Loss and damage-justice and fairness.

The Climate Change Summit, COP27, is well underway in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, lasting from 6-18 November 2022. I was quite pleased that on Monday and Tuesday this week, the leaders of the United Nations, Pakistan, Kenya, and Norway, among all the other countries, held meetings on key issues. Pakistan currently holds the chair of the Group of 77, established in 1964, today comprising 134 member countries.

I lived in Kenya before I made Pakistan my homeland, and Kenya is one of Africa's most dynamic countries, and it now has a newly elected president, HE William Ruto, who has to handle many difficulties. Currently, recurrent drought affects large areas of the north and west of Kenya, neighbouring Somalia, Ethiopia, and other countries in the region. Half of the close to one million pastoralist population in Kenya's semi-arid Turkana County faces starvation.

Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif met the Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Store. Close cooperation between those countries is certainly important; Norway is one of the 30 richest countries in the world, with a population of just about five and a half million, and its economy is bigger than that of Pakistan. Also, there is closeness because of the large Pakistani community in Norway, with several doing well in politics and other sectors of society.

Norway will continue giving special assistance to Pakistan after this year's devastating floods when up to a third of the country was flooded, resulting in many deaths, destruction of infrastructure and harvests, displacement of people, and more. This week, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed with Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif, Norway's PM Jonas Gahr Store, and other leaders, how Pakistan can be assisted and how a new international system can be established to help poor countries suffering from poverty and climate change. It is now noted that many difficulties are caused by the rich countries, which historically have become rich through overusing nature, negatively affecting all countries. Also, the former colonies were exploited and hindered in their development by the rich countries.

The time has come to establish new structures that can correct the existing 'loss and damage'-structures between rich and poor countries, with a special focus on climate change. Pakistan is one of the countries likely to be most negatively affected by climate change. The term 'loss and damage' are being used at this year's COP27 summit. It underlines...

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