THE whole of Pakistan is wallowing in misery now as it buries 1,400 people who have died in flooding that was so massive it covered one-third of the country, ruining agricultural crops, leveling homes and shops, eroding and destroying roads and bridges.
Visiting the flood-ravaged areas, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was so appalled by the devastation that he declared that “Pakistan and other developing countries are paying a horrific price for the intransigence of big emitters that continue to bet on fossil fuels.”
Guterres lamented the lack of attention the world gave to climate change, particularly industrialized nations that benefited much from this official neglect. “This is insanity, this is collective suicide,” the UN official told a news conference in Pakistan.
‘The Marcos administration needs to deploy all forms of mitigative interventions that would defend Filipinos from the deleterious effects of climate change.’
“From Islamabad, I am issuing a global appeal: Stop the madness. Invest in renewable energy now. End the war with nature,” he said. He hopes that his visit would galvanize support for the South Asian country which needs at least $10 billion to repair damaged infrastructure.
In the wake of this development, we can understand why former President Rodrigo Duterte detested the idea of the Philippines’ taking up responsibility to avert global warming when the country has very little contribution to this mess. The industrialized nations are to blame and so they should take up the challenge of cleaning up, Duterte said.
We note that Pakistan is responsible for less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but is eighth in the list of countries most vulnerable to extreme weather caused by climate change, according to Germanwatch.
In the same breath, it is relevant to note that the Philippines ranks fourth in terms of risks arising from floods and storms, according to Fitch’s Climate Change Physical Risk Exposure Heatmap rankings. The most vulnerable are Mozambique (first), Vietnam (second) and Bangladesh (third).
Just like the Philippines, Pakistan receives heavy and often destructive rains during its annual monsoon season. But downpours as intense as this year’s have not been seen for decades. This reminds us of the torrential rains of typhoon “Ondoy” several years ago when Metro Manila residents were given a taste of the biblical deluge.
The Marcos administration needs to deploy all forms of mitigative interventions that would defend Filipinos from the deleterious effects of climate change.
