By Sardar Khan Niazi
Fatal famines and tidal waves have brought about disaster and chaos in societies from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa, while the war in Ukraine has turned a part of Europe into a theater of war. In effect, a developing climate catastrophe has troubled almost all areas of the world.
Life-threatening weather trials such as the winter snowstorms in Europe, deluges in Australia and South Africa as well as hailstorms in France and in the United States have given rise to an appraised $ 115 billion of natural calamity-insured losses this year to date.
An additional $ 7 billion of insured losses came from man-made disasters predominantly the war in Ukraine. The global economy that was already under strain owing to COVID-19, and the Russia-West economic war has further aggravated the current state of affairs.
The battle is not just an incidental military engagement, but also an economic war of wear and tear on a level that was improbable in the past and unparalleled in its across-the-board effect on the economic strength of a profoundly interrelated world.
Our dear homeland has been going through dangerous weather happenings for well over a decade. In the month of June, exceptional downpours hit massive areas of the country, affecting millions of people. The torrents perished thousands of lives. It also washed away crops, livestock, houses, roads, bridges, and healthcare facilities resulting in a loss of over $30 billion.
The UN flash appeal of $ 816 million revised from an initial appeal of $ 160 million for its humanitarian assistance program drew a halfhearted response from developed countries, attributed at the time to aid fatigue.
Sidetracked by the war in Ukraine that has created a cost of living predicament in maximum Western countries, they remained caught in a web of indecision and were unable to respond to the UN’s latest call for its philanthropic support plan for the flood victims.
The war in Ukraine has pushed an increasing number of people into an emergency. The UN adds up that around about 339 million people worldwide will need some form of emergency support next year, a mammoth sixty-five million more people than a year ago.
This has impelled the UN to make a best-ever $ 51 billion funding appeal to set in motion what the world body’s aid chief, Martin Griffith, described as the biggest humanitarian program ever seen.
There is an urgent need to deal with global warming before it is too late. However, Western counties’ participation in the Ukraine war has exacted a price tag far beyond their assessment. The concerned parties have failed to adequately plan for the inevitable consequences of such a war.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an inter-governmental body with thirty-eight member countries had rightly warned earlier that the conflict in Ukraine would cost the global economy $ 2.8 trillion in lost output and even more during the period when severe winter is leading to energy rationing in Europe.
The US on its own provided $ 53 billion to Ukraine in military supplies and civil aid by May of this year, and much more in the following months. Instead, some of the money going into that destructive war should have been spent on making the world habitable for the present and future generations.
At the COP27 meeting in Sharm el-Shaikh, big promises were made to keep the global temperatures at less than 1.5C below the pre-industrial levels by opting for green energy policies and helping the most affected countries with mitigation and adaptation assistance.
Nevertheless, commitments made so far to help countries like Pakistan, enduring most of what the developed nations have been doing remain just commitments.
