Our Correspondent
Islamabad : Pakistan has lost nearly 10,000 lives to climate-related disasters and suffered about 4 billion dollars in losses between 1998 and 2020.
According to the statistics compiled by various government departments, the rains this year have been 87 percent heavier than the average downpour due to changing weather patterns.
Climate change is causing heavier rains and sporadic urban planning has left major cities particularly vulnerable to damage.
Pakistan has long ranked among the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, according to the Global Climate Risk Index, which tracks the devastating human and economic toll of extreme weather events.
A report titled ‘Climate Change Profile of Pakistan’ stated that the annual mean temperature in Pakistan has increased by roughly 0.5°C in the last 50 years.
“The number of heatwave days per year has increased nearly fivefold in the last 30 years. Annual precipitation has historically shown high variability but has slightly increased in the last 50 years,” it said.
It said “Sea level along the Karachi coast has risen approximately 10 centimetres in the last century. By the end of this century, the annual mean temperature in Pakistan is expected to rise by 3°C to 5°C for a central global emissions scenario, while higher global emissions may yield a rise of 4°C to 6°C.”
“Average annual rainfall is not expected to have a significant long-term trend but is expected to exhibit large inter-annual variability.
