The report acknowledges that COP29 failed to produce ambitious NCQG in climatic finances, requires greater support from high -seasser countries for most vulnerable nations.
Pakistan has been classified as the country most vulnerable to climate change in 2022, followed by Belize and Italy, according to data in the Climate Risk Index (CRI) for the 2025 report published by the group of European experts Germanwatch on Wednesday.
The classification of Pakistan is mainly due to unprecedented floods in 2022, mainly caused by record, the flood floods of the glacial lakes (GLOF) and other factors.
The report highlights that more than 33 million people were affected and more than 1,700 lives were lost due to floods. He also says that climate change caused the seriousness of the extreme rain of the monzón to increase by 50 percent.
Not only that, more than eight million people lost their homes and were displaced internally due to the floods of 2022, while 1.3 million houses were damaged. The problem was aggravated by the lack of drinking water availability and an increase in water transmitted diseases, such as diarrhea, cholera, dengue, malaria and cutaneous infections.
The report indicates that before flooding in 2022, Pakistan witnessed severe heat waves from March to May, which resulted in Glof in northern Pakistan and record monsors. According to the Department of Meteorology of Pakistan (PMD) in August 2022, Pakistan witnessed 243pc more rain than usual, which makes it the most humid August since the records began in 1961.
Reconstruction costs for Pakistan have been estimated at $ 16 billion. The report also indicated that the floods of 2022 may have probably exacerbated gender inequalities, since women associated with agriculture and cattle were disproportionately affected.
The report also indicates that the lack of data collected in the Global South does not precisely shows the losses, which affects decision making. In addition, the science of attribution has revealed that climate change is responsible for making thermal waves in India and Pakistan “30 times more likely.”
Lina Adil, co -author of the Germanwatch report, said: “The main events that led to the classification of Pakistan as the most affected country for the year 2022 due to extreme climatic events in CRI 2025 were the devastating floods due to rain without precedents together. with heat waves in March – May 2022. “
He continued: “Both events (heat and flood waves) can be attributed to climate change, according to an attribution study carried out by the attribution of the world climate.
“The losses for GDP were very high: US $ 15 billion and also the number of people affected in absolute and relative terms”, which made Pakistan in the country number one in CRI 2022.
According to Pakistani government estimates, floods incurred losses worth $ 30 billion.
Lina said that Pakistan is the only country in the CRI 2022 list that has a national adaptation plan, adding: “The question is now the implementation of this plan and other adaptation plans and other disaster risk reduction plans currently in force in Pakistan.
“It’s not just Pakistan but the southern and southeast regions [are] exposed to extreme weather events. The first line of defense is that high -emitting countries significantly reduce carbon emissions and stop them at the source, if we want to reduce the vulnerability of countries, this is parallel to their responsibility to support adaptation and loss efforts damage to the most vulnerable countries. “
Lina advised policy formulators to identify communities that are more vulnerable and provide them with the necessary support to develop their resilience, saying: “We can take lessons from countries such as Bangladesh, where due to best adaptation practices, the number of Deaths due to cyclones was significantly reduced. “
“The timely communication of extreme climatic events to the first -line communities is critical to facilitate rapid evacuations and effective measures to reduce disaster risk. This should be complemented with strengthened prevention and preparation strategies to improve resilience and minimize impact, ”said Adil.
2025 climate risk index
The number and strength of extreme climatic events, such as floods, droughts, storms and heat waves, are increasing and gradually becoming the “new normality” in some regions of the world.
The 2025 Climate Risk Index, launched by Germanwatch, shows that in the last 30 years, the countries of the Global South have been particularly affected by the impacts of extreme meteorological events.
Interestingly, the United States of America took the seventh place on this list.
Between 1993 and 2022, there had been more than 9,400 extreme climatic events. These killed almost 800,000 people and caused economic damage for a total of US $ 4.2 billion.
“Most vulnerable countries are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change in part due to their limited financial and technical capacities to adapt and manage losses and damage,” said Adil.
“Simultaneously, to avoid greater loss and damage, countries urgently need to increase their mitigation action with new contributions nationwide to stay below or as close as possible to the heating of 1.5 ° C,” they added.
Climate Risk Index 1993-2022
The Climate Risk Index (CRI) 1993-2022 classifies Dominica, China and Honduras, as the three countries most affected by climatic impacts. India has been occupied in the index. While Pakistan has held the 56th position in the index, with a loss of more than 11,000 lives and $ 4.8 billion.
Not only Pakistan, but China and India have also been classified in the list of the most affected countries in the long-term index for 1993-2022, to experience recurrent extreme events.
The report acknowledged that Cop29 He failed to produce an ambitious collective quantified objective (NCQG) on climatic finances, therefore, he requested greater support from high broadcasting countries for the most vulnerable countries to address the climatic crisis.
Dean Emeritus at the Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies, Adil Najam, said: “The great news in this report is that climate change is now a reality for all countries and no country is immune to its effects.”
“By 2022, Pakistan was the most affected number one country due to super floods. However, once he observes the general index (based on the numbers of 1993-2022), Pakistan was at number 56 of the climate risk index, he said.
“In a world where each country is a victim, simply playing the victim’s letter is not a strategy,” he added.
He continued to say: “The developed countries that have historically caused much of the climatic problem have not shown will to contribute their proper participation to solve the climatic problem, and this leaves many of the poorest and poorest countries that have to use. For themselves. “
Dr. Najam took specific note of the crisis of the heat wave mentioned in the report and said that “the heat is now the biggest cause of deaths due to climate -related calamities; This was so even in 2022, the year of the Super floods of Pakistan.
“Since now heat waves have become the” fifth season “in Karachi and other important parts of Pakistan and also because this is a problem in which an adequate response will also make our cities more habitable in general, I hope Pakistan begins to give this also challenges the attention he deserves. “
THE ‘NEW NORMALITY’
The report recognizes that an increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme climatic events is “new normality”, whereby Forest fires in the Amazon since 2005 have wrapped 22 million hectares of forests; Heat waves in Asia, the Mediterranean and Mexico have seriously affected people and ecosystems, and floods in Spain killed 200 people last year. It is feared that by 2050, climate change can bleed the global economy for a sum of $ 38tr annually.
The distinguished professor and director of the University of George Mason in the communication of the communication of the University of Climate Change George Mason, Dr. Edward Maibach, who talks about the impacts, said: “The people of Pakistan, and many other countries Highly vulnerable from all over the world, they are terribly suffering from the impacts of the climate to change.
“Human butcher shop will continue to get worse unless humanity increases to the challenge of decelerating and stopping climate change and protecting people and communities from inevitable climatic impacts.”
He suggested that the most effective way to slow down and stop climate change is “to accelerate the transition far from fossil fuels and clean renewable energy. The most effective way to protect people and communities from the inevitable impacts of climate change is to take Measures that increase their climatic resilience. “
Dr. Maibach also pointed out that each government, national, state and local governments, must assume these challenges to protect its people.
“Governments in rich nations, perhaps especially in the United States, have an additional obligation to help governments in low and medium income countries to ascend to these challenges. We were more responsible for creating the problem. Therefore, we are more responsible for helping to solve it, ”he concluded.
The Deputy Director General of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Izabella Koziell, commenting on the report, “this report leaves an alarming reading: making it clear that the unbearable climatic clashes were unleashed in Pakistan in 2022, that wave of prolonged heat;
She continued to say that the report: “It also confirms what our science has long demonstrated: that mountain countries are as in the front line to the devastating climate change impacts as coastal communities and small island states. Given the population sizes here, the risks here require a much greater approach worldwide. “
Koziell also appreciated the disaster risk reduction efforts of Pakistan in the region: “Since 2022, Pakistan has been a pioneer in disaster management and risk reduction in our region, developing early alert infrastructure absolutely the latest generation and performing A generous paper, sharing tools and tools and share latest generation tools. Approaches with neighboring countries that face similar risks, ”he said.
“Icimod is proud to be able to play our role in this broader national project through our sustainable actions for the Ecosystem Restoration Project (safer) that is directed to interventions, especially around water safety and capacity and capacity adaptive, in the most vulnerable populations throughout the Indo (River).
In the necessary steps to make Pakistan more resistant to climatic impacts, Koziell suggested: “We urgently need to do more, and there must be a massive increase in finance flows for adaptation to Pakistan and the region. However, ultimately, as indicated by this report, adaptation needs will exceed our ability to face unless a much faster mitigation action is taken now. ”
The writer is an international award -winning journalist and currently pursues a doctorate in communication at the George Mason University, USA @Syedmabubakar And you can contact through smabubakar@hotmail.com
