PPP Vice President Senator Sherry Rehman on Saturday expressed “serious concern” over Pakistan topping the list of countries most affected by climate change, stating that training Pakistanis to protect themselves from severe weather is the need of the hour.

The Climate Risk Index (CRI), published by Germanwatch, ranks countries by the human and economic toll of extreme weather. The latest edition highlights increasing losses and the urgent need for stronger climate resilience and action.

In the report published in February, Pakistan was ranked as the most vulnerable country to climate change in 2022, followed by Belize and Italy. Rehman shared the report to her X page, stating that Pakistan had been listed in the report as the country most affected by climate change.

“CRI ranks countries by the human and economic toll of extreme weather, measuring realised risk,” she wrote, adding that the report “should serve as a huge wake-up call”.

In a longer statement published by the PPP, Rehman regretted that Pakistan is now the most vulnerable country in the world to climate risks.

“Now it would be wrong to say that Pakistan is in the top 10, unfortunately, we are number one,” Rehman was quoted as saying. “The sharp increase in the risks of stormy rains, hailstorms [and] glacier melting shows the seriousness of the situation.”

Noting that Pakistan has suffered the most from climate change despite minimal impact on the environment, the senator asked why the country is suffering the consequences of the international community’s contributions to global warming.

“Both lives and the economy are at risk from environmental events. Why should countries like us be punished for the world’s massive use of carbon? The time for environmental justice has come,” Rehman was quoted as saying.

“The international community cannot have sustainable development without environmental justice,” she added. “Take a real account of global warming, only then will developing and poor countries be able to escape the effects of climate change.”

The senator also noted in the statement that “the imposition of an environmental emergency, policy reforms and global aid have become imperative for Pakistan”.

Pakistan has seen the effects of climate change in unprecedented floods in 2022, primarily caused by record-breaking monsoon rainfall, glacial lake outburst floods, and other factors.

The CRI highlighted that over 33 million people were affected and over 1,700 lives were lost due to the floods. It also says that climate change made the severity of extreme monsoon rainfall increase by 50 per cent.

Not only that, over eight million people lost their homes and were internally displaced due to the 2022 floods, while 1.3 million houses were damaged. The issue was compounded by a lack of drinking water availability and a surge in waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea, cholera, dengue, malaria, and skin infections.