ISLAMABAD: President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Duarte Pacheo urged the international community, especially the developed countries, to help Pakistan recover from the catastrophe of floods.
While addressing the “Third Inter-Parliamentary Union Regional Seminar on Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Parliaments of Asia-Pacific” at the Parliament House in Islamabad on Tuesday, he pointed out that the contributions of Pakistan to climate change are too small but the consequences it is facing are too big.
He said the biggest economies of the world, hence, need to understand their responsibilities to cope with the challenge of climate change. He stressed we need to act now to deal with this challenge.
He called for collective efforts to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development goals. He was also appreciative of Pakistan’s commitment to the SDGS and the establishment of a Task Force for this purpose.
Floods continue to be ignored by IMF
In her welcome address, Convener of Parliamentary Taskforce on Sustainable Development Goals, Romina Khurshid Alam, said the IPU and National Assembly of Pakistan have organised this regional seminar to devise ways to achieve sustainable prosperity.
She said that the SDGs are about the survival of the human race; happiness and prosperity of our resilient common future. “We cannot overlook the shocking common challenges that require our foremost attention followed by the quickest actions to meet the targets. We live in a world where (i) severe poverty and hardship co-exist with extreme wealth; (ii) climate change as a consequence of fatal carbon emissions from industrial waste is playing havoc in developing nations in the form of flash floods triggered by melting glaciers, (iii) Maternal and child mortality are unacceptably high, (iv) Millions of our children are out of school, (v). Girls and women still await equal opportunities. We stand at a crossroads and generations to come will never forgive us if we do not deliver today and together… I must say it is now or never.”
Speaking at the seminar, Minister of State for Finance Aisha Ghaus Pasha stressed the uplift of the agriculture sector and rural areas.
She said the regional countries will have to focus on enhancing their production capacity as well as equipping the youth with quality education and training. The Minister of State said that the fruit of development must reach the poor segments of society.
Later, in a bid to highlight the unprecedented havoc caused by the recent devastating flood, the successful organization of IPU seminar is a remarkable effort of the National Assembly of Pakistan. An emergency resolution will be presented in the context of the devastating flood in Pakistan in the next meeting of the IPU in Rwanda.
This resolution is to present a forceful demand that developed countries must compensate for irreparable socio-economic losses due to climate change in developing countries.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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