According to the new Human Climate Horizons platform, Pakistan’s average annual temperature will increase to 22.4 degrees Celsius within the next decade and a half, and the temperature would cross the 26oC threshold by the end of the century.
The new data shows the need to act quickly, not only to mitigate climate change but also to adapt to its consequences. For instance, in Faisalabad, Pakistan, even with moderate mitigation, additional deaths due to climate change would average 36 per 100,000 people each year between 2020-2039.
Without substantially expanding adaptation efforts, Faisalabad could expect annual climate change-related death rates to nearly double, reaching 67 deaths per 100,000 by midcentury. An increment almost as deadly as strokes, currently Pakistan’s third leading cause of death.
As we face the punishing impacts of global climate change it can be easy to wonder whether efforts to reduce emissions by individual countries, states, or cities really make a difference. United Nations Development Programme and the Climate Impact Lab.
According to the new Human Climate Horizons platform launched, by the United Nations Development Programme and the Climate Impact Lab, without concerted and urgent action, climate change will exacerbate inequalities and widen gaps in human development.
Designed to empower people and decision-makers everywhere, it shows what climate change could mean for people’s lives through changes in mortality, the ability to earn a living, and energy use.
For example, in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, under a scenario of very high emissions, the additional deaths by 2100 due to climate change (132 in every 100,000 people per year) would be nearly twice Bangladesh’s current annual death rate from all cancers, and 10 times its annual road traffic fatalities.
A comparison of the health impacts of climate change across countries points to a future that intensifies current inequalities: among G20 countries – which account for the majority of cumulative CO2 emissions – a third will experience additional death rates because of climate change.
But this surges to nearly three-quarters of the Least Developed Countries, dramatically increasing inequalities over the coming decades.
“In 2022, communities in every corner of the globe are witnessing a climate emergency that is hitting much faster and harder than many projected, representing both a threat to our future and a very real risk that must be addressed in the here and now,” says UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.
“Focusing on the effect of climate change on issues like mortality, labour and energy use, the new Human Climate Horizons puts vital data and analytics into the hands of policymakers, helping countries to take climate action where it is needed most.
