SI Congress Declaration Urges Int'l Community To Continue Assistance For Flood Hit People In Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Nov, 2022 ) :Socialist International (SI) in its declaration after the 26th Congress on Climate Change and COP27 urged the international community to continue providing full support and assistance to Pakistan for the rehabilitation of flood-hit people.

The Council of the Socialist International (SI) held discussions based on the theme "Halting and Reversing Climate Change" and vowed that the fight against global warming has been central to the work of our international community for many years, and as we witness more and more extreme weather events around the globe it has never been more imperative to reiterate the commitment of the SI to work together to halt and reverse climate change and to renew our call for climate justice.

Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, Shazia Atta Marri represented Pakistan in the 26th SI Congress on Climate Change held in Madrid, Spain from November 25-27.

In response to the briefing by Pakistani delegate Shazia Marri the SI expressed its solidarity with the people of Pakistan who have been severely affected by the recent catastrophic floods as a result of climate change.

The declaration of the Congress stated, "The people of Pakistan, especially the most poverty-stricken people, are facing the effects of climate change, for which the international community should continue to provide full support and assistance to Pakistan".

"The catastrophic climate-induced floods in Pakistan resulted in a third of the country drowned under water, affecting 90 districts, with Balochistan and Sindh being the worst-hit provinces, shattering the lives of over 33 million, 1,700 deaths and accrued the country economic losses and damages of over US$ 40 billion in agriculture, livestock and infrastructure," the SI declaration added and said that the people of Pakistan, especially the most vulnerable bore the brunt of the impact as crops were destroyed, homes washed away and lives lost as a result of the unprecedented floods.

The declaration emphasized that with regard to global climate change, a justice-based process should be established, under which all nations could provide proportionate assistance in protecting against the effects of climate change.

The third declaration of SI said that whilst the stronger commitments hoped for at the COP27 Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh remain yet unfulfilled, discussions did result in some hopeful agreements and the most promising one is the loss and damage fund that will provide money to the poorest and most vulnerable nations to rebuild after climate disasters, and which finally formally recognizes the wide-reaching inequalities of the climate crisis.

The SI acknowledged with great appreciation the efforts of the coalition Government in Pakistan, for not only making an all-out effort to support the disaster-stricken people but also sensitizing the international community as well as leading the Group of 77 and China in successfully securing an agreement in the outcome document of COP27 on the establishment of a fund to support vulnerable communities and countries to prepare for and recover from the 'loss and damage' caused by climate-induced disasters and slow-onset events.

The Declaration added that although there are clearly huge challenges ahead in terms of implementation and funding of this new development, it does represent a breakthrough in acknowledging the disproportionate effects of climate change and this is a crucial step forward.

The fourth point of the Declaration said that COP27 could have achieved far more, and the SI will not cease calling for stronger commitments in the months to come. Despite claims that the agreement 'keeps 1.5 alive', a continued lack of consensus on achieving this is deeply worrying and it appears that a credible pathway to the 1.5C limit is much diminished. While the text adopted at COP27 reiterates the importance of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5C and acknowledges the vast difference between 2C and 1.5C in terms of the impacts of climate change, much firmer action is needed.

The Socialist International in its 5th Declaration called for early and full operationalization of a fit-for-purpose Fund for Responding to "Loss and Damage", established during the recently held United Nations Climate Change Conference COP-27 to support vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters.

In the last two points, the SI further called on the developed countries to ensure sustained, predictable and sufficient financing for the Fund and concurred with the United Nations Environment Programme's Emissions Gap Report 2022.

Earlier during the conference, Shazia Marri told the Congress participants about the recent rains and floods in Pakistan.

She told the Congress delegates that more than 90 districts of Pakistan were affected by the flood while Sindh and Balochistan were the most affected provinces.

She said that 33 million people were affected in the flood and 1,700 people died while the economy suffered a loss of 40 billion Dollars.

The Socialist International (SI) is a political international worldwide organization of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism. It consists mostly of socialist and labor-oriented political parties and organizations.