I have no words to describe what I have seen as the flooded area is three times larger than
my country Portugal.

ISLAMABAD   -   United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for substantial increase in financing to the developing countries for adaptation resil­ience to counter the negative effects of climate change.

In an interview with PTV, aired on Sunday he said, “It is crucial that financial support to the developing countries in relation to ad­aptation resilience increases substantially.” “We need $300 billion for the adaptation of developing countries. Strong responsibility is needed for that.” Guterres said losses and damages to the environ­ment were foreseen in the Paris agreement but there was no progress or serious discussion on the issue.

He was hopeful that prog­ress would take place on the issue of climate change dur­ing upcoming discussions at the international level. Talking about the destruc­tion caused by the floods in Pakistan, he said, “I have no words to describe what I have seen as the flooded area is three times larger than my country Portugal.” “I saw an unprecedented natural di­saster, clearly caused by cli­mate change and the people suffered enormously. People lost their houses, crops, cattle, livelihoods and some of them have to pay the loans that they asked for in order to plant crops. It is a human tragedy of an enormous dimension.” 

The UN Secretary General said at the same time he was deeply moved and inspired when he heard the stories of women and men who had abandoned their houses in order to go and rescue the neighbours to safety. These examples of generosity, soli­darity and courage make him feel that the world has the responsibility to mas­sively support Pakistan, he said adding the dimension of the problem was enormous and the country did not have the resources to make their people and economy re­cover from the disaster. “We need to stop the war on na­ture. The nature is striking back with devastating con­sequences in Pakistan and other parts of the world,” he remarked. He said the vic­tims of the natural disasters were not that polluted but the victims were in those places that were less pro­tected against the nature due to climate change. “The inter­national support is not a mat­ter of generosity but a mat­ter of justice. We must raise awareness and we must speak loudly against the tragedy