PAKISTAN ALERT ON CLIMATE CHANGE

1: What is climate change?

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may
be natural, but since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change,
primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels (like coal, oil and gas), which produces heat-trapping
gases.

What are the 5 reasons for climate change?

2: Causes of Climate Change
 Generating power. Generating electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels causes a large
chunk of global emissions. ...
 Manufacturing goods. ...
 Cutting down forests. ...
 Using transportation. ...
 Producing food. ...
 Powering buildings. ...
 Consuming too much.

3: Pakistan Urgently Needs Significant Investments in Climate Resilience to Secure its

Economy and Reduce Poverty

ISLAMABAD, November 10, 2022—This year’s heatwave and devastating floods are a
reminder that climate change-induced disasters can significantly set back Pakistan’s development
ambitions and its ability to reduce poverty. These disasters have caused more than 1,700 deaths
and displaced more than 8 million people. The damage to infrastructure, assets, crops, and
livestock has also been massive, with more than $30 billion in damages and economic losses.
The World Bank Group’s Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) for Pakistan
released today concludes that the country needs fundamental shifts in its development path and
policies, requiring substantial investments in people-centric climate adaptation and resilience,
that will require international support.

“The recent flooding and humanitarian crisis provide a wake-up call for urgent action to prevent
further devastation to the people of Pakistan and its economy due to climate change,” said Martin
Raiser, World Bank Vice President for South Asia. “Accelerated climate actions can protect the
economy from shocks and secure more sustainable and inclusive growth in Pakistan.”

The CCDR notes that the combined risks of extreme climate-related events, environmental
degradation, and air pollution are projected to reduce Pakistan’s GDP by at least 18 to 20% by
2050. This will stall progress on economic development and poverty reduction.

“If we want to tackle climate change, we need to prioritize investing in adaptation to help
prepare Pakistan for future climate-related calamities, which are growing in frequency and
intensity,” said Hela Cheikhrouhou, IFC Regional Vice President for Middle East, Central Asia,
Türkiye, Afghanistan and Pakistan. “With the right policy frameworks, Pakistan has the

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opportunity to attract private investment to build its resilience, particularly in sectors such as
water management, agriculture, urban infrastructure, municipal services, and housing.”

To improve adaptation to climate change and avoid high costs, the report recommends five
priority transitions:

1. Transforming the Agri-Food System: Productivity in the agri-food system – the largest
employer, particularly for poor and vulnerable households – has been plummeting due to
the degradation of land, overuse of chemical inputs and water, and lack of research. And
yields are projected to drop another 50% by 2050. To bolster rural incomes and
strengthen food and water security, Pakistan needs to repurpose environmentally
damaging subsidies, promote climate-smart and regenerative agriculture and livestock
systems, and prioritize ecosystem restoration.
2. Building Resilient and Livable Cities: Pakistan’s population living in urban areas, already
highly exposed to pollution and climate change, will increase from 37% in 2020 to 60%
in 2050. To ensure cities become more liveable, urgent reforms are needed for more
integrated land use planning and increased investments in municipal services and in
energy efficiency and clean transportation. To this end, strong municipal governments,
and the expansion of city finances via property taxation are critical.
3. Accelerating a Just Transition to Sustainable Energy and Low-carbon Transport: The
energy sector is a critical enabler of economic development and poverty reduction.
However, it is a huge drain on public finances and foreign exchange reserves and a major
contributor to GHG emissions. Pakistan must prioritize reducing the cost of generation
including through energy efficiency, ensuring cost-reflective tariffs and improved
targeting of subsidies, while addressing technical and collection losses in transmission
and distribution. Scaled-up investment in mass transit can avoid locking in highly
polluting modes of transport.
4. Strengthening Human Capital to Achieve Sustained and Equitable Development and
Climate Resilience: To address its human capital crisis, Pakistan needs to improve the
management of water, sanitation, and hygiene, which is the main driver of child stunting,
and reduce high fertility rates. Pakistan should also ensure universal access to quality
education and expand its social-protection system by improving benefits, particularly for
those at the highest risk.
5. Aligning Financing Policies, Incentives, and Institutions to Support Scale-up of Climate
Actions: Implementing these policies and executing a climate-resilient and low-carbon
development agenda will require total investment needs that amount to around 10% of
the cumulative GDP up to 2030. Accelerating the ongoing reforms to expand domestic
revenue mobilization, including raising new municipal and property taxes, as well as
improving efficiency and targeting of subsidies for agriculture and energy while
protecting the most vulnerable will help to finance a large part of the needed investments.
Yet, this will not be enough. A comprehensive financing strategy, involving greater
private sector involvement and significant international support will be essential to
complement Pakistan’s own commitment towards resilient and inclusive development.

“Foreign private capital can play an important role in addressing the climate change challenges
in Pakistan,” said Ethiopis Tafara, MIGA Vice President and Chief Risk, Legal and
Administrative Officer. “Sustaining flows of foreign direct investment that support climate
mitigation and adaptation will contribute toward financing Pakistan’s low-carbon transition.”

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Pakistan is not a significant contributor to global warming, but it is on a high-growth trajectory
of carbon emissions linked to fossil fuel use. This is also a source of the country’s chronic fiscal
stress and worsening air pollution. Therefore, climate actions that bring co-benefits to both
adaptation and mitigation and contribute to improving development outcomes should have the
highest priority.

4) World Bank Group Country Climate and Development Reports

The World Bank Group’s Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs) are new core
diagnostic reports that integrate climate change and development considerations. They will help
countries prioritize the most impactful actions that can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
and boost adaptation, while delivering on broader development goals. CCDRs build on data and
rigorous research and identify main pathways to reduce GHG emissions and climate
vulnerabilities, including the costs and challenges as well as benefits and opportunities from
doing so. The reports suggest concrete, priority actions to support a low-carbon, resilient
transition. As public documents, CCDRs aim to inform governments, citizens, the private sector,
and development partners, and enable engagement with the development and climate agenda.
CCDRs will feed into other core Bank Group diagnostics, country engagements and operations,
and help attract funding and direct financing for high-impact climate action.

5) The main ways to stop climate change are to pressure government and business to:
 Keep fossil fuels in the ground. Fossil fuels include coal, oil and gas – and the more that
are extracted and burned, the worse climate change will get. All countries need to move
their economies away from fossil fuels as soon as possible.
 Invest in renewable energy. Changing our main energy sources to clean and renewable
energy is the best way to stop using fossil fuels. These include technologies like solar,
wind, wave, tidal and geothermal power.
 Switch to sustainable transport. Petrol and diesel vehicles, planes and ships use fossil
fuels. Reducing car use, switching to electric vehicles and minimising plane travel will
not only help stop climate change, it will reduce air pollution too.
 Help us keep our homes cosy. Homes shouldn’t be draughty and cold – it’s a waste of
money, and miserable in the winter. The government can help households heat our homes
in a green way – such as by insulating walls and roofs and switching away from oil or gas
boilers to heat pumps.
 Improve farming and encourage vegan diets. One of the best ways for individuals to
help stop climate change is by reducing their meat and dairy consumption, or by going
fully vegan. Businesses and food retailers can improve farming practices and provide
more plant-based products to help people make the shift.
 Restore nature to absorb more carbon. The natural world is very good at cleaning up
our emissions, but we need to look after it. Planting trees in the right places or giving
land back to nature through ‘rewilding’ schemes is a good place to start. This is because
photosynthesising plants draw down carbon dioxide as they grow, locking it away in
soils.
 Protect forests like the Amazon. Forests are crucial in the fight against climate change,
and protecting them is an important climate solution. Cutting down forests on an
industrial scale destroys giant trees which could be sucking up huge amounts of carbon.
Yet companies destroy forests to make way for animal farming, soya or palm oil
plantations. Governments can stop them by making better laws.

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  Protect the oceans. Oceans also absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere, which helps to keep our climate stable. But many are overfished, used for oil
and gas drilling or threatened by deep sea mining. Protecting oceans and the life in them
is ultimately a way to protect ourselves from climate change.
 Reduce how much people consume. Our transport, fashion, food and other lifestyle
choices all have different impacts on the climate. This is often by design – fashion and
technology companies, for example, will release far more products than are realistically
needed. But while reducing consumption of these products might be hard, it’s most
certainly worth it. Reducing overall consumption in more wealthy countries can help put
less strain on the planet.
 Reduce plastic. Plastic is made from oil, and the process of extracting, refining and
turning oil into plastic (or even polyester, for clothing) is surprisingly carbon-intense. It
doesn’t break down quickly in nature so a lot of plastic is burned, which contributes to
emissions. Demand for plastic is rising so quickly that creating and disposing of plastics
will account for 17% of the global carbon budget by 2050 (this is the emissions count we
need to stay within according to the Paris agreement).
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, and to feel that climate change is too big to solve. But we already
have the answers, now it’s a question of making them happen. To work, all of these solutions
need strong international cooperation between governments and businesses, including the most
polluting sectors. 
Individuals can also play a part by making better choices about where they get their energy, how
they travel, and what food they eat. But the best way for anyone to help stop climate change is to
take collective action. This means pressuring governments and corporations to change their
policies and business practices.
Governments want to be re-elected. And businesses can’t survive without customers. Demanding
action from them is a powerful way to make change happen.

The fossil fuel industry is blocking climate change action

Major oil and gas companies including BP, Exxon and Shell have spent hundreds of millions of
pounds trying to delay or stop government policies that would have helped tackle the climate
crisis. 
Despite the effects of climate change becoming more and more obvious, big polluting
corporations – the ones responsible for the majority of carbon emissions – continue to carry on
drilling for and burning fossil fuels.
Industries including banks, car and energy companies also make profits from fossil fuels. These
industries are knowingly putting money over the future of our planet and the safety of its people.