Climate Change:

Introduction:
Recently human has been able to identify that his actions have devastating effects on the
environment. Carbon emission and over usage of resources that eco-system offers to human are
shaping the climate change. Global warming, more severe droughts change in rainfall patterns,
strong winds, tsunamis and earth quacks all are the effects of inefficient use of resources. Global
warming is a phenomenon of climate change characterized by a general increase in average
temperatures of the Earth. The reason for this is the increase in human-caused greenhouse gases
in our atmosphere, which has led to health, ecological and humanitarian crises. The green house
effect is a natural process in which the earth retains some of the energy of the sunrays, and
utilizes it to warm it to sustain life on it. This basically a gases layer surrounds the earth that is
called greenhouse effect. The human activities like burning of fossil fuels, excessive smoke
discharges from factories, the depletion of forests, intensive farming, Waste disposal, mining and
the overconsumption are the major reason of the global warming because these process reduced
the carbon dioxide, Methane and Nitrous oxide in the atmosphere which form the layer around
the earth and increase the temperature of the earth. In fact, now earth temperature increases 0.8
Celsius by the previous temperature. Global warming have the most dangerous impact on the
earth because its effected on the weather, human, biodiversity and oceans by changing the
climate, increase temperature, natural disasters and less agricultural yield.

Globally impact:
World meteorological organization formed a panel which known as the intergovernmental panel
on climate change (IPCC).in 2013 IPCC released its fifth assessment report which clearly
explain the role of human activities in climate change. According to this report human activities
are the main source of climate change. This report completely explains reason of causes over the
past few decades. CO2 emission since pre industrial times and provides a Co2 budget for future
emissions to limit warming to less than 2°C. From 1880 to 2012, the average global temperature
increased by 0.85 °C. Oceans have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished and
the sea level has risen. From 1901 to 2010, the global average sea level rose by 19 cm as oceans
expanded due to warming and ice melted. The sea ice extent in the Arctic has shrunk in every
successive decade since 1979, with 1.07 × 106 km² of ice loss per decade. The world’s oceans
will warm and ice melt will continue. Average sea level rise is predicted to be 24–30 cm by 2065
and 40–63 cm by 2100 relative to the reference period of 1986–2005. Most aspects of climate
change will persist for many centuries, even if emissions are stopped. At the pace of current CO2
emissions, scientists expect an increase of between 1.5° and 5.3°C (34.7° to 41.5°F) in average
temperature by 2100.
According to index report by Berlin-based environmental organization, more than 526,000
people died worldwide and there were losses of USD 3.47 trillion as a result of more than 11,500
extreme weather events in Between 1998 and 2017. Globally, 11,500 people died because of
extreme weather events and economic damages totaled some USD 375 billion.

South Asia:
South Asia mostly focused on interstate rivalry, border demarcation; nuclear threats or terrorism
but now environment challenge such as climate change, water scarcity and energy security has
received attention. The recent floods in Bombay, Dhaka and Colombo are the example of that
changing. These increasingly frequent climate change-induced natural disasters give significant
weight to the idea that policymakers in South Asia must begin to conceptualize climate change
as a pressing security issue.

As the dependency of South Asia‘s rural poor of south Asia on agriculture as a source of
livelihood, the region’s population is particularly vulnerable to climate change induced disasters
such as flooding and intense heat waves. In the summer of 2015 alone, heat waves killed 3500
people across south Asia. Such events are likely to become more and more frequent as a global
temperatures rise, with experts portrays that the massive amount of heat will decrease quantity of
crops obviously 15-20 percent by the mid twenty first century.

Rising of sea temperature as an indicator of climate change mage last year’s monsoon season
more intense by increasing the moisture in the atmosphere. These rains were dramatic and
costing more than 1200 people and affecting a total of 40 million people across India, Nepal, and
Bangladesh. In 2017, there were 272 deaths in India that was directly related to extreme weather
related events heat waves, storms, floods and droughts. India suffered an economic loss of about
USD 13.8 billion, in the year, according to the global climate risk 2019. If global temperatures
rise as predicted between 2 degrees to 4.9 degrees by the end of this century as a result of climate
change, the burden placed on south Asia’s strained food and water resources will only intensify
as disasters such as these become increasingly common.

Climate change danger to south Asia’s economy because climate change impacts stands to slash
up to 9 percent off the south Asian economy every year by the end of this century. According to
the report of Asian development bank known as ADB entitled ‘assessing the cost of climate
change and adaption in south Asia’s showed that by 2050, the collective economy of six
countries Bangladesh, Bhutan , India , the Maldives Nepal and Srilanka will lose an average
1.8% of its annual gross domestic product, rising to 8.8% by 2100. According to the report, if
countries around the world act together o keep he rise in the global temperatures below an
average 2 degree C. then south Asia’s economy would only be reduced by 1.3% annually by
2050 and 2.5% by 2100. South Asia is among the most vulnerable globally to the impacts of
climate change. India has been ranked the 14th; srilanka was in second place. Nepal was ranked
worlds 4th most vulnerable country in the latest edition of the index, while Bangladesh was
ranked 9th.

Impact on Pakistan:

Social, environmental and economic impacts caused by climate change are of great concern in
developing countries like Pakistan. Pakistan is frequently facing natural hazards like floods,
droughts, and cyclones. Pakistan’s greenhouse gases emissions have doubled in last 2 decades.
Pakistan ranks 135th in per capita GHG emissions in the world. The agriculture sector is the
victim of abrupt climate change in a country. 65-70% of country’s population is directly or
indirectly related to agriculture. According to the recent studies that Pakistan’s 22.8% land and
49.6% population is at risk due to impacts of climate change. Many diseases like example
malaria, dengue cholera etc due to climate sensitive. Climate change scenarios have resulted in
an increase in the epidemic potential for 12-27 percent for malaria and 31-47 percent of dengue.
Pakistan has the rank 16 on the Climate Change Vulnerability Index which is jumped from the
13 position in one year because Pakistan is the most affected country by the climate change.
Pakistan is ranked on 7th position, with a death toll of 523.1 lives per year i.e. 10,462 lives lost
in 20 years and economic losses worth US $ 3.8 billion. Large resource of water in Pakistan is
melting snow from the Himalayan glaciers, as well the heavy monsoon rainfalls but due to the
global warming monsoon rainfall decrease and glaciers are melt and that result flood are come in
Pakistan. According to the report of the Asian Development bank almost 10 million people are
displaced due to the climate change in last two year. Climate changes are costing the economy
$14 billion every year, which is nearly 5% of the GDP. Over a 20 million people were affected
by the flood of 2010 and approximately 1781 deaths and 2988 people injured in this flood. More
1.89 million homes were destroyed in 2010 flood. 5.3 million People and 1.2 million homes in
Sindh were affected by the 2011 flood. An area of Baluchistan and Sindh commonly faces the
Drought due the lack of rainfall. Temperature of Pakistan is increase by the pervious due to the
global warming so Sindh faced the temperature of 53.5 °C, the hottest temperature ever recorded
in Asia and the fourth highest temperature ever recorded in the world and Heat stroke also
affected 1360 people in Karachi. Pakistan is agro base country which economy depends upon the
agricultural and farming which is affected by the global warming.

Trees and plants are the great source of clean air and fresh water and animals maintain the eco-
system. Human from years are cutting trees to harvest wood and use it as an economic tool. But
the effects turn more devastating and disturbed the eco-system. Thick rain forests are
transformed into deserts and the fresh water is becoming scarcer. In the Thar Desert of Pakistan
alone, 828 children died because of droughts and lack of food and fresh water availability in only
3 years. Now different measures on national and international scale are taken but those are just
the starting. After the effects of environment degradation have been exposed, human is thinking
about the conservation mechanisms. Large organizations that are private or government are now
focusing on making new policies so that human interventions do not harm the balance of
ecology. In Islamabad, the administration has banned tree cutting and somewhat is succeeded in
achieving green environment. Margalla hills are called to be the national park of Pakistan to
conserve its faura and fauna. Environment being a key element of sustainable development is
directly linked with climate change.

Climate change greatly influences the lives of human and animals as well. The people and
animals have to adapt accordingly to the change in climate to survive. In developing countries,
the public is not aware about the practices that will be mitigating climate change. Education is a
powerful tool to guide them so that they can relate between climate change and sustainable
development. Public will be aware of their actions and pros and cons of their actions. Along time
ago, Karachi as a only port city of Pakistan had large mangrove forests. But due to rapid
urbanization and lack of awareness, public chopped down trees in such a huge quantity and hunt
fisheries unsustainably. Now only few of those mangrove forests have left and the ocean is
polluted because of excessive hunting of fisheries and city administration let the sewerage water
of the entire city without any treatment flow into the ocean. These activities of human destroyed
the ecology of Karachi and now those humans are facing droughts and heat stroke every year. In
the city of Karachi alone, hundreds of people died because of heat stroke. Public chopped the
trees but nor the public neither the government have planted trees. Every year in moon soon even
the main roads of the city are drowned into water and the authorities do not take any
precautionary measures before the arrival of monsoon each year. It is lack of awareness in
public. if public were aware of the climate change and its causes then they will definitely choose
some other authorities that are more responsible. In Islamabad, public as well as authorities of
the capital city every year plant many trees in monsoon and spring season and that is why
climate change do not much effect the citizens and animals of this city. The public is aware and
literate. Societal wellbeing, climate change and sustainable development all are linked with each
other.

Paris Agreement:
Adopted in 2015 at the end of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21), the
Paris Agreement is the first universal and legally binding agreement on climate change. The
Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016, after being ratified by 55 countries -
representing at least 55% of total greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement aims to keep
global warming below a 2°C increase by the end of the 21st century and pursue efforts to limit
the temperature rise to 1.5°C, according to the recommendations of the IPCC. As a result, 195
countries made bottom up commitments and will submit updated climate plans called Nationally
Determined Contributions (NDCs) every five years. NDCs are at the heart of the Paris
Agreement in order to achieve its long-term goals. This must lead to a greenhouse gas emissions
reduction of 70 to 80% by the second half of the century.
Pakistan’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs) submitted to the 2015 Paris Agreement,
aims to reduce up to 20 percent of its 2030 projected GHG emissions — using international
grants for adaptation and mitigation of approximately $40 billion. The Paris Agreement commits
countries to pledge not to just keep global warming “well below two degrees Celsius,” but also
to “pursue efforts” to limit warming to 1.5 degrees by 2018.

Several research studies, including one carried out by Daniel Mitchell and others at Oxford
University, state that while the difference between 1.5 degrees and 2 degrees will be marginal in
annual average temperature, it would have a significant impact on reducing the probability of
destructive weather events like floods, droughts, and heat waves. “It is very important for
temperatures to remain below 1.5 degrees because natural extreme weather events are going to
become the norm — especially in Pakistan and other mid-latitude countries,” says Sidra Adil, an
environmental engineer and GIS analyst.

Over the past 50 years, the annual mean temperature in Pakistan has already increased by
roughly 0.5 degrees. The government expects to get international grants worth between $7 and
$14 billion each year to be able to adapt to climate change, and the Senate passed a policy in
2017 that called upon the creation of Pakistan Climate Change Authority to manage said funds.

MDGs & SDGs:

The biggest international campaign to make each and every country sustainable was started as
Millennium Development Goals from the year 2000 to 2015 and Sustainable development goals
from the year 2015 to 2030. The second phase is more of the first and much in detailed. 189
countries were the part in setting those goals but only few have succeeded in achieving MDGs.
MDGs includes 8 goals and SDGs includes 17 goals that were much broader than MDGs.
Climate change mitigation is included in SDGs. Conventions like Paris agreement are making
countries more responsible towards achieving those goals. SDGs also includes other factors like
poverty, hunger, mortality rate, health issues, international partnerships and many other as well.
This tells how climate change is linked with each and every aspect of life. Poverty can cause
inefficiency; health issues can be because of climate change, ecological life can be disturbed
because of climate change as well. Many animals migrate in the season of droughts in Africa
towards river beds and many die because of lack of water and food every year. Climate change is
one of the biggest challenges today mankind is facing and that is only because of unhealthy
actions of mankind on this planet. Human did not taken care of the life support system of this
planet. NASA is searching new planet to live in but i do not think they will find ever and if they
find, there will be a big issue in the transportation of human from earth to the new planet. This is
the planet we are originated from and we will not be able to cope with the new environment and
adopt according to it. We just have to survive in this planet by protecting it.
Conclusion:
First way to prevent climate change move away from fossil fouls and used solar, wind
and geothermal energies. By promoting the public transportation, can definitely help
reduce CO2 emissions and thus fight global warming. Encouraging better use of natural
resources, stopping massive deforestation as well as making agriculture greener and more
efficient should also be a priority. Tree are grown because trees perform many climate
functions which are mentions trees are absorb carbon, which they pull from the atmosphere,
creating a cooling effect and their dark green leaves absorb light from the sun, heating Earth's
surface and they draw water from the soil, which evaporates into the atmosphere. Current Prime
Minister Imran Khan spearheaded the Billion Tree Tsunami project, which began in 2014 and
cost $169 million. The program has since established a network of private tree nurseries,
boosting local incomes and generating nearly a half-million "green jobs" in the remote
mountainous areas which will be beneficial for the climate change of Pakistan.