Opinion | Pakistan floods: will rich nations ever pay for climate loss and damage?
- Pakistan has emitted less than 1 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases – but is already among the hardest-hit nations
- Leader must move away from politicised debate in favour of making sure people on the ground can access help
A third of the country underwater. Crops washed away. Some 33 million people homeless. Billions of dollars of damage. A looming food crisis. And still the unprecedented rains come.
Pakistan’s mega-monsoon dumped up to 700 per cent of the usual August rainfall on parts of the country, with floodwaters boosted by glacial melting from the enormous heatwave that hit the country in March. Climate experts say climate change amplified the event, at the very least.
It’s small wonder Pakistan’s climate minister, Sherry Rehman, is calling not only for immediate aid, but for compensation by rich industrialised countries for the damage caused by their greenhouse gas emissions.
As she told The Guardian, Pakistan has emitted less than 1 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases – but is already among the hardest-hit nations. “The bargain made between the global north and global south is not working … climate change is accelerating much faster than predicted.”
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‘On the front line’ of climate crisis: Pakistan reeling from floods after severe drought
Rich countries, however, show very little enthusiasm for paying for loss and damage caused in part by their emissions. But as climate impacts worsen, can this last?