U.N. gathering seeks aid for Pakistan after devastating floods

Pakistani authorities last week cited a U.N.-backed assessment that the total damage amounted to more than $30 billion

The United Nations is hosting a conference on January 9 to help Pakistan cope with the fallout of last summer's devastating flooding that killed more than 1,700 people and displaced about 8 million, a disaster blamed in part on the impact of climate change.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was joining U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in-person. World leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, were taking part virtually as countries chip in to help Pakistan pull together an estimated $16.3 billion that's needed to help rebuild and recover.

Authorities in Pakistan hope about half of that funding need will come from the international community.

The conference has shaped up as a test case of just how much the rich world will pitch in to help developing-world nations like Pakistan manage the impact of climatic swoons, and brace for other disasters.

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Many scientists, policymakers and others say emissions of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, mostly by industrialised countries, over generations are largely to blame for a warming global climate.

Thousands of Pakistanis are still living in open areas in makeshift homes and tents near the stagnant water in Southern Sindh and in some areas in southwestern Baluchistan, the two worst-flood hit provinces in Pakistan.