devise a mechanism of debt relief for the affected countries.

On Saturday, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that developed economies are responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere throughout history.

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UNSG Visits Pakistan, Calls for International Support

“Those impacts are skyrocketing," he said, adding that "people living in high climatic vulnerability conditions including in South Asia are 15 times more likely to die from climate impacts," he said in a press briefing in city of Karachi during his visit to the flood-affected areas of the country.

Nearly half of humanity is now in this category and the overwhelming majority is in the developing world. In the wake of the flood-disaster Pakistan has been suffering, Guterres called upon the international community to devise a new mechanism of debt relief for the affected countries.

He further advocated a debt swap mechanism that a country, instead of paying debt to the creditors, should be able to use that money to invest in climate resilience, sustainable infrastructure and in the green transition of their economies.

Guterres called for effective support from the developed world to the most impacted developing countries to build resilience and adapt to the circumstances. "This is not a matter of generosity. This is a matter of justice," he said.

On Saturday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Guterres visited the flood-affected parts of southern Sindh and southwest Balochistan provinces.

Apart from visiting the UNESCO's World Heritage site of Mohenjo Daro in Sindh, which got damaged from the floods, he also met the displaced people in Sindh and Balochistan. Guterres also took a comprehensive aerial look at the flood situation and damages.

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