Guterres asks to invest in renewables to avoid catastrophes like the one in Pakistan

“From Islamabad, I am issuing a global call: stop the madness, invest in renewable energy and end the war with nature,” Guterres said on Twitter on his last day in Pakistan.

The UN Secretary General visited this morning some of the affected areas in the provinces of Balochistan, in southwestern Pakistan, and southern Sindh; two of the areas hardest hit by floods since the rainy season began in the country last June.

Guterres has highlighted that both Pakistan and other developing countries are paying a “horrible price” for the intransigence of the large emitters, who continue to bet on fossil fuels.

“Nature strikes back in Sindh, but Sindh has not produced the emission of greenhouse gases that have exacerbated climate change,” Guterres added during the visit to this province, in which he was accompanied by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

In this sense, the UN representative has asked the international community to understand that Pakistan, including Sindh, needs massive financial support to overcome this catastrophe, in which some 1,400 people have died since mid-June and millions have been affected. .

The Pakistani government put the damage caused by the floods at 10,000 million dollars, and has requested, together with the UN, an emergency aid of 160 million to help the victims immediately. “It is not a question of generosity, but a question of justice,” settled Guterres.

Both leaders have used the occasion to visit the school children of families that have been affected by the floods in the district of Usta Mohammad, in Balochistan, according to the prime minister’s office in a statement.

Likewise, together with the Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the UN representative has visited the ruins of Mohenjo Daro, a city created more than 4,500 years ago by one of the first civilizations in history, and whose infrastructure was damaged by flooding by 70%.

The Government of Pakistan estimates that more than 33 million people, equivalent to 15% of the country’s total population, are in dire straits due to the worst floods the country has experienced in the last three decades.

Some 1,400 people, including half a thousand children, have been killed since mid-June by the floods, more than 12,000 people have been injured, more than a million houses have been partially or totally destroyed, and entire villages have been razed to the ground. , according to the latest data from the authorities.