Climate change is causing major environmental and social impacts across the world. This is one of the major issues facing Pakistan that needs to be addressed properly. As a developing country, Pakistan is already facing many challenges, including weak economic performance, poor governance, and political instability. Under this situation, the rise in the effects of climate change further exacerbate its problems and exposes the country to the serious threats. The geo-strategic position of Pakistan makes the country more vulnerable to climate change impacts, which are evident from the growing frequency of drought, floods, increasingly erratic weather patterns, and changes in agricultural practises.
Pakistan hosts the world’s third-largest glacial ice mass after Antarctica and the Arctic Circle. The constant rise in temperature due to climate change is causing the rapid melting of glaciers, resulting in a rise in water levels and the formation of new lakes at glacial ends. Besides, the changing weather events, i.e., warmer weather and more rain contribute to the flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF) that are damaging countryside.
In this century, Pakistan has seen the effects of climate change more than ever. The effects were seen in the form of disastrous floods that hit the country first in 2010, when severe monsoon rain resulted in massive unprecedented floods that killed more than 1700 people and affected about 20 million people with a loss of billions of dollars. This was not the last; the country faced the same situation once again in 2020, but the loss was less in terms of damages and cost.
Most recently, in 2022, the country faced extreme weather events followed by severe monsoon rains. This contributed to the catastrophic floods across Pakistan, which affected almost one-third of its land. In the 2022 floods, Pakistan’s estimated damages exceeded 14.9 billion and total economic losses reached about 15.2 billion,where more than 1730 people have so far died and 33 million people are turned homeless. The government reported that at least 81 of the 160 districts in the nation have been designated as “calamity impacted” by the floodwaters.
Pakistan, while being an agricultural country, an overpopulated state, and a country with deficient resources, cannot bear such devastating disasters occurring due to climate change. Besides, it does not have enough resources to protect itself from the impacts of climate change. Pakistan is continuously reported among the top 5 countries most vulnerable to climate change in the Global Climate Risk Index (German Watch Report) 2020. “Pakistan contributes less than one percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, but every year, it keeps climbing up the ladder of climate vulnerability. In a nutshell, these floods and droughts are now becoming the new normal for the country.
National Climate Change Policy (NCCP):
After the devastating effects of the 2010 floods, the government of Pakistan adopted its first National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) in 2012 with the aim of reducing the country’s vulnerability to climate change and promoting sustainable growth. This policy was designed in accordance with the Paris Accord, and it guided the country to mitigate or eliminate the risk of climate change. However, in 2021, Pakistan updated its national climate change policy “which aims to ensure that climate change is mainstreamed in the economically and socially vulnerable sectors of the economy and to steer Pakistan towards climate-compatible development”. This policy sets targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy resources. Mitigating and adapting actions are considered to be the two key ways of combating climate change.
This policy highlights the government’s ten billion tree tsunami programme along with other goals such as the urban greening project, the clean and green Pakistan campaign, the ecosystem restoration initiative, climate-resilient urban development, and national parks initiatives. This policy considered Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOF) and flash floods as major issues in Pakistan and thus suggested strategies to combat these issues.
This policy adopted major initiatives to address climate change in the country and emphasised on nature-based solutions. The policy aimed to ensure the stability, security, and sustainability of long-term nature-based projects that are necessary to be considered to combat climate change. This policy describes ten important climate change threats to Pakistan and their possible solutions, ranging from unprecedented weather events to increased health risks and climate change-induced migration. These threats may lead to major survival concerns for Pakistan, particularly concerning the country’s water, food, and energy security. The policy is a landmark document that comprehensively describes all the sectors vulnerable to climate change.
Extreme weather events, a continued rise in temperature, melting glaciers, growing droughts, and floods are some vulnerable climate change threats that are enlisted in the policy documentation. Regarding glacial lake outburst floods and flash floods, it provides a wide range of possible solutions that start from raising awareness in the common public to strengthening state institutions and the need for regional and global cooperation.
A broader aspect of this policy was developed by the government in the form of the Framework for Implementation of the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP), which proposes a policy implementation mechanism based on action plans at both the federal and provincial levels. This framework indicates detailed objectives for each sector vulnerable to the threat of climate change, and it covers a wide range of strategies that must be implemented to improve capacities to address the impact of floods, flash floods, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF), droughts, and other natural disasters. It offered several actions to be undertaken to achieve the desired objective using the proposed strategies.
Unimplemented policy: Failure of government?
National climate change policy is no doubt a landmark policy that provides detailed and practical solutions to a country’s climate change issues, but despite having such detailed policies and action plans, the government was not able to prevent the devastating damage of the 2022 floods. One reason for the failure of this policy is a lack of practical implementation, which has never been successful. The policy has not been translated into action on the ground, and the necessary resources have not been allocated to address the impacts of climate change. Thus, the country is heading faster towards the impacts of climate change than predicted.
The low output of this policy is not the failure of this policy; it’s the failure of the government; however, the government faces challenges in making the implementation successful. Some major reasons for the lack of practical implementation of this policy are; 1) Internal instability (both economic and political), as a result of the change of government, even before the completion of their tenure, left the majority of policies unimplemented in a true manner. 2) Lack of resources, finance, and budget: According to Oxfam, 80 percent of the funding between 2017 and 2018 was in loans, which further increased the country’s debt. 3) Lack of active coordination between different government departments and agencies, which leads to a fragmented approach to policy implementation 4) Less attention is paid to this issue by high government officials 5) Lack of an adequate management system for government institutions 6) Lack of public awareness of the impacts and risks of climate change.
The low output of this policy is not the failure of this policy; it’s the failure of the government; however, the government faces challenges in making the implementation successful. Some major reasons for the lack of practical implementation of this policy are: 1) Internal instability (both economic and political), as a result of the change of government, even before the completion of their tenure, left the majority of policies unimplemented in a true manner. 2) Lack of resources, finance, and budget: According to Oxfam, 80 percent of the funding between 2017 and 2018 was in loans, which further increased the country’s debt. 3) Lack of active coordination between different government departments and agencies, which leads to a fragmented approach to policy implementation 4) Less attention is paid to this issue by high government officials. 5) Lack of an adequate management system for government institutions 6) Lack of public awareness of the impacts and risks of climate change.
Concluding that, at this instant with available resources, Pakistan can’t stop or eliminate the impacts of climate change but these impacts can be mitigated and then reduced by properly addressing this issue and by adopting frequent and adequate action in vulnerable sectors of the country. Recent floods highlight the urgent need for action to address the impacts of climate change. The effect of climate change can be reduced in all sectors if the government makes successful implementation of its policies.
Concluding that, at this instant, with available resources, Pakistan can’t stop or eliminate the impacts of climate change, but these effects can be mitigated and then reduced by properly addressing this issue and by adopting frequent and adequate action in vulnerable sectors of the country. Recent floods highlight the urgent need for action to address the impacts of climate change. The effect of climate change can be reduced in all sectors if the government successfully implements its policies.
