ISLAMABAD: Germany announced an additional aid of € 10 million for Pakistan on Saturday as the South Asian country reels from “biblical” floods that have killed over 1,700 people since mid-June and inflicted severe damage to critical infrastructure.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is in Germany on an official visit tp raise awareness regarding floods in Pakistan. On Friday, Bhutto-Zardari met his German counterpart, who stressed on providing additional support to Pakistan. The German ambassador also said Berlin wanted climate losses to be on the agenda at the upcoming UN talks.
Torrential rains and melting glaciers in the mountains of Pakistan’s north triggered floods that have swept away homes, key infrastructure, livestock and crops, affecting 33 million of Pakistan’s 220 million people since June 14.
Bhutto-Zardari, in his joint press talk with German counterpart Annalena Baerbock, said Pakistan needed more assistance to deal with the “biblical floods.”
“I'm happy to share that [Germany] has once again scaled up its support for #FloodsInPakistan by another €10million!” Alfred Grannas, the German Ambassador to Pakistan, wrote on Twitter.
He added that the additional €10 million puts Germany’s flood assistance for Pakistan at €60 million.
Pakistan and developing countries around the world have increasingly urged big polluters to be held accountable for emitting greenhouse gases in huge numbers.
“As one of the hardest-hit countries worldwide, Pakistan is paying a high price for global CO2 emissions,” Baerbock, a member of the environmentalist Greens party, told reporters in Berlin on Friday.
“That's why Germany will work toward a fair sharing of the costs at the COP27 in Egypt, putting the question of climate adaptation, but in particular also the question of loss and damage, on the agenda,” she said.
