KARACHI, December 20, 2022: Pakistan is among the top 10 most vulnerable countries even though its contribution to global warming is less than one percent. The country suffered huge weather-related losses and damages over the last two decades in the form of severe floods, heat waves, and storms.
These were the views of an environmental expert Dr Zafar Iqbal Shams while addressing the Muhammad Ajmal Khan Memorial Lecture series, organized by the Dr Muhammad Ajmal Khan Institute of Sustainable Halophyte Utilization of the University of Karachi.
During the one-day event held at the KU MAK-ISHU seminar hall, he cited the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, prepared by the Germanwatch group with the query “Who suffers most from extreme weather events?”
He mentioned that among 180 countries studied by the group, Pakistan is the eighth most affected country, scoring 29 CRI (Climate Risk Index), Puerto Rico, the worst affected, scored 7.17, while Qatar, the least affected, scored 173.67 CRI.
According to him, the Index was calculated based on the human deaths and losses in GDP of the countries due to extreme weather events caused by climate change. According to the index, extreme weather events kill 502.45 inhabitants and cost US$ 3771.91 million in losses in GDP every year in Pakistan.
“According to World Bank estimates, the recent flood cost US$ 10 billion in losses and damages, washed away two million homes, and affected 33 million inhabitants of the country.”
Dr Shams while delivering a lecture on “Global warming, its causes, implications, and control”, said that the greenhouse gases, viz., carbon dioxide, methane, dinitrogen oxide, and some halogens, emitted by human activities, are raising the global temperature that disturbed entire hydrological cycle of the earth.
He said that this triggers early and rapid melting of ice and snow on the mountains that spill over the rivers and inundate the human settlements, and the croplands, and cost human lives, properties, livestock, and agriculture.
He added that global warming also causes the water expansion of oceans and seas, rise in sea levels, increase in humidity and human diseases, and loss of biodiversity. Many semi-deserts are converted into deserts due to water losses from their surface because of the rising temperatures.
Dr Shams informed the audience that for the first time, 154 countries signed an international treaty in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reduce greenhouse gases to prevent climate change. Later, a few other countries also signed the treaty.
It was ratified in March 1994. Under the framework, member states meet every year in different cities to assess the progress to reduce greenhouse gases, which is generally called a conference of the parties (COP).
He recalled that the conference of the parties in its third session (COP3), held in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, pledged to establish legal binding for developed countries to reduce six greenhouse gas emissions, namely, carbon dioxide, methane, dinitrogen oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. Due to the legal binding, many developed countries reduced their emissions over the last three decades.
He narrated that nonetheless, the global reduction of greenhouse gases is not very promising since many developing including China and India, which are exempted from the agreement, are emitting the gases in greater quantity. Despite every nation on the globe’s pledges to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr Shams mentioned that COP27 which was recently held in the historic city Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt from November 6 to 18, 2022, pledged to cut 45 percent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to stay below 1.5 degrees celsius rise in global temperature. It pledged the global transformation to a low-carbon economy. For the first time, COP27 pledged to provide ‘losses and damages funding’ for vulnerable developing countries hard hit by climate disasters.
He also mentioned that G7 and V20 (Vulnerable Twenty) launched a global shield against climate risks, with commitments of US$200 million for initial funding. Pakistan may benefit from the fund since it is one of the most vulnerable countries hit hard by climate-related disasters. Moreover, the country has a low coping capacity to rebuild and recover from catastrophes.
On this occasion, the Director, KU MAK-ISHU Dr Salman Gulzar, said that this series of lectures highlighted many issues that the country is currently facing.
