ISLAMABAD: As world leaders gather at the UN Climate Change Conference, opening in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Sunday, the World Food Programme (WFP) is calling on the international community to invest in building the resilience of vulnerable communities living on the frontlines of the climate crisis in Pakistan and other climate hotspots.

“The floods in Pakistan provide ample evidence of how the climate crisis is devastating lives, livelihood, and infrastructure,” WFP Country Director in Pakistan Chris Kaye said in a statement on Friday.

“The sad truth is that Pakistan — and other countries on the frontlines of the climate crisis — will continue to experience more extreme climate shocks and we need to prepare people to weather the coming storm.”

The WFP is working with the government and other partners to reach a total of 2.7m of the worst off through May of next year, while expanding vital resilience-building activities.

The WFP has to date secured just 31 per cent of the $225mn needed through May for crucial food, nutrition, and logistics interventions, and urgently needs support.

While emergency assistance staves off hunger in the short-term, food insecurity in Pakistan can only be meaningfully addressed by adequate investment in tackling root causes and helping to build the resilience of communities at the sharp end of the climate crisis.

As typhoons, floods, heatwaves and droughts in the Asia-Pacific region highlight the need for decisive climate action, a new report released by the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the UN Environment Programme and Unicef finds that countries in the region need to increase and accelerate their climate ambitions to meet emissions reduction targets.

Nowhere is the urgency for climate action more apparent than in this region. In 2022, countries experienced unprecedented climate-induced disasters, resulting in human and economic losses, the report added.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2022