Climate calamity: Pakistan worst-hit after Haiti, Philippines, says report

Pakistan among top three most-affected countries for three straight years.

ISLAMABAD:

A climate vulnerability report released by environmental think-tank Germanwatch counted Pakistan among the three countries most affected by extreme weather events in 2012.

The organisation released a report titled Global Climate Risk Index 2014 on Tuesday at an ongoing United Nations (UN) climate summit in Poland, which stated that Haiti, the Philippines and Pakistan were worst hit by climate-related catastrophes in 2012.

The report also noted that Pakistan has been among the three most affected countries for three consecutive years. “Pakistan, which had already suffered severe flooding in 2010 and 2011, was struck again by a rough monsoon season [in 2012] killing over 650 people,” the report stated.



The 2014 report also published a Climate Risk Index for 1993-2010, with Pakistan ranked as the 12th country most affected by climate-related events over the last two decades.

According to the report’s assessment, the extreme weather calamities caused Pakistan losses worth 0.7% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over 20 years. The report’s timing is crucial for Pakistan, which has sent a delegation to the 19th Conference of Parties (COP 19) – the UN climate conference in Warsaw, Poland, which started on Monday.

“This Germanwatch report has come at an opportune time for Pakistan,” said Dr Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, the lead author of Pakistan’s National Climate Change Policy and a climate advisor working with LEAD Pakistan. “It will help Pakistan present its case to the world that it is among the most vulnerable countries.”



COP19, a conference bringing together countries that have ratified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, followed on the heels of a devastating typhoon in the Philippines which officials say has killed around 2,000 people.

A report released by the World Meteorological Organisation at COP 19 on Wednesday stated that the global sea level has reached a “new record high”, making low-lying countries such as the Philippines more vulnerable to extreme weather events.

The rationale for loss and damage is that rich countries have more responsibility for climate change because of their large share in global greenhouse gas emissions. But the rich countries have so far resisted talks about the mechanism.

Chaudhry, who is in contact with Pakistan’s delegation at COP19, said Pakistan, along with regional countries India and Bangladesh, has been pursuing the loss and damage concept. But he said it was a new idea and that Pakistan needs to do more assessments to see which areas and projects in the country need climate adaptation.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s delegation at COP19, led by Irfan Tariq, a Climate Change Division official, has been focusing on getting a foot in the door for technology transfer mechanisms for the country.

State Minister for Railways, Abdul Hakim Baloch, is expected to represent the country in the ministerial segment of the conference. But it is difficult to say how effectively he will be able to represent Pakistan’s interests at COP19.

The 2014 Index, the 9th annual report released by Germanwatch, analysed the extent to which countries have been affected by weather-related catastrophes using data from Munich Re NatCatSERVICE – a worldwide natural catastrophe loss database.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2013.