Bilawal thanks G77 members for support in flood crisis, urges industrialised countries to compensate developing nations.

NEW YORK -- Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday thanked G77 countries for their 'generous support' in providing relief to Pakistan during the catastrophic floods as he called on industrialised nations of the world to compensate their developing counterparts for the loss from damage caused by climate change.

He passed these remarks while chairing the G77 Ministerial Meeting of Foreign Affairs on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

At the outset of his address, Bilawal said that these were challenging times for the developing countries.

'We have suffered disproportionately from a series of shocks: the Covid-19 pandemic, rising commodity prices, the proliferation of conflicts, and the growing impacts of climate change.

'Our challenges have been exacerbated by a deficit in solidarity from our developed country 'partners', he highlighted, adding that as a consequence the world now faced the triple interlocking crises of food, fuel and finance.

'To overcome these cascading crises, restore our economies and achieve the SDGs [sustainable development goals], we need to secure implementation of a series of emergency measures and simultaneously promote structural changes in the unequal and unjust international economic system.'

Bilawal then outlined emergency actions that could be taken to deal with the situation.

'One, mobilize urgent humanitarian, economic and financial support to the more than 50 developing countries which are in economic distress,' he said. 'This implies larger ODA and concessional finance. We welcome the proposal (of the Secretary-General) for a 'SDG stimulus' of $500 billion to enable those countries which are in extreme economic distress to revive their economies and development objectives.'

'Secondly, provide emergency food supplies through the WFP to the 250 million people in food distress; further moderate prices by enlarging food production and supplies; and support small farmers access to seeds, fertilizer and finance.'

The third action pointed out by the foreign minister talked about ensuring the availability of energy, especially gas, for developing countries and exploring mechanisms to reduce the financial burden of energy imports.

He also talked about mobilising the universal availability of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments and expanding vaccine production to end the Covid pandemic decisively;

'Five, provide urgent and adequate assistance to...