How is Pakistan affected by climate change?

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday inaugurated “the world’s biggest” Miyawaki urban forest in Lahore, saying that the nation should strive to leave “a green and better Pakistan” for future generations.

The forest, initiated under the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project, has been developed on over 100 kanals and will feature around 165,000 plants that will grow 10 times quicker than in a normal forest owing to the unique Miyawaki technique.

Pakistan ranks 7th among the most adversely affected countries due to climate change. The negative impact on our weather pattern is already evident; rising temperatures, major flooding, and prolonged droughts.

The ruling PTI, however, has taken some measures to tackle the climate challenge. Imran Khan’s Billion Tree Tsunami programme, launched in 2014, has been converted into a Ten Billion Tree Tsunami programme to cover the whole of Pakistan. The premier had also announced the launch of ‘Protective Area Initiative’ under which 15 national parks will be built in all federating units of the country.  

UN ‘deafening’ warning

The United Nations panel on climate change issued a report on Monday, asserting that global warming was dangerously close to being out of control and that humans were “unequivocally” to blame.

“Already, greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are high enough to guarantee climate disruption for decades if not centuries”, the report warned. In other words, the deadly heatwaves, gargantuan hurricanes and other weather extremes that are already happening will only become more severe.

Monday alone saw 500,000 acres of forest burning in California, while in Venice tourists waded through ankle-deep water in St Mark’s Square.

How it will affect Pakistan?

The impact of global warming is worldwide and Pakistan too is bearing its brunt. Its consequences for Pakistan are manifold.

Pakistan will either face continuous drought or sudden heavy rainfall as we witnessed in Karachi last year. It will affect the annual pattern of rainfall. It could cause six months of rain to fall in one or two days to paralyse urban and rural areas.

Climate change will affect it in two ways. On the one hand, heavy rains will destroy major crops like wheat, rice, sugar-cane, maize, and cotton as it did in the interior of Sindh. On the other hand, due to the changing pattern of annual weather, our farmers will be unable to predict properly annual rainfall, cold and heat and thus will give up the agriculture sector.

Global warming will result in glacier melt. As per a Washington Post report, Pakistan has more glacial ice than anywhere on earth outside the Polar Regions with 7,253 known glaciers. This will cause sea-level rise, landslides, avalanches, and glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF).

Meanwhile, a joint study titled “Climate Risk Country Profile” for Pakistan released by the two international lending agencies put Pakistan among the top risk-prune countries in terms of increase in average temperatures and resultant economic and social losses.