Developed countries need to show more solidarity with Pakistan, where floods linked to climate change have devastated the lives of tens of millions of people, a senior UN official has said.
Chris Kaye, World Food Programme country director for Pakistan, said he had witnessed some “pretty horrific” things in his three-decade career in the field but nothing compared to the trauma Pakistan has suffered. Floods have killed about 1,600 people, displaced 33 million and submerged vast regions of the country.
Mr Kaye said the UN was supporting Pakistan as much as it could but the sheer scale of the disaster should spur countries to act more decisively at the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt, which starts on November 6.
“If people are not waking up to the fact climate change is presenting an existential threat to people around the globe, get your head out of the sand,” Mr Kaye told The National.
It was a culmination of significant changes in the manner by which climate has changed in Pakistan which has put 33 million people in a real state of devastation
Chris Kaye,
World Food Programme country director for Pakistan
“It is extraordinary to have so many climate change events that are extreme all happening in the same year. It is super scary.”
Pakistan is still struggling to cope with significant parts of the country still under water.
The UN has issued a fresh appeal for more than $800 million to help families cope in what is now increasingly a public health emergency because of the damage to healthcare facilities and the threat of water-borne disease.
But Mr Kaye said it was important to remember it was not the floods alone that caused the catastrophe but a series of severe events.
It started with drought. Then winter switched to summer in mere days that skipped spring and prevented the germination of crops. This was followed by a scorching summer with temperatures soaring above 50C.
“Parts of Pakistan were the hottest places on Earth,” said Mr Kaye, who is from the UK. “It was unlivable.”
Then came an unusually intense monsoon season — double the normal rains in some parts — that hit areas that didn’t normally experience them.
Because the ground was so dry, said Mr Kaye, the run-off was rapid. “It completely bulldozed through infrastructure and took huge amounts of livestock with it and that’s people's livelihoods."
At least one in seven Pakistanis has been affected.
“I was in denial regarding the build-up,” said Mr Kaye, “because you thought each one on its own was [manageable] but then came another. Come September it was very difficult to comprehend the magnitude and difficulty the country found itself in.”
Mr Kaye was in Myanmar when Cyclone Nargis barrelled into the country in 2008, causing the deaths of about 138,000 people and in the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan hit in 2013, killing more than 6,000.
He said the current situation in Pakistan was worse in terms of scale, scope and duration.
“I’ve witnessed some pretty horrific things. But [Pakistan] wasn’t just one event. It was a culmination of significant changes in the manner by which climate has changed in Pakistan which has put 33 million people in a real state of devastation.”
Crucial support
Mr Kaye was in the UAE to thank the country for its early and crucial support after the floods hit.
The UAE stepped in swiftly with a $10m donation to the WFP and has since continued to support the country directly and through the UN.
“There has been a huge outpouring of support coming from the UAE. It is only right given that generosity that I'm here to let the government know what it is we are doing with the funds they are providing us,” he said.
The UN has appealed for $816m in total to provide life-saving humanitarian support for the next nine months.
But only 33 per cent has been pledged globally and Mr Kaye said more support was needed from donors who are also being asked to help fund famine response in Somalia, South Sudan and parts of the Sahel before even talking about the crisis in Ukraine.
“We are not going to be able to provide for all the people in need. We said to the government we would do everything to support them. [But] the fiscal space the government has is pretty limited. A huge need is still there.”
Mr Kaye said this plays into a bigger question of climate justice, which he hopes will be important at Cop27.
The G20, the biggest economies in the world, represent 80 per cent of total emissions that contribute to climate change, but Pakistan less than 1 per cent. Despite this, it is Pakistan's most vulnerable people bearing the brunt of the current crisis.
"Shouldn’t it be more industrialised countries that acknowledge their responsibility to support a country such as Pakistan where unquestionably it is climate change that has really triggered the magnitude of the problem people now face? Maybe discussions at Cop27 will bring greater light on to that responsibility.
“As the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said: 'Today it is Pakistan, tomorrow it could be you.'”
The Book of Collateral Damage
Sinan Antoon
(Yale University Press)
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The biog
Title: General Practitioner with a speciality in cardiology
Previous jobs: Worked in well-known hospitals Jaslok and Breach Candy in Mumbai, India
Education: Medical degree from the Government Medical College in Nagpur
How it all began: opened his first clinic in Ajman in 1993
Family: a 90-year-old mother, wife and two daughters
Remembers a time when medicines from India were purchased per kilo
The language of diplomacy in 1853
Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity Agreed Upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast on Behalf of Themselves, Their Heirs and Successors Under the Mediation of the Resident of the Persian Gulf, 1853
(This treaty gave the region the name “Trucial States”.)
We, whose seals are hereunto affixed, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggar, Chief of Rassool-Kheimah, Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon, Chief of Aboo Dhebbee, Sheikh Saeed bin Buyte, Chief of Debay, Sheikh Hamid bin Rashed, Chief of Ejman, Sheikh Abdoola bin Rashed, Chief of Umm-ool-Keiweyn, having experienced for a series of years the benefits and advantages resulting from a maritime truce contracted amongst ourselves under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf and renewed from time to time up to the present period, and being fully impressed, therefore, with a sense of evil consequence formerly arising, from the prosecution of our feuds at sea, whereby our subjects and dependants were prevented from carrying on the pearl fishery in security, and were exposed to interruption and molestation when passing on their lawful occasions, accordingly, we, as aforesaid have determined, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, to conclude together a lasting and inviolable peace from this time forth in perpetuity.
Taken from Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: the Imperial Oasis, by Clive Leatherdale
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Superliminal%20
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MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')
Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last-16 second leg
Paris Saint-Germain (1) v Borussia Dortmund (2)
Kick-off: Midnight, Thursday, March 12
Stadium: Parc des Princes
Live: On beIN Sports HD
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Result
2.15pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,950m; Winner: Majestic Thunder, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).
2.45pm: Handicap Dh80,000 1,800m; Winner: Tailor’s Row, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
3.15pm: Handicap Dh85,000 1,600m; Winner: Native Appeal, Adam McLean, Doug Watson.
3.45pm: Handicap Dh115,000 1,950m; Winner: Conclusion, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi.
4.15pm: Handicap Dh100,000 1,400m; Winner: Pilgrim’s Treasure, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
4.45pm: Maiden Dh75,000 1,400m; Winner: Sanad Libya, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
5.15pm: Handicap Dh90,000 1,000m; Winner: Midlander, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs: 2019 Aston Martin DBS Superleggera
Price, base: Dh1.2 million
Engine: 5.2-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 725hp @ 6,500pm
Torque: 900Nm @ 1,800rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.3L / 100km (estimate)
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
Uefa Nations League
League A:
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands
League B:
Austria, Wales, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine, Republic of Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey
League C:
Hungary, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Norway, Montenegro, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania
League D:
Azerbaijan, Macedonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Latvia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
