Pakistan contributes little to global carbon emissions, yet suffers the most from climate disasters: Umar Rehman Malik
Abdullah Jan
Islamabad: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Umar Rehman Malik said this week that Pakistan contributed the least to global carbon emissions, yet suffers among the most from climate disasters.
In a statement, he said the recent floods have swept away entire communities, leaving behind destruction and despair. Melting glaciers, cloudbursts, and flash floods “threaten not just our lands but our survival.”
The PPP leader added: “We can not undo the crisis, but we can confront it: halt deforestation, restore ecosystems, regulate reckless urbanization, build climate resilient infrastructure, and invest in science driven early warning systems. For Pakistan, adaptation is no longer a policy choice, it is an existential necessity.”
Reports said Pakistan’s healthcare and disaster response systems are failing to meet the needs of children and older people who are most at risk of death and disease amid extreme weather events related to climate change.
Amnesty International said in a new report said invisible deaths of older people and children during climate disasters in Pakistan documents how increasingly frequent floods and heatwaves are overwhelming Pakistan’s underfunded healthcare system, leading to preventable deaths among young children and older adults in particular.
Pakistan, which contributes about 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually, is the world’s fifth-most vulnerable country to climate disasters. In collaboration with Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHHN), a charity hospital that provides free healthcare in Pakistan, Amnesty International investigated how spikes in deaths often followed extreme weather events.
Children and older people in Pakistan are suffering on the front line of the climate crisis.
Laura Mills, researcher with Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Programme said: “Rising temperatures drive ever more intense and unpredictable weather. Children and older people in Pakistan are suffering on the front line of the climate crisis, exposed to extreme heat or floods that lead to disproportionate levels of death and disease.”
She added: “Pakistan’s healthcare system is woefully underfunded and overstretched, even in non-emergency times. The climate emergency creates an extra strain that is unbearable and the system is failing to deliver adequate care to those in need.”
Floods often foster the spread of water- and mosquito-borne diseases and respiratory illnesses, which pose a major threat to older people and young children. Similarly, extreme heat is most dangerous for older adults, particularly those with preexisting health conditions, as well as infants. Pakistan collects virtually no mortality data on these impacts, limiting its ability to respond adequately and save lives.
To understand the impact of extreme weather patterns on health, IHHN conducted a quantitative study, analysing deaths across three of its facilities in 2022: Badin (in Sindh province, most affected by floods), and Muzaffargarh and Bhong (in Punjab province, most affected by heatwaves). IHHN compared the relationship between mortality rates and climate indicators, including precipitation and temperature.
To build on IHHN’s quantitative investigation, Amnesty International conducted qualitative interviews to further understand the situation. Amnesty International visited Sindh and Punjab provinces four times between April 2024 and January 2025, and conducted remote interviews in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. In total, the organization interviewed 210 people, including 90 relatives of people whose deaths could credibly be explained by heatwaves or flooding.
In 2022, Pakistan experienced record heatwaves, with temperatures reaching 50°C. This above-average temperature drove abnormally intense rains. The Indus River, which runs the length of the country, burst its banks and flooded a 75,000km2 area. At least 33 million people were affected, and an estimated eight million displaced.
In September, IHHN’s Badin hospital, in southern Sindh province at the mouth of the Indus, recorded deaths that were 71% higher than the monthly average for 2022. The main causes were related to maternal and neonatal health, and infectious diseases, with the greatest increases among children under five, particularly infants and neonates (babies under 28 days old), and adults over 50.
Amnesty International interviewed dozens of people affected by the 2022 floods, including those who had lost loved ones to mosquito or water-borne diseases. In many cases, they said the absence of timely evacuation measures and lack of adequate living conditions were the leading contributor to the illness of a child or older person.
