ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is among the 10 countries worldwide with the largest damages from climate-related disasters since 2000 - highly affected by climate change while only contributing about one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), reveals a latest report by International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The country has experienced a trend increase in temperatures, fluctuating levels of precipitation, and extreme climate shocks, putting it among the 10 countries worldwide with the largest damages from climate-related disasters since 2000, this was noted in the IMF’s 2021 Article IV Consultation and Staff Report on the Sixth Review.

Over the past two decades, 120 recorded events have caused an estimated $ 22 billion in material damages, left more than 55 million people affected and 11 thousand killed (globally), the document reveals.

“Relative to peers worldwide, Pakistan stands out in terms of frequency and material damages, while human losses are sizable too. These damages mainly reflect the impact of hydrological hazards and low resilience. Going forward, Pakistan’s main climate stressors are predicted to be extreme temperatures, more erratic precipitation, and rising sea levels (especially around Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial centre and main deep-sea port). At the same time, Pakistan only emits about one percent of global GHG, which still puts it in the group of 20 largest emitters worldwide on an absolute basis,” the report notes.

Durable and resilient growth also depends on adequate climate change action, the report says Pakistan’s authorities have long acknowledged the challenges posed by climate change, it states, adding that they established Ministry of Climate Change in August 2017 to coordinate various public climate change initiatives and to manage the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency created in 1997.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022