‘We aren’t able to feed our people’ – Pakistani activist

Pervez Ali, aged 19, was displaced as a child when flash floods wiped out his village in Ghizer, Pakistan in 2010.

Now he is a lead organiser with the campaign movement Fridays for Future. “It wasn’t a choice, it was do or die for me,” he says.

He is disappointed with the lack of progress on finance for loss and damage – to help countries deal with climate impacts – at COP27.

The support Pakistan currently receives is just a small fraction of the cost of the damage to Pakistan’s economy from this year’s record flooding, he says.

“You’re losing this from your economy, you’re hopeless… your people are dying, asking for a meal just once a day,” he says. “We aren’t even able to feed our people or provide a roof where they can sleep a peaceful night,” he adds..

The floods put a third of the country under water, leaving 1,700 people dead and millions homeless. Scientists says it’s likely they were made worse by climate change.

With negotiators working today to reach a deal on loss and damage, Pervez says that funding for it shouldn’t be voluntary, but compulsory..

“There ought to be a proper channel through which they allocate the fund so that it’s delivered to victims in the form of investments, raw cash and basic living facilities.”

He says he doesn’t feel voices like his are being listened to at the summit. “We just want the policies not to be made for us. We want to be at the table,” he says. “That’s what the youth of Pakistan want.”

“COP27 is nothing – just a lavish place for some privileged people to come and enjoy and go back to their homes,” he adds.