50 pc of heavy rains in Sindh, Balochistan a by-product of climate change.

LAHORE -- During the European SumAmer 2022 heatwave which brought with itself unAbearable temperatures and wildAfires, this writer found herself in London amidst a declaration of national emergency after an issuAance of a red weather warning.

As the British rail system paralyzed amidst soaring temAperatures, there were talks about it being part of a larger Europe-wide pattern, a conseAquence of climate change, with several climate activists advoAcating for more responsibility and tangible efforts on part of the developed world.

However, around the same time, in the wake of a heavier-than-normal monsoon season, Pakistan, the land of the Indus, found one third of its vast swathes of landmass submerged in water.

A study by World Weather AtAtribution group reported that up to 50 per cent of the heavy rains in August, in Sindh and Baluchistan, were a by-product of climate change.

According to official estiAmates, the floods affected nearly 33mn Pakistani people, particuAlarly in the low-lying, arid,food-insecure Southern provinces.

Talking about the extreme impact of the floods, PakiAstan's Climate Change Minister, Sherry Rahman, termed it as the'climate event of the century.'

She is right. What the garganAtuan mind-numbing numbers do not show, however, is the plight of the cotton and wheat farmers who saw their farmlands and with it their livelihoods washed away, or the thousands who were suddenly in desperate need of dry land to bury their loved ones-once living people, now, victims of malaria, dengue, and other water-borne diseases.

As per September estimates, 1,500 people lost their lives, with approximately 50 per cent of them little children.

Many survivors now find themselves displaced, surviving off aid from civil society, governAment, and philanthropic orgaAnizations, and living in tents in the cold, desperately clinging on to what remains of loved-ones, livestock, and belongings.

The scale of the impact is anAgering for many. Pakistan conAtributes less than 1 per cent to global emissions, yet it is amongst the top 10 countries affected by climate change. It has received increased internaAtional attention in the wake of the floods, with the UN SecreAtary General,Antonio Guterres, telling the General Assembly that Pakistan's 'climate carnage was beyond imagination', pledgAing to support the Government of Pakistan in its rehabilitation and reconstruction response and calling for 816 million USD to be given to Pakistan.

Prime Minister...