Climate change: Pakistan paying price for greed of rich countries

Islamabad : Pakistan is paying the price for the greed of the rich countries as it contributes less than 1% of greenhouse global emissions but is among the top 10 countries ‘severely’ affected by climate change.

Claudia Webbe, member of Parliament for Leicester East, has also informed the international community that Pakistan has 7,253 glaciers the most outside of the arctic polar region and rising global temperatures linked to climate change are causing them to rapidly melt, creating thousands of glacial lakes.

That vulnerability has been on display for months, with record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in the country's northern mountains triggering floods that have killed at least 1,191 people including 399 children.

The findings of the latest report by the climate change ministry showed that ice is now being lost from Himalayan glaciers at a rate that is at least ten times higher than the average rate over past centuries.

There is another way melting ice can cause extreme floods: In the mountains of Pakistan, water from glaciers forms high-elevation lakes, which are often dammed by glacial ice. When there is too much runoff, those lakes quickly expand and the ice dams can break, producing what is called a glacial lake outburst. Pakistan has repeatedly called on the rich nations to fulfil a pledge they made more than a decade ago to provide lower-income nations with 100 billion dollar a year to adapt to climate change.