https://arab.news/bmryk
The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) hosted by the UAE brought the world together last week to shape the global collective commitment to climate action and to meet the globally agreed warming limit of 1.5°C.
Pakistan, as one of the worst victims of global warming, attended this event in hopes that pledges announced by global leaders after the July-August 2022 floods (which cost the country tens of billions of dollars), would be met soon. Pakistan is eyeing the ‘loss and damage’ fund that was agreed to during an early November meeting, as a key measure to supply funds to the world’s most vulnerable people and to repair the damage from climate breakdowns.
Pakistan has repeatedly said it produces less than one percent of greenhouse gases but has been facing urban and rural flooding due to climate change largely caused by other countries. However, this narrative conveniently ignores some critical facts. For one, Pakistan has only 2.2 percent forest cover on the entirely of its land, according to the UN.
There is no doubt Pakistan needs financial support to mitigate climate change impacts but at the same time, it should review hard truths like its meagre forest cover, re-moulding and encroachments over watercourses, horizontal civic growth, and an annual population growth rate of 2.55 percent. All these factors weaken Pakistan’s case for demanding global help compared to other regional countries who face similar climate changes but have better indicators.
As of 2021, the total forest cover in India was 80.9 million hectares, which is 24.62 percent of the total geographical area while Nepal has 41.59 percent forest cover, Bangladesh has around 17.4 percent forest cover and Sri Lanka has 29.9 percent of its land covered with forest.
Meanwhile, the horizontal civic growth is eating agricultural lands and forest cover in Pakistan and the real estate industry is allegedly shaving away jungles and fruit gardens.
This narrative conveniently ignores some critical facts. For one, Pakistan has only 2.2 percent forest cover on the entirely of its land.
Shazia Anwer Cheema
According to a report of the Kisan Board of Pakistan, around 20-30 percent of fertile land in Punjab province, which produces 65 percent of the country’s total food needs, has been converted into industrial units and housing schemes.
Global Forest Watch which works to protect forests has said in a report that Pakistan has lost 1 percent of its tree cover since 2000, and that northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the erstwhile tribal regions were responsible for 90% of all tree cover loss between 2001 and 2022.
Losing forest cover and agricultural lands while having an annual growth rate of 2.55 percent, has caused unprecedented floods in the last decade in Pakistan. The 2010 flood disaster was massive, affecting over 20 percent of the land area, affecting 20 million people, and causing losses of billions of dollars through damages to infrastructure, housing, agriculture and livestock. According to a United Nations Survey, more than 1.1 million houses were fully destroyed or made unliveable, and more than two million hectares of standing crops were damaged or lost.
However, horizontal civic growth, encroachments in and around watercourses, and deforestation continue without any workable action from the state, and Pakistan faced a similar disastrous situation in the 2022 floods. According to the World Food Program report, 33 million people were affected by floods in 94 districts, and the UN Appeal Centre estimated that 20.6 million people required humanitarian assistance after the 2022 floods.
Under these circumstances, Pakistan is blaming industrialized countries for the adverse impact of climate change while keeping quiet over the heavy and illegal construction on its own river banks and unnatural re-moulding of natural watercourses like mountain nullahs and ravines. These are factors that directly cause urban flooding.
The unchecked illegal construction of hotels, resorts, and restaurants on river beds in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for example, fatally intensified the flash floods that hit most parts of the province during the 2010 and 2022 floods. Even after the fact, nothing has been done to control the illegal re-moulding of rivers, nullahs and other watercourses around the country. As such, flood catastrophe remains a ticking time bomb, while Pakistan shirks responsibility.
— The writer is an author, columnist, and foreign affairs expert who writes for national and international media. She can be reached at @ShaziaAnwerCh Email: [email protected]
COP28, climate breakdown and Pakistan
89
1
12.12.2023
https://arab.news/bmryk
The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) hosted by the UAE brought the world together last week to shape the global collective commitment to climate action and to meet the globally agreed warming limit of 1.5°C.
Pakistan, as one of the worst victims of global warming, attended this event in hopes that pledges announced by global leaders after the July-August 2022 floods (which cost the country tens of billions of dollars), would be met soon. Pakistan is eyeing the ‘loss and damage’ fund that was agreed to during an early November meeting, as a key measure to supply funds to the world’s most vulnerable people and to repair the damage from climate breakdowns.
Pakistan has repeatedly said it produces less than one percent of greenhouse gases but has been facing urban and rural flooding due to climate change largely caused by other countries. However, this narrative conveniently ignores some critical facts. For one, Pakistan has only 2.2 percent forest cover on the entirely of its land, according to the UN.
There is no doubt Pakistan needs financial support to mitigate climate change impacts but at the same time, it........
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