Samarkand: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday told the leaders of the SCO grouping that Pakistan looked like "a sea of water", as he made an emotional appeal to its leaders to take immediate action to tackle climate change that he said has caused unprecedented floods in his country.
Sharif was addressing the SCO's Council of Heads of State (CHS) Summit here in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, where he spoke about the climate catastrophe that has led to cataclysmic floods in Pakistan. Over 1,400 people have died and 12,758 injured since June 14 this year in the devastating floods that have submerged about a third of Pakistan.
"The devastating floods in Pakistan are most definitely climate change-induced. It is the result of climate change, cloud outbursts, and unprecedented rains, combined with hill torrents coming down. All this put together makes Pakistan look like a sea of water," Sharif said.
This climatic injustice has befallen us despite the fact that our carbon emission is less than one per cent, he said. Making an emotional appeal to the SCO leaders to extend assistance to Pakistan and chalk out plans regarding climate change for our future generations, he mentioned that Pakistan was braving the disaster of floods, where hill torrents and massive rains killed 1,400 people including 400 children while millions of houses were damaged partially or completely.
I earnestly appeal to all of you that let the SCO stand up and take steps against this devastation through sustainable programmes, he said. Sharif said the country never faced such a level of climate-induced catastrophe in its history that inflicted disaster upon human lives, infrastructure, livestock and crops.