ISLAMABAD: Paki­stan’s healthcare and disaster response systems are failing to meet the needs of children and older people, who are most at risk during extreme weather events linked to climate change, Amnesty International said in a new report released on Tuesday.

The report, Uncounted: Invisible deaths of older people and children during climate disasters in Pakistan, details how increasingly frequent floods and heatwaves are overwhelming Pakistan’s underfunded healthcare system, leading to preventable deaths, particularly among the very young and elderly.

Amnesty International, in collaboration with Indus Hospital and Health Network, investigated how spikes in deaths often followed extreme weather events. Pakistan contributes about 1pc of global greenhouse gas emissions annually but is the world’s fifth-most vulnerable country to climate disasters.

The report highlights that even in normal circumstances, Pakistan’s healthcare system struggles to serve its population, especially young children and older adults. Climate disasters exacerbate these existing structural issues.

Pakistan can’t address this crisis alone, it says. “Other countries that have historically emitted far more greenhouse gases bear responsibility for the harm they have caused,” it said. These nations “must understand that failing to phase out the extraction, production and use of fossil fuels – the primary driver of global warming – threatens the rights to life and health not just of their own populations, but of children and older people all around the world.”

It calls on “high-income, high-emitting states to provide more financial and other support to help everyone in Pakistan adapt to climate crisis and remediate climate harms.”

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2025