How are you, Pakistan?

Water is becoming a rare commodity in this diverse landscape of snowy mountains to sunny coastlines, and climate change is intensifying dreary droughts and flash floods.

Flood affected people of Burira village have shifted to safe places

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Pakistan has unique physiography, ecosystems, climate zones, and rich access to natural resources. Home to nearly 2.8% of the world’s population, the country is prone to various climate risks like rainfall variability, increasing temperature, and severe droughts.

People exposed to extreme river floods will likely increase to around 5 million by 2035–2044, with a potential increase of around 1 million annually exposed to coastal flooding by 2070–2100. The expected annual economic impact of flooding in Pakistan on GDP is US $5.8 billion by 2030.

What do the experts say?

According to the Global Climate Risk Index, 2021– in terms of fatalities and mortalities, Pakistan ranks amongst the top 10 most affected countries in long-term climate risks from 2000 to 2019.

The 1999 droughts led to significant crop failure and starvation. The average annual loss to floods is nearly US $1 billion with a maximum impact on the agriculture sector. The heavy rainfall in 2010 affected 20 million people and caused 2,000 fatalities.

Owing to the increasing population, developmental activities and urbanization carbon emissions are increasing.

Globally, Pakistan accounts for 0.61% of CO2 emissions (kt) with 0.9 per capita emissions. Mostly, huge carbon emissions result from the energy, agriculture, manufacturing, and transport sectors.

Pakistan is committed to fulfilling its NDC objectives of adopting a low carbon development pathway. The country has formulated the National Climate Change Policy, 2012 to adopt climate mitigation measures in different sectors like energy, agriculture, forestry, renewable and hydroelectric power.

Is this information sufficient?

Yes

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What do you need to know about Pakistan?

Bypass all the climate clutter and avoid tedious, lengthy web searches by taking note of the following short and important climate change figures for Pakistan: