LAHORE: Farmers staged a rally on Friday to demand compensation for the losses they are suffering because of climate change.

Members of the community assembled outside the Lahore Press Club under the banner of the Pakistan Kisan Rabita Committee.

Carrying banners and placards inscribed with their demands, they took a round of the Shimla Pahari and raised slogans against continuous funding of fossil fuel-based energy projects that were playing havoc with the climate.

They said the last year’s devastating floods that displaced every seventh Pakistani were also the result of climate change.

They demanded that the world’s developed nations pay at least $40 billion to Pakistan for the rehabilitation of victims of floods and rains.

The demonstration was held on the eve of the two-day summit of G20 economies in New Delhi.

The protesters demanded action against the world’s 20 largest economies for damaging the environment and also sought diversion of public funds from fossil fuel to renewable energy projects.

PKRC General Secre­tary Farooq Tariq said that the G20 framework has failed to address the debt crisis and present long-term, sustainable and transformative solutions to the global issues.

He demanded that Pakistan’s debt must be cancelled immediately, while the nations responsible for climate change must pay $40bn to Pakistan for the rehabilitation of the victims of floods and rains.

He said that Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other countries overburdened by foreign debts support the G20’s bad debt relief mechanism.

He regretted that the G-20 countries were just offering debt for resolving the climate crisis knowing well that debt repayment eats up the already scarce resources for public spending.

“A vicious cycle of debt dependence keeps these countries trapped in continued dependence on fossil fuels.”

Zaigham Abbas of the Asian People’s Movement on Debt and Development said that major economies such as the G20 have a responsibility to pay for climate finance because their policies have led to the destructive climate change in the global south.

He said that climate finance is needed in the form of reparations based on emissions, equity and fair shares so that these countries can pay for the damage caused by the climate crisis.

He said that the responsibility for paying for all this destruction lies with the countries of the global north because their endless greed for development and profit has caused climate change in our countries.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2023