Environmental laws need to be implemented in Pakistan to create a cleaner, greener environment and mitigate the risks of climate change

[FearlessRoar]

Pakistan requires $348bn investment by 2030 to address climate change, says World Bank

The World Bank said that Pakistan needed $350 billion to combat climate change between 2023 to 2030, urging for a comprehensive climate financing strategy on Friday.

Pakistan is currently the fifth most climate-vulnerable country in the world, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. At the same time, Pakistan also faces some of the highest disaster risk levels in the world, ranking [23rd] out of 194 countries as per the 2024 Inform Risk Index.

In 2022 alone, floods affected 33 million people across the country and displaced 8m people. They caused an estimated Rs3.2 trillion (US$14.9bn) of damage — equivalent to 4.8 per cent of the GDP for the fiscal year 2022.

In a recent report, the Bank said estimated the total investment “for a comprehensive response to Pakistan’s climate and development challenges between 2023 and 2030 amount to around $348 billion (or 10.7 per cent of cumulative GDP for the same period)”.

According to the report, this consisted of $152bn for adaptation and resilience, in addition to $196bn for deep decarbonisation.

Furthermore, the World Bank admitted the figure was “enormous” compared to the historic average annual development budget at federal and provincial levels — which had stood at around $11bn per year between 2011 and 2015.

“However, this estimate is likely an underestimation due to the unavailability of data on the investment needs of key transformations, such as a sustainable agri-food system, flood risk management plan, shock-responsive social protection system, and climate-resilient rural connectivity,” the report said.

Earlier, the World Bank had pledged to provide $20bn to Pakistan under a 10-year country partnership framework (CPF) to support inclusive and sustainable development within the country.

The framework, according to the statement, aimed to focus on several critical areas such as reducing child stunting through increased access to clean water and sanitation services; and decreasing learning poverty through quality education.

More critical areas include increasing resilience to floods and other climate-related disasters; increasing fiscal space and better management and more progressive public expenditures for development; and increasing productive and inclusive private investment to improve external trade balances.

Pakistan requires $348bn investment by 2030 to address climate change, says World Bank

The World Bank, in a 2022 report, said that Pakistan needed $350 billion to combat climate change between 2023 to 2030.

www.dawn.com

 

[BouncerGuy]

PM Shehbaz builds case for climate finance at UAE summit

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday presented Pakistan’s case for climate finance at the World Governments Summit in the United Arab Emirates, urging multilateral institutions to support emerging economies like Pakistan in achieving sustainable economic growth.

He made these remarks in an address at the summit before coming back to the country following a two-day official visit to the UAE. In his address, the premier asked the international community to strengthen climate financing and technology sharing and also invited the private sector to explore untapped green energy and infrastructure opportunities in the country.

He said the global shift to a green economy required shared responsibility, adding that Pakistan was fully committed to mobilising its domestic resources and policy reforms which required international support. “Pakistan’s energy transition alone demands $100 billion in investment,” he said.

He said Pakistan’s economy was recovering despite huge challenges. “Pakistan stands at the defining moment of economic transformation. The headline inflation has dropped to 2.4 per cent in January this year, the lowest in the last nine years, with interest rate capped at 12 per cent,” he added.

The PM said energy security and sustainability were a national priority, as Pakistan was committed to producing 60 per cent of the clean energy mix by 2030 and converting 30 per cent of all its vehicles into electric vehicles.

The prime minister said the government was rapidly scaling up solar, wind, and nuclear energy generation. Pakistan’s southern region held 50,000 MW of untapped wind energy potential while the northern hydro projects would add 30,000 MW of clean energy capacity, he added.

“Solar energy adoption has been accelerated through policy reforms, tax exemption and incentive for investments, net metering and waving of custom duties on solar panels and other equipment,” he added.

He said the government was also simplifying business regulations, enhancing legal protection, and streamlining approval mechanisms to make Pakistan a leading destination for global capital.

“Pakistan is embracing eco-friendly agriculture innovation under the umbrella of the [national] adaptation policy of 2023 to enhance productivity and food security and strengthen our rural economy,” he added. He said the government was also enhancing water efficiency through drip irrigation, modern farming, drought-resistance crops, and water storage to restore the depleting reservoirs.

The government was also incentivising agri-innovation by deploying solar-powered systems and climate-smart sensors to monitor soil and weather conditions to modernise the farming system, he added.

The PM said 1,000 Pakistani agriculture graduates were being sent to China for training in modern agriculture techniques.

“Pakistan stands at the threshold of new era that prioritised infrastructure advancements, economic diversification and human development. The future is not something we passively inherited; rather it is something we actively shaped. Let this summit, herald a dawn of the global peace, sustainable and prosperous future for all,” he added.

Referring to Gaza, he said this gathering was being held at a time when the region began to recover from the tumultuous aftershocks of the tragic conflict in Gaza which claimed the lives of over 50,000 innocent Palestinians, adding it was hoped that the genocidal drive would be followed by the lasting peace. He said Pakistan believed that a durable peace was only possible through a two-state solution in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions.

PM meets world leaders

On the sidelines of the summit, the premier met UAE President and Abu Dhabi ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Vice President and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency Chairperson Zeljka Cvijanovic, and DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.

In his meeting with the UAE president, held at Qasr Al Shati, the premier discussed bilateral trade and economic cooperation as well as recent developments in the Middle East, APP reported. The meeting focused on economic, trade, and development fields alongside other areas for sustainable economic growth.

The meeting provided an opportunity to address the significance of the World Governments Summit in identifying global trends in governance and presenting actionable strategies to enhance government preparedness in navigating global transformations.

Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir was also present at the meeting.

According to PM Office, PM Shehbaz also met the UAE vice president and appreciated Dubai’s remarkable progress as a global hub for business and innovation.

He welcomed the enhanced collaboration in artificial intelligence and climate resilience initiatives. Both leaders agreed to continue high-level engagements to boost bilateral ties and explore new avenues for economic and strategic collaboration.

DAWN NEWS

 

[BouncerGuy]

Pakistan ranks 3rd in list of most polluted countries for 2024

Pakistan ranked the third most polluted country in 2024 — when it faced a record smog season — while Chad topped the list, according to an annual report published by Swiss air technology company IQAir on Tuesday.

The country last year witnessed unprecedented smog levels, especially in Punjab where the situation was declared a “calamity” and around two million people had to seek treatment for resulting health issues. The government had taken various steps to combat pollution, including imposing lockdowns and closing schools.

According to IQAir’s 2024 World Air Quality Report, Chad topped the rankings for the most polluted country overall, followed by Bangladesh, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo and then India in fifth place.

For Pakistan, the average concentration of particles less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) for Pakistan was 73.7 micrograms per cubic metre (μg/m³) — nearly 15 times higher than the safe levels set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Interestingly, despite the record smog, Pakistan’s average pollution last year remained the same as in 2023.

In the Central and South Asia region, Pakistan ranked second — just behind Bangladesh — with Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Sialkot among the 15 most polluted cities in the region.

“Pakistan faces persistently high levels of pollution from various sources, including biomass burning, industrial activities, vehicular emissions, brick kilns, and construction dust,” the report noted.

Compared to 2023, Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore witnessed a spike in their annual average readings while Faisalabad saw negligible rise.

On the other hand, the PM2.5 readings for Karachi declined from over 55 micrograms per cubic metre in 2023 to around 46 micrograms per cubic metre in 2024.

The report said that five Pakistani cities saw levels rise above 200 microns during November.

The study was based on “more than 40,000 air quality monitoring stations across 8,954 locations in 138 countries, territories, and regions analysed by IQAir’s air quality scientists”, it said.

About seven in 10 people in Pakistan faced health issues because of smog, according to a report by international insights firm Ipsos.

Readings for Chad were 18 times higher than WHO safe levels while those for India were 10 times more than the recommended limits.

Despite an improvement in 2024, India was also home to six of the world’s nine most polluted cities, according to the IQAir report.

It said India’s Byrnihat was the world’s “most polluted metropolitan area of 2024”. New Delhi was the world’s most polluted capital, closely followed by Chad’s N’Djamena.

Bangladesh’s Dhaka came third, ahead of Congo’s Kinshasa and Islamabad.

Byrnihat, an industrial town on the border of Meghalaya and Assam states, had a PM2.5 reading of 128.2 micrograms per cubic metre on average in 2024, more than 25 times the WHO recommended level of five micrograms.

Concentrations across India were 50.6 micrograms per cubic metre, 10 times the WHO safe level, according to the report by IQAir, made with Greenpeace’s support.

The overall level was seven percent down from 2023, but Indian cities are still suffering badly from concentrations of small particles, which come from vehicles, agricultural burning, garbage and industrial waste.

South Asia’s pollution skyrockets in winter months, and highlighting India’s struggle, the report said that Baddi in Himachal Pradesh state had an average reading of 165 microns in January — 33 times the WHO safe level.

“Oceania is the world’s cleanest region, with 57 per cent of regional cities meeting the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline value,” the report said.

Bosnia was the worst polluted country in Europe, with PM2.5 levels more than five times over the WHO limit. It was followed by North Macedonia and Serbia. Serbia’s Novi Pazar was the most polluted city, the report said.

Burkina Faso, ranked fifth in 2023, as well as Iran and Afghanistan, were not included in the report due to insufficient data.

Only seven countries had concentrations below the WHO guidelines: Estonia, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, the Bahamas, Grenada, and Barbados.

However, 17pc of cities studied met the WHO standard in 2024, compared with just 9pc in 2023, the report said.

Air pollution — atmospheric and domestic — was the main environmental risk to health in 2021, responsible for 8.1 million premature deaths worldwide, according to estimates in the “State of Global Air 2024” report carried out by the Health Effects Institute and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

DAWN NEWS

 

[BouncerGuy]

Climate change has already hit livelihood of millions in Pakistan: finance minister

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Friday said that climate change had already impacted food production and the livelihood of millions in Pakistan.

Pakistan was ranked as the most vulnerable country to climate change in 2022, followed by Belize and Italy, according to data in the Climate Risk Index (CRI) for 2025 report released by European think-tank Germanwatch last month.

Pakistan’s ranking was mainly due to the unprecedented floods in 2022, primarily caused by record-breaking monsoon rainfall, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), and other factors.

Addressing a ceremony in Islamabad marking the first ‘World Day of Glaciers’, the finance minister said: “This disturbed water cycle [due to rising global temperatures] in turn is already impacting crop yields, food production and the livelihood of millions.”

Speaking about the 2022 floods, he said, “In the flooding of 2022, GLOF events struck and from what I understand Pakistan has a little over 3,000 glacial lakes, 33 of which are highly volatile putting a little over seven million people in danger.”

He added that these statistics were large and alarming and therefore the work being done in terms of coming up with a Pakistan glacial protection and resiliency framework was a very timely action.

“While financing is critical, the real challenge for us is capacity building,” the finance minister observed.

He said that although Pakistan had received pledges of $10 billion after the 2022 floods, but only received one-third of that as “we could not come up with investable, bankable products and that is what we need to work on.”

The first ‘World Day of Glaciers’ is being observed today and will set a platform dialogue and action regarding the state of the world’s glaciers and the impacts of the melting cryosphere on global water, food and energy security.

Observing the day in Pakistan, the government is launching the country’s first ‘Glacier Conservation Strategy’, reinforcing collective efforts to protect these vital ecosystems.

Continuous glacier retreat also leads to extreme events and new and evolving disaster risks for downstream populations and vulnerable transport and energy infrastructure such as glacier lake outburst floods, landslides or enhanced erosion and sediment.

Glaciers are crucial for regulating the global climate and providing freshwater, essential for billions of people. However, due to climate change, driven mainly by human activities since the 1800s, these vital resources are rapidly melting.

The United Nations has designated 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation to highlight the importance of glaciers and ensure that those relying on them, and those affected by cryospheric processes, receive the necessary hydrological, meteorological, and climate services.

These efforts underscore the critical role mountain regions play as a key source of global freshwater and ecosystem services.

DAWN NEWS

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Heavy rain, strong winds, and hailstorms struck Islamabad and surrounding areas on Wednesday, breaking a spell of hot and dry weather in the federal capital

The sudden downpour and powerful gusts brought a noticeable drop in temperature, offering temporary relief from the heat. However, the severe hailstorm caused damage to vehicles, shattering the glass windows of several cars.

Weather officials had earlier forecast partly cloudy skies with thunderstorms and possible hail for Wednesday evening.

Maximum temperatures during the day reached between 34°C and 36°C with humidity at 64%.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) predicts that hot and dry weather will return to the region by Thursday, with similar conditions expected on Friday.

Meanwhile, parts of the country’s upper and central regions also experienced isolated showers and gusty winds as a westerly weather system passed through.

Source: Dawn News

 

[BouncerGuy]

Freak hailstorm upends life in country’s north

A freak hail and thunderstorm swept across parts of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the federal capital on Wednesday and claimed several lives across both provinces, damaging public and private property as well as standing crops.

The rain also induced flash floods in KP, which also affected traffic, particularly on the main Peshawar-Torkham Road, where traffic remained suspended for up to five hours due to a swollen stream. In Islamabad, hailstones “as big as a golf balls” damaged vehicles and solar panels, while Tarnol remained the most-affected area, where strong winds uprooted trees and power pylons.

The storm followed several dry and hot days in the northern part of the country, as the region witnessed ‘vertical instability’ when hot air rising from the plains of Punjab came in contact with the cold winds coming from northern Iran, leading to a temperature contrast.

“Hailstones are formed due to this combination of varying temperatures, but extreme weather events are becoming more common, and the large size of hailstones was one of them,” said Dr Zaheer Babar, a spokesperson for the Met Office.

The ‘golf ball-sized’ hailstones damaged property across the capital, with multitudes of people sharing photos of broken car windscreens and windows. Homes and markets were seen littered with debris and hail, and even the roof of the Faisal Mosque sustained some damage.

One person died after a wall of a mosque collapsed in the Ratta Amral area of Rawalpindi, and two lives were lost in Gujar Khan after a wall collapsed onto a trolley passing through a street in Sohawa.

In Muzaffargarh, a shopkeeper was killed in a lightning strike in Pull Magsan.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an army man was killed after a lightning strike struck his bunker in Khyber’s Landi Kotal area. Local administration and Rescue 1122 said that sepoy Ilyas Khan, a resident of Bara, was killed on the spot after being hit by lightning. The downpour also caused flash floods, in which a car was swept away.

Besides the suspension of traffic on the Peshawar-Torkham highway, the rainwater also entered the transit camp established for Afghan nationals near the Hamza Baba mausoleum, which affected the registration process of the families being deported.

In Charsadda district, heavy rain coupled with hailstorms damaged standing crops of wheat and tobacco, vegetables, fruit orchards, and uprooted trees and electricity poles. The downpour and gusts in Tangi, Shomali Hashtnagar, and other areas also played havoc.

Crops and vegetables were also damaged in Bajaur tribal district due to heavy rain coupled with strong winds.

Residents told Dawn that the storm started at about 3pm and was witnessed in most parts of the district. But, they mentioned that Khar, War Mamund, Lowi Mamund, Nawagai and Salarzai tehsil were among the areas most affected by the hail.

Four people were slightly injured when a vehicle plunged into a deep ditch after it veered off the road due to rainfall. The incident happened near the Jar bridge in Bajaur.

In Mardan, rain and thunderstorms uprooted trees near Sharmakhano Bridge on the Mardan-Malakand road, which severely affected the traffic flow, lasting more than several hours.

Wheat crops in several parts of the district were also damaged due to the strong winds. The farmers feared that the damage due to rain and hail was going to affect the yield of wheat crops.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has said that it was fully prepared to deal with the flood situation in Khyber districts and other areas of the province. The PDMA has also sought a report about the damages caused by the heavy rains and floods from the district administration of Khyber.

“We have been monitoring the situation and were in contact with the respective district administration,” said PDMA Director General PDMA Asfandyar Khattak, said a statement. All necessary steps have been taken to pay compensation and redress the losses caused by the recent floods, he said.

DAWN NEWS

 

[BouncerGuy]

NDMA urges citizens to remain cautious amidst countrywide heatwave

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued an advisory, which urged urged the public to stay informed about weather updates before travelling amidst a countrywide heatwave from April 22-27.

Climate change is a pressing reality for Pakistan, directly impacting millions of lives. Heatwaves, intensified by climate change, are becoming more frequent, prolonged and severe, disproportionately affecting communities with limited resources to adapt.

According to the advisory, “The weather is likely to remain dry and hot in most parts of the country.”

In Sindh and Balochistan, the weather will remain dry with temperatures expected to be above normal during the week, the advisory read.

It further said: “The weather was likely to remain hot in most areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir,” adding that rain was expected in various areas of Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and a few districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The advisory noted that “partly cloudy weather with a chance of rain was expected in Abbottabad, Chitral, Dir, Haripur, Kohat, Kohistan, Mohmand, Nowshera, Peshawar, Swat and Waziristan”.

The NDMA said it was continuing to monitor the situation through the National Emergencies Operation Centre (NEOC).

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had predicted a heatwave earlier this month with higher than normal temperatures from April 14 to 18.

Pakistan was ranked as the most vulnerable country to climate change in 2022, followed by Belize and Italy, according to data in the Climate Risk Index (CRI) for 2025 report released by European think-tank Germanwatch last month.

DAWN NEWS