LAHORE: “As you know, despite being responsible for less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, Pakistan has been among the 10 countries most-affected from impacts of climate change in the past two decades,” noted Dr. Ahmad Ali Gul, an expert of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) Climate Change Working Group; Assistant Professor and Director, Center for Disaster Management, University of Management and Technology, during an interview with Gwadar Pro. “Our agriculture-based economy is sensitive to climate related shocks, and disasters can exacerbate the water security challenges.”
Half a month ago, Dr. Gul participated in the Disaster Risk Management Symposium organized by the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network (EABRN), making a speech on Pakistan’s lessons and opportunities in the context of global climate change. Soon after, an earthquake that jolts Afghanistan and Pakistan caused casualties and losses in both countries.
This may not be a coincidence. In reality, growing scientific evidence shows that climate change can increase the risk of such tremors. As melting glaciers change the distribution of weight across the Earth’s crust, the resulting “glacial isostatic adjustment” drives changes in plate tectonics that could lead to more earthquakes.
And besides earthquakes, other climate disasters are also threatening Pakistan’s fragile ecological balance, among which the 2022 flood sounded the alarm for the whole country and even the world.
“According to the official post disaster needs assessment (PDNA) 2022, the damages and losses were USD 14.9 billion and USD 15.3 billion respectively, with roughly 33 million people affected, of which 8 million were displaced. Preliminary estimates suggest that, as a direct consequence of these floods, the national poverty rate could jump to 4.0 percent, pushing up to 9 million people into poverty,” Dr. Gul emphasized, explicitly. Even worse, Pakistan is one of the most water-stressed countries in the world. Only 36 percent of Pakistanis have access to safely managed drinking water, down from 38 percent in 2004. “Fundamentally, Pakistan’s vulnerability to climate change is deeply linked with its socio-economic challenges and governance.” As per Dr Gul, besides the climate itself, other factors perpetuate a state of vulnerability and turn a hazard into a disaster. –Agencies
