ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said Pakistan was the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, as he launched the spring tree plantation campaign and urged the nation to actively participate in the initiative to mitigate environmental threats.

Pakistan periodically launches such campaigns to combat deforestation and preserve biodiversity, involving government agencies, private organizations and local communities.

Initiating the drive by planting a tree, the prime minister emphasized his administration’s goal to double this year’s tree plantation numbers compared to the targets set by the previous government.

“Forests constitute only five percent of the country’s total area,” his office quoted him in a statement. “According to the Global Climate Risk Index Report, Pakistan is the fifth most affected country by climate threats.”

The PM Office provided statistics indicating that between 1999 and 2018, Pakistan lost 10,000 lives to climate change impacts like droughts, heatwaves, torrential rains and flash floods.

These erratic weather patterns also inflicted billions of dollars in losses on the economy during the same period, exacerbating Pakistan’s already distressed economic conditions.

The prime minister advocated for nationwide participation in the tree plantation campaign to safeguard against climate threats and promote a healthy environment, thereby protecting Pakistan from all forms of environmental pollution and threats.

The government aims to plant a total of 543.8 million trees during the current campaign, an increase from the 490 million trees planted in the 2023 monsoon season.

The campaign’s targets are 141 million trees in Punjab, 117.2 million in Sindh, 57.1 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 30 million in Balochistan, 118.5 million in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 8 million trees in Gilgit Baltistan.