U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the 77th session of the U.N. General Assembly. UN Photo—Cia Pak
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday used his speech at the U.N. General Assembly to call on the global community to help Pakistan tackle the devastation caused by this year’s floods, stressing the climate change crisis cannot be ignored.
“Much of Pakistan is still under water, and needs help,” he said while discussing the threat posed by climate change. “Families are facing impossible choices, choosing which child to feed and wondering whether they’ll survive,” he said. “This is the human cost of climate change. And it’s growing, not lessening,” he said, announcing a $2.9 billion fund to support life-saving humanitarian and food security assistance across the globe for the rest of this year. This, he said, was in addition to the $6.9 billion the U.S. government had already committed to support global food security.
Echoing calls from U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres for debt relief to developing countries to help them adapt to extreme weather events, Biden said “transparently negotiating” debts of vulnerable nations could help avoid broader economic and political crises around the world. He urged “major global creditors, including the non-Paris Club countries, to transparently negotiate debt forgiveness for lower income countries to forestall broader economic and political crises around the world.”
In this regard, he said, lenders should look for ways to help developing nations beyond infrastructure projects that “generate huge and large debt without delivering on the promised advantages.” The infrastructure needs, he suggested, could be met through “transparent investments, high standard projects that protect the rights of workers and the environment, key to the needs of the communities they serve, not to the contributor.”
P.M. Sharif’s appreciation
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif—who is also in New York to attend the 77th session of the UNGA and has been seeking support to tackle the floods in meetings on the sidelines—appreciated Washington’s role in addressing climate change, and thanked the U.S. for extending help to Pakistan during the floods.
According to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, he met U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and appreciated his personal leadership in raising awareness and seeking solutions to the climate change crisis. Emphasizing the need for continued support from the international community, he said it was essential not only for recovery and relief efforts, but also for the subsequent reconstruction and rehabilitation work.
The prime minister stressed on the importance of America’s leadership in enabling developing countries such as Pakistan to deliver on their climate action commitments under the Paris Agreement by providing necessary tools in the form of climate finance, technology transfer and capacity-building assistance.
According to the statement, Kerry expressed solidarity with the people and Government of Pakistan and reaffirmed the U.S. administration’s continued support in facing challenges triggered by the floods. He said that the U.S. was ready to engage with Pakistan in rebuilding resilient infrastructure as well as other forms of support to avoid similar crises in future.
With casualties climbing to 1,576; 33 million people impacted nationwide; and over four million acres of crops destroyed, Pakistan is in the midst of an unprecedented natural calamity. Pakistan has been seeking global support to tackle the crisis, noting it is suffering the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions, despite contributing less than 1 percent of the total annual output. P.M. Sharif, per the Foreign Office, is set to address the UNGA session on Sept. 23 with an aim toward focusing on the challenges faced by Islamabad in tackling the floods triggered by climate change.