Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the media.

We have declared war on nature. And, as we see here in Pakistan, nature is striking back, with devastating consequences.

Climate change is super-charging the destruction of our planet.

I have seen many humanitarian disasters in the world, but I have never seen climate carnage on this scale. I have simply no words to describe what I have seen today: a flooded area that is three times the total area of my own country, Portugal.

Over 1,300 lives were lost. Tens of millions of people homeless. One-third of this vast country submerged. Livestock and crops wiped out.

But behind these numbers lie unquantifiable depths of human suffering.

But I have also seen great heights of human endurance and heroism – from emergency workers to ordinary people helping their neighbors.

Of course, we can quote numbers that are appalling, but this is a question about people who suffer: the families that have lost their houses, or members of the family. The farmers who have lost their crops or their livestock. Those who no longer have the livelihoods they need to sustain their lives.

At the same time, the most emotional moment for me during this visit was to listen to a group of women and men who have sacrificed their possessions, the possibility to rescue things from their own houses. They left everything to help neighbours to be rescued, to help neighbours to come out of houses that were falling apart, and to be able to reach safety with them.

This extraordinary generosity of poor people has touched me deeply and I hope this example will be followed by all those in the world that have power to support Pakistan in this hour of need.

I want to pay tribute to the gigantic efforts of the Pakistani authorities – civilian and military, national and regional.

I also want to thank the civil society, humanitarian organizations and also my UN colleagues who have rushed in. I also want to take profit to thank all those donors who have started to support Pakistan in this terrible hour.    

The needs are enormous – and I urge massive and urgent financial support for Pakistan. And this is not just a question of solidarity or generosity. It is a question of justice. Pakistan is paying the price of something that was created by others.

I have called this a monsoon on steroids, and there is nothing natural about disasters of this scale.  

Climate change caused by human activity is supercharging storms and catastrophes in Pakistan, but also in Chad, the Horn of Africa with their terrible drought and the risk of famine, and beyond.

All these countries did not cause the problem – but they are paying the price.

These extreme weather events have the fingerprints of human activity all over them – specifically, the burning of fossil fuels heating our planet.

The G20 countries are responsible for 80 per cent of today’s emissions – 1 per cent, 80 per cent – and developed economies are responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gases throughout history.

Here from Pakistan, I want to reinforce a clear point:

Wealthier countries are morally responsible for helping developing countries like Pakistan to recover from disasters like these, and to adapt, to build resilience to climate impacts that unfortunately will be repeated in the future.

As is painfully evident, those impacts are skyrocketing.

People living in high climate vulnerability conditions, including in South Asia, are 15 times more likely to die from climate impacts. Nearly half of humanity is now in this category, the overwhelming majority in the developing world.

As Pakistan is deluged, as famine stalks the Horn of Africa, rich countries must step up adaptation finance.

At least half of all climate finance must go to adaptation and climate resilience for countries like Pakistan to be able to face the next floods in a way that protects their citizens and protects their economy and their wealth.

All countries – with the G20 leading the way – must boost their national emissions reduction targets every year, until the world’s 1.5C temperature limit is guaranteed, and we are at risk of making it irreversibly impossible.
                                           
I have seen an epic human tragedy here in Pakistan, but I also have seen the future.

As our planet continues to warm, all countries will increasingly suffer losses and damage from climate beyond their capacity to adapt.

Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country, wherever you live.

This is a global crisis. As the [Foreign] Minister said, it demands a global response. 

Thank you. 

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, you have seen the disaster with your own eyes. Will you appeal to IMF, World Bank, and other countries [inaudible] to waive or reschedule Pakistani loans?  

  

SECRETARY-GENERAL: I have been demanding very clearly that the world must seriously adopt a program of debt relief for developing countries, including middle-income countries like Pakistan, that are on the verge of an extremely difficult financial situation.  

  

In some cases already, we are seeing defaults coming. It is absolutely essential to create new mechanisms. The mechanisms we have today, the suspension that the G20 declared for the least developed countries, and the so-called framework for that simply do not apply to Pakistan or do not work at all. So we need new mechanisms of debt relief.  

  

I have been, to give you an example, strongly advocating for what we can call “debt swaps.” A country, instead of paying the debt to the creditors, using that money to invest in climate resilience, investments in sustainable infrastructure, and in the green transition of their economies, and this is exactly what Pakistan is. Instead of paying the debt, being able to invest that money in what the country requires.  

  

We will go on strongly advocating for these solutions, namely in the meeting that will take place soon at the IMF and the World Bank, but also in the G20 summit that will take place before the end of the year.  

  

Q: Thank you, Secretary-General. Since I’m flying since this morning with you, my question is that how quickly is the UN going to take action for the relief of health of flood-affected people in Pakistan and also for education? It is a very important thing, I mean, it should be started really quickly. And the second part is, are you going to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, please?  

  

SECRETARY-GENERAL: Let’s be clear. I cannot answer how quickly it will be possible to address entirely all the challenges of health caused by the floods. I know the Government of Pakistan is making a huge effort. I, myself, have seen one hospital in action. And I believe the international community needs to scale up, very quickly, their support. I hope it will be as quickly as possible and I’ve been talking to WHO [World Health Organization] in the limited capacity that it has to fully support the Pakistani Government in relation to the objective.   

  

[…]   

  

Just to say that I was in Pakistan and I have not yet been able to contact my Headquarters to know what my life will be!  

  

Q: Your Excellency, you’ve seen how much Pakistan is affected from the floods [inaudible] G20 countries. Do you feel the response is still very poor from the countries from which Pakistan is paying the price?   

  

And also, can you tell us about this kind of tragedy Pakistan is facing? Pakistan will lag behind in the [Sustainable Development Goals]. How can the UN and nations help Pakistan achieve these Goals with these kinds of problems as well?  

  

SECRETARY-GENERAL: Let’s be clear – not only the G20 countries have not found the financial mechanism necessary to support developing countries that face the same kind of challenges that Pakistan is facing. Until now, it has not happened, and we are going to go on insisting for that to happen. And the G20 countries have also not yet guaranteed that they will be able to reduce their emissions as much as is needed for these kind of disasters not to become worse and worse from year to year.  

  

So, we have two very clear requests for the G20: a request in relation to finance and a request in relation to reduction of emissions. Naturally, the UN will be doing everything we can, but we are aware and we need to be humble when we see a disaster of this dimension. Our capacity is naturally a limited capacity, but whatever we can do is at the entire disposal of Pakistan.   

  

Q: How will the Sustainable Development Goals – Pakistan can achieve?  

  

SECRETARY-GENERAL: It is clear that the SDGs were already moving off track when COVID appeared. Then, we had COVID. Now we have the impacts of climate change. It is clear for the SDGs to be able to accelerate in its implementation, it is clear that we need to address some of the worst crises that we face: energy crisis, food crisis, finance crisis. And that goes back to the same question that was put: Pakistan must have the resources necessary to recover, to rebuild, to reconstruct, and, at the same time, to implement the policies that the Government has decided for the SDGs to be achievable.   

  

Thank you very much.