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Climate Change - Pakistan

1) Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate change, with three major cities (Lahore, Faisalabad, and Karachi) ranked among the most at risk globally. 2) Climate change poses severe threats to Pakistan's food production, agriculture, water resources, and energy supply through increased flooding, heat waves, and other disasters unless resilience is increased. 3) Both government policies and individual actions are needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change through sustainable development, water conservation, disaster preparedness, renewable energy, and reducing pollution.

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Saad Shabbir
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60 views5 pages

Climate Change - Pakistan

1) Pakistan is highly vulnerable to climate change, with three major cities (Lahore, Faisalabad, and Karachi) ranked among the most at risk globally. 2) Climate change poses severe threats to Pakistan's food production, agriculture, water resources, and energy supply through increased flooding, heat waves, and other disasters unless resilience is increased. 3) Both government policies and individual actions are needed to mitigate and adapt to climate change through sustainable development, water conservation, disaster preparedness, renewable energy, and reducing pollution.

Uploaded by

Saad Shabbir
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Climate change: The perfect storm

Syed Muhammad AbubakarJuly 03, 2016

Once again, Pakistan is on the list of most affected countries from


climate change. Verisk Maplecroft, a UK-based global risk
consulting firm, has ranked Pakistan 22nd in the Climate Change
Vulnerability Index 2016 (CCVI); three of its cities are among the
69 considered most at risk from climate change including Lahore
(on 7th place), Faisalabad (22nd) and Karachi (25th).

While Pakistan was one of more than 170 countries that ratified the Paris
Climate Agreement on April 22, which aims to limit temperature increase to
2oC, and to strive to limit temperature increase further to 1.5oC above pre-
industrial levels, much more needs to be done by governments and citizens to
mitigate the effects of climate change.

What can we expect?

Adil Najam, dean at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global


Studies, has no doubt that climate change will continue to be one of the
biggest threats faced by Pakistan, unless we act to increase resilience. “For
Pakistan, the biggest climate challenges are food production, agricultural
productivity; disasters, such as floods and heat waves; livelihood loss and
most of all, water and energy. The solution is sustainable development which
is less polluting than the alternatives,” he says.
Three of Pakistan’s industrial cities are at great
environmental risk but government policy doesn’t
reflect any urgency or understanding of the situation

He also highlighted the immediate steps to be taken. “It’s important to


recognise that there are a lot of things to be done for climate, which includes
mitigation, as well as adaptation. For example, improved energy conservation
will not only be good for climate, but even better for Pakistan’s energy and
load-shedding woes. Preparations for adaptation in agriculture and water
sectors should be made in order to protect these from the impacts of climate
change.”

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, the CEO of Leadership for Environment and Development
(LEAD) Pakistan, also views climate change in the same context.

“One of the challenges is to convince the policymakers and opinion leaders to


deal with climate change as a development issue rather than a scientific issue.”

“Dams and reservoirs must be built to fulfill the larger water needs for
agriculture and hydropower, while keeping an eye on ecological requirements.
Also, the government should evaluate the magnitude of disaster prone areas
with hazard mapping and develop land use planning accordingly along with
the implementation of early warning and emergency management plans for
heat waves and natural hazards i.e. flash floods, GLOFs [glacial lake outburst
floods], landslides and avalanches in the mountain areas,” says Dr Daniele
Bocchiola, assistant professor at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. “In lowland
cities,” he explained further, “A surge in monsoonal storms, floods and intense
winter can affect people as well as agriculture and food security.”
Intense de-glaciation, and the forming of new glacial lakes, can lead to GLOFs,
and affect mountain ecosystems, with potential risk of avalanches and
landslides. Also, permafrost (permanent frozen soil) may melt, causing
problems in mountain areas.

Preparation is essential

Najam believes that a getting out of the ‘disasters’ mindset is needed, as too
many climatic impacts are not about disasters. “Communities have to focus on
local response and early response, knowing which issues are the most
precarious for them, whereas the role of the individual is to become better
educated and more careful in terms of waste, as well as awareness of
immediate environment.”

Agreeing that increased water demand for agriculture and acceleration of


desertification in many (mostly northern) areas, puts food security at stake,
both Bocchiola and Najam emphasised on the importance of early-warning
and pre-disaster preparation. “Hotspot areas with heavily increased climate-
related risks should be highlighted and interventions be made to reduce
vulnerability,” Bocchiola added.

Najam believes that managing water resources, developing sustainable


agriculture to warrant food security; controlling deforestation; developing use
of renewables; controlling air pollution and discouraging use of fossils;
forecasting and managing extreme events, including floods, are all issues that
require government support.

Everyone needs to help out


“The government needs to work closely with experts and think tanks, while
local governments and civil society organisations need to get down to the
community level to develop low cost, feasible and sustainable strategies to
make them resilient to climate change,” suggests Tauqir.

“At the community level, there should be a choice of best strategies for local
healthcare management during heat waves, especially for elders and children
in the hottest cities,” Bocchiola points out. “An exchange of knowledge and
ideas between local policymakers and local scientific institutes could lead to
development of scientifically based strategies.”

“Communities should opt for lifestyle choices that decrease their vulnerability
to local climatic hazards, for example, adjusting routines and schedules to
avoid exposure to extreme temperature and precipitation, and changing
construction practices to become climate resilient,” Tauqir agreed.

Brocchiola proposed that each one of us should use water and energy wisely,
deal smartly with solid waste and conscientiously consume reasonably low
amounts of meat; use public transport or bicycles to limit traffic emission; and
limiting burning of fossil fuels for heating, whenever possible.

“We need to invest in climate-resilient infrastructure and lift the poor above
the poverty line by providing livelihood options and increasing income levels,”
added Tauqir.

Pakistan’s contribution to global emissions may be low, but this does not
absolve it of the responsibility to contribute to the global challenge of reducing
climate change. Scientists have given their verdict: human activity is causing
climate change. The experts have spoken: we need to have adaptation and
mitigation at the heart of our development agendas. The rest is up to us.
Syed Muhammad Abubakar is an environmental writer and tweets
@SyedMAbubakar. He can be reached via email at
[email protected]

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