Flood-hit Pakistan proposes debt swap for climate action

SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (AA) – The international community’s sustained support in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of flood-ravaged Pakistan is a matter of justice, not just solidarity, the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told Anadolu Agency in an interview on Friday.

He proposed “debt swaps for climate action,” saying death, devastation, and destruction are “driven by global climate change causes,” despite the fact that Pakistan contributes less than 1% of the global carbon footprint.

Pakistan is facing the “brunt of natural calamities in the form of heat waves, glacial outbursts, droughts, torrential rains, and unprecedented monsoons,” he said, adding that one-third of the country is currently underwater.

“Therefore, the response calls for international solidarity and collective action,” Sharif said.

Pakistan is witnessing what he called “super floods” caused by “monsoon on steroids,” a calamity that has affected more than 33 million people, resulted in the death of over 1,500 people, and caused damages to private and public infrastructure worth $30 billion.

Recalling a statement made by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres during his recent visit to Pakistan, Sharif said countries like Pakistan, which “have done almost nothing to contribute to global warming, do not deserve to be among the frontline countries impacted the most by climate change.”

Sharif urged the industrialized nations to “meet their climate finance commitments, with a balanced focus on adaptation and mitigation.”

The prime minister also proposed establishing a “loss and damage financing facility” to compensate developing countries most severely impacted by climate change.

“The sheer scale of the calamity has stretched our resources and capacities to the limit, thus necessitating support from the international community,” he explained.

SCO mandate

Pointing out the SCO mandate, Sharif said the regional grouping “undertakes joint efforts to address regional security threats and challenges.”

“Combating the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism form the core of security cooperation framework amongst SCO member states through the platform of SCO RATS,” he explained.

Concerning the regional bloc’s socioeconomic development agenda, he stated that the framework has become comprehensive in the last 20 years.

“The SCO leaders have taken initiatives in diverse areas such as commerce, transport connectivity, industrial cooperation, energy, food, security and climate change,” he said, adding that Pakistan participates in the “collective effort to ensure regional peace as well as economic development” of the SCO region.

Pakistan believes that the SCO’s economic agenda should be translated into tangible actions, he said.

The eight-member SCO, founded in 2001, aims to strengthen friendly, good neighborly relations and mutual trust among member states.

‘Onus on India to create environment for engagement’

On Pakistan-India relations, Sharif said Islamabad has “consistently advocated constructive engagement and result-oriented dialogue” with New Delhi on all outstanding issues, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

He said he had expressed his “sincere desire to engage with India in the pursuit of long-term regional peace. “Unfortunately, India’s unabated hostility and retrogressive steps have vitiated the regional environment and impeded the prospects of peace and cooperation,” he alleged.

“India’s unilateral and illegal actions of Aug 5, 2019, not only seek to suppress the legitimate right of the Kashmiri people to determine their own destiny, but have also grievously harmed the possibility of a result-oriented engagement between Pakistan and India,” he added.

“Developments in the last three years have made amply clear India’s nefarious designs of altering the demographic composition of IIOJK (Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir) in violation of UNSC resolutions, international law and 4th Geneva Convention,” said the Pakistani premier.

He added that the future of South Asia “cannot be held hostage indefinitely by the vitriol and communal mindset of the BJP-RSS government which it brazenly employs to further its policy of state-terrorism in the IIOJK.”

The onus continues to be on India to create a conducive environment for meaningful engagement, he said.