Climate change challenge

Pakistan's vulnerability to climate change is increasing at an alarming rate. The recently released Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) report for 2020 ranks Pakistan at fifth place - a jump of three places from the previous eighth spot - among 10 countries most affected by catastrophes, having lost 9,989 lives, suffered economic losses worth $ 3.8 billion and witnessed 152 extreme weather events during the 1999-2018 period. In terms of economic losses, Pakistan stands at number three among the counties most vulnerable to such events. The other nine are Puerto Rico, Myanmar, Haiti, the Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nepal and Dominica. According to the report, one of the reasons Pakistan continuously ranks high in the long-term index is its geographical location, which is prone to extreme weather events, in particular, heavy rains during the monsoon season, and consequently flooding. All this, though, is linked to global warming, also causing the melting of the Himalayan glaciers and outbursts of glacial lakes.

Changing weather patterns are adversely impacting this country's agricultural economy and eco systems. The Farmers Bureau of Pakistan has been blaming erratic weather conditions for this year's low yield of rice, cotton and corn crops, while citrus growers are worried about delayed ripening of the fruit due to delayed arrive of the winter season. These vulnerabilities are only going to increase as extreme weather conditions become more and more frequent and severe because of climate change unless the world's worst polluters step up to the common challenge and help the hardest hit less developed countries. Notably, the release of the CRI report coincided with the two-week long Climate Change Conference in Madrid, attended by nearly 200 countries, but represented by the biggest greenhouse gases emitters, China, the US (although President Donald Trump has abandoned the Paris Accord calling global warming a hoax, the technical procedure for the withdrawal has yet to be completed) and India, sent in ministers or low-level officials to the conference. This means they are not ready yet to meet their commitments that call for a drastic cut in CO2 and other greenhouse gases emissions aimed at keeping global temperature 2C, if not 1.5C below the pre-industrial levels, and also to contribute to the Green Climate Fund to help less developed countries minimize their losses and adapt to environmental changes.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has to get its own act together and adopt effective mitigating strategies. It is good to hear Prime Minister Imran Khan regularly speaks about climate challenge in his important speeches, such as the one he delivered at the last UN General Assembly session, and more recently at forum of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Islamabad, he highlighted the fact that this challenge poses significant risks for a range of human and natural system. On a more practical level, the billion-tree plantation campaign he initiated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has now been extended to other parts of the country. But a lot more needs to be done to cope with climate change, from turning to greener technologies in energy and other fields to research and development in the agriculture sector so it can better adjust to changing weather conditions.