At COP27, Pakistan calls for joint responsibility as it seeks 'climate justice'.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH -- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday called on the international community to take joint responsibility for climate change as Pakistan sought "climate justice" at an international climate summit.

"In Pakistan, more than 30 million people have been severely affected; floods caused widespread destruction due to unusual rains; 8-thousand-km-long roads, 3-thousand-km-long railway tracks were affected," the prime minister said at the COP27 UN climate summit.

World leaders, policymakers and delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Egypt at the summit, which delegates had kicked off with a deal to discuss compensating poor nations for mounting damage linked to global warming.

The prime minister highlighted that Pakistan has suffered losses worth $30 billion despite its carbon emissions being one of the lowest in the world.

"The [climate change] affected countries have to deal with this challenge with their own resources. Environmental justice requires that all countries take joint responsibility," he said.

PM Shehbaz said the world has time and again discussed climate change, but no substantial results have come out of those discussions.

He noted that in Pakistan, wheat, edible oil, and other goods have to be imported now after the floods destroyed agricultural crops. "On the one hand there's such a huge disaster and lack of resources and on the other hand import costs are major challenges."

The prime minister said Pakistan requires billions of dollars for the rehabilitation of the flood-affected people and called upon the international community to aid the country.

Earlier, he attended a high-level roundtable...