Understanding Pakistan’s risks to climate change

29 October 2022
Over 40% of Pakistan’s labour force is associated with the agriculture sector and is highly vulnerable to climate change. [GIZ Pakistan]
Over 40% of Pakistan’s labour force is associated with the agriculture sector and is highly vulnerable to climate change. [GIZ Pakistan]

Pakistan is one of the countries most affected by climate change and its impacts are clearly visible and noticeable. Likelihood of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, heat waves, water shortage etc., is increasing. To react sustainably to these increasing climate risks, Pakistan needs reliable information and data. However, the information available on the short to medium term impacts of these risks is limited.

The project ‘Strengthening Climate Adaptation and Resilience in Pakistan (SAR)’, through the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research (PIK) Germany, supported the Federal Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives (MOPDSI) to develop an updated Climate Risk Profile (CRP) for Pakistan. The CRP will provide research-based data for informed national and sub-national adaptation planning and implementation. It will also serve as a basis for further in-depth climate risk studies to guide the local planning and development at the sectoral and cross-sectoral levels. The CRP provides an overview of future projected climate parameters and related impacts on different sectors in Pakistan until 2080. It complements the climate risk country profile developed by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (2021) by taking a stronger geospatial approach. It also provides a comprehensive analysis of climatic changes and associated impacts in five key sectors. These sectors include (i) agriculture; (ii) water; (iii) infrastructure; (iv) ecosystems and (v) health. The CRP will produce high-resolution geospatial maps of climate risk assessment in these key areas and will help to identify the hotspot areas in terms of their vulnerability to climate change.

“Sub-national actors, especially in KP, lack the capacity to assess climate change risks and their potential implications for the different sectors. We need support in terms of having real time impact assessments which are reflected in the sub-national climate risk profile”. – Mr. Afsar Khan, Deputy Director, Climate Change Cell, Environmental Protection Agency, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The MOPDSI will launch the CRP report in October 2022 in collaboration with the relevant government departments from the provinces of Punjab and KP.

Link to further materials

Contact person

Dr. Muhammad Abid — Senior Advisor

Strengthening Climate Adaptation and Resilience in Pakistan

Key buzzwords

Climate Change, Climate risks, adaptation, mitigation