KARACHI: The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) latest report on Pakistan has placed the country among those which are “highly affected by climate change,” though it contributes only “about 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).”
The IMF country report on Pakistan issued on February 2 mainly focuses on various aspects of Pakistan’s economy, which have been widely covered by the local mainstream media. However, the red-flag raised by the IMF on the country’s grave environmental challenge has remained by-and-large ignored.
“Pakistan is highly affected by climate change, while only contributing about 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” the report said.
“The country has experienced a trend increase in temperatures, fluctuating levels of precipitation, and extreme climate shocks, putting it among the 10 countries worldwide with the largest damages from climate-related disasters since 2000,” the IMF report said quoting Germanwatch.
Quoting the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), established by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, the IMF report said that over the past two decades, 120 recorded events caused an estimated $22 billion in material damages, left more than 55 million people affected and 11,000 killed.
“Relative to peers worldwide, Pakistan stands out in terms of frequency and material damages, while human losses are sizable too,” the IMF report said. (See Table below).
“These damages mainly reflect the impact of hydrological hazards and low resilience,” it said.
“Going forward, Pakistan’s main climate stressors are predicted to be extreme temperatures, more erratic precipitation, and rising sea levels, (especially around Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial center and main deep-sea port).”
“At the same time, Pakistan only emits about 1 percent of global GHG, which still puts it in the group of 20 largest emitters worldwide on an absolute basis.”
