Climate change threat

Listen to article

Pakistan has been ranked the country most susceptible to climate change at a precarious time for international climate policymaking. Several of the hundreds of executive orders issued by US President Donald Trump upon his return to the White House represent U-turns on Washington's support for climate change mitigation. Trump is not only a climate change skeptic, he is a flat-out denier, to the point that he has again withdrawn from international climate change commitments on actions and funding, and is now trying to ban businesses from even offering green options.

High-emission countries must acknowledge their responsibility in contributing to the climate crisis and take urgent action to reduce emissions. Unfortunately, even ignoring the US, many developed countries are refusing to take adequate responsibility for their role in 'breaking' the weather. The burden of adaptation and resilience-building often falls on nations like Pakistan, which have limited resources to tackle the ramifications of climate change.

While Pakistan has always been among the countries considered most susceptible to climate change, European thinktank Germanwatch's new report illustrates that while those other countries - including island nations at risk of 'sinking' - are theoretically vulnerable, Pakistan is the one that keeps being hit by natural disasters and extreme weather. While the catastrophic floods of 2022 stand out, mitigation measures have proven no match for increasingly worse weather. Millions of people have been permanently displaced by floods, and rural economies have been upturned. At the other end of the spectrum, heatwaves have parched land in several areas, and climate-induced migration has placed even more stress on water resources in many areas.

Pakistani policymakers are not without guilt though, the EU and rich countries must fess up to their responsibilities as soon as possible, especially since the US will not be an ally in climate change policy, at least for the next four years.