ISLAMABAD: The lives and livelihoods of Asian nations have become vulnerable to flooding due to the risk of climate change, said a senior Pakistani official on Monday who is representing his country at the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
World leaders have gathered in Scotland’s port city to attend the COP26 climate summit amid increasing skepticism regarding their ability to take measures required to address the dangers of global warming.
The conference will continue until November 12, 2021, under the presidency of the United Kingdom.
While addressing a session, Accelerating Adaptation in Asia through large-scale Nature-based Solutions, Malik Amin Aslam, adviser to Pakistan's prime minister on climate change, said the Asian Development Bank in its latest studies had ranked his country among the most vulnerable places in Asia.
“There’s a consistency in the global climate models, showing that the climate breakdown is all set to translate into more floods because of more intense rainy seasons in Asia in the coming years,” he said. “As a result, millions are most likely to see their homes, all their belongings and livelihoods destroyed when floods sweep, chiefly during summer wet seasons.”
The prime minister’s adviser expressed his concern over “inadequate allocations” of mere 25 percent of the total global climate finance for adaptation needs of the climate-vulnerable developing countries, including Pakistan.
He urged rich countries, widely blamed for the global climate crisis, to increase climate finances up to 60 percent for adaptation needs of the poor countries, saying it was critical for them to be able to adjust to the fallouts of the global climate crisis.
“More visibly, now nature is brutally revenging upon the lives and livelihoods of us all through unstoppable colossal floods, suffocating heat waves, surging wildfires, devouring sea intrusions and vanishing groundwater,” he continued.
A German think tank, Germanwatch, in January this year described Pakistan as the eighth most vulnerable country to climate change, having witnessed 173 extreme weather events and suffered an estimated loss of $3.8 billion between 2000 and 2019.
