Pakistan’s climate change concerns and vulnerability
Pakistan is rated among the top 10 most effected countries to climate change as per independent international assessments such as that by GermanWatch, an NGO based in Germany. Listed below are the major climate change related concerns of the country and some recent examples of its vulnerability to climate change related extreme events:
Key exreme events in past:
- Increasing extreme events over the last two decades;
- Devastating super floods in 2010 and 2011 (about 2000 deaths, 20 million people homeless, $ 10 billion damages in 2010 alone);
- Large scale flooding in 1992, 1997, 2003, 2006, 2012, 2013 and 2014;
- Localized cloud burst causing urban flooding of Lahore (1996), Islamabad (2001) and Karachi (2009);
- History’s worst drought during 1999 – 2002; droughts in Thar area of Sindh and Cholistan area of southern Punjab in 2014;
- Heat waves during 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2010 (53.7 °C);
- Unprecedented cyclonic in 1999, 2007 and 2010.
Future vulnerability concerns:
- Increased variability of monsoons; (Faisal S., et al. 2014; Latif et al, 2015, 2016; )
- Projected recession of HKH glaciers threatening IRS Flows; (Rasul et al, 2008)
- Increased risks of extreme events (floods, droughts, cyclones, extreme high / low temperatures etc.);
- Water and heat stressed conditions in arid and semi-arid regions leading to reduced agricultural productivity;
- Increase in deforestation; loss of biodiversity; (Ali et al, 2006)
- Increased intrusion of saline water in the Indus delta due to sea level rise; risk to mangroves and breeding grounds of fish; (Kristensen et al, 1992; Adhikari et al, 2010; )
- Health risks. (Hina Lotia et al, 2011; Bushra Khalid et al, 2015a, 2015b; )
