ISLAMABAD: World Weather Attribution (WWA), a group of international meteorological experts, conducted a scientific study that found convincing evidence that recent devastating floods and the summer heatwave earlier this year were exacerbated by climate change. The WWA urged Pakistan to ask rich nations for compensations and immediate carbon emission reduction.
26 experts from the top 20 international universities, think tanks, and organizations with expertise in climate change, weather, geography, environmental sciences, public health, and disaster management contributed to the WWA report.
“We found that the 60-day rain across the basin is now about 50pc more intense than it would have been if the climate had not warmed by 1.2C, while the 5-day maximum rainfall over the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan is now about 75pc more intense,” said WWA in a report released on Thursday. “This means heavy rainfall is now more likely to happen.”
According to the report, “Extreme rainfall in the region has increased by 50–75%, and some climate models indicate that this increase may be entirely attributable to human-caused climate change, although there are significant uncertainties in the results.” Climate change is just one of the factors that contributes to high rainfall variability.
“Being the chair of G77, the country must utilize this evidence at COP27 to urge the rest of the world to immediately decrease emissions. One of the report’s authors stated, “Pakistan must also encourage developed countries to accept responsibility and provide adaptation assistance as well as loss and damage support to the countries and populations.
The unprecedented floods, which were brought on by unprecedented monsoon rains and glacial melt in the northern mountains, have resulted in 1500 fatalities, the displacement of 33 million people out of a population of 220 million, and damage worth an estimated $30 billion, according to national statistics released on Thursday by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
