[ad_1]
ISLAMABAD: Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Climate Change, called for seriousness in dealing with the climate crisis. She said that Pakistan is currently facing a heat wave and unprecedented high temperatures that will create climate emergencies from the north to the south.
“Because of our northern mountain ranges and glaciers, we anticipate Global Lake Outburst Floods, where glacial lakes first form due to snow melt on the glaciers,” she said while calling to take the climate change seriously.
Sherry Rhman explained that the melting snow releases these lakes in a race flood that rips apart everything. “These pose serious risks and vulnerability for the local and downstream population as Pakistan right now has over 3044 such lakes identified in the mountains,” she said.
She also said that the mountains are vulnerable to forest fires and sudden bush burning events, which is something we struggle with. “So far, our response teams are vigilant, but of course one cannot predict what will happen with a higher scale of sudden and extreme weather events,” she said.
For the south, she stated that the combination of reduced rainfall and hot temperatures will result in people working in the fields or at urban sites in the open sunlight to severe dehydration. Crops will also be affected by the drying up of water reservoirs. “Our big dams are at dead level right now, and sources of water are scarce as well as contested between riparians among the Indus and its canals,” she said.
She stated that this is an all-encompassing existential crises and must be treated seriously. She stated that Pakistan, while trying to reduce its Green House Gas emissions (GHG), is actually the victim of other large polluters.
She said it is in fact a contributor of only 0.81 % of GHG emissions globally and our number is 132nd in the list out of 190 countries while Pakistan’s per capita GHG emissions are less than 1%.
She stated that there is clearly a need for better communication between the NDMA, provincial governments, and public services and emergency preparedness. “Learning from our past experiences we must remember that the heat wave in 2015 took more than a thousand lives in Karachi, and in 2015 it happened during Ramazan when people couldn’t keep themselves sufficiently hydrated,” he said.
She said the climate and weather events are here to stay and will in fact only accelerate in their scale and intensity of global leaders don’t act now.”
