KARACHI, Pakistan 

Pakistan has been ranked as the most vulnerable country to climate change in 2022, followed by Central American country Belize and Italy, the latest data showed.

According to data in the Climate Risk Index (CRI) for 2025 report released by European think-tank Germanwatch on Wednesday, Pakistan’s ranking has been mainly due to the massive 2022 floods, which inundated a third of the country, aside from killing over 1,700 people.

The devastating floods triggered by record-breaking monsoon rains, and Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), also caused 30 billion dollars in losses and affected over 33 million people.

The climate change, according to the report, made the intensity of monsoon rainfall increase by 50%.

The report noted that before the floods, the South Asian country witnessed severe heat waves from March to May, which resulted in GLOFs in northern Pakistan and massive monsoon rains.

In August 2022, Pakistan witnessed 243% more rains than usual, making it the wettest August since records began in 1961, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department.

Lina Adil, co-author of the report, pointed out that Pakistan is the only country in the CRI 2022 list having a National Adaptation Plan.

She, however, was unsure about the implementation of the adaptation plan and other disaster risk reduction plans in the country.

“Most vulnerable countries are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change partly due to their limited financial and technical capabilities to adapt and manage losses and damage,” Adil said.

“Simultaneously, to prevent further loss and damage, countries urgently need to ramp up their mitigation action with new nationally determined contributions to stay below or as close as possible to 1.5C warming," the report added.

- Climate Risk Index 2025

The number and strength of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, storms, and heat waves are increasing and gradually becoming the “new normal” in some regions of the world.

The report shows that over the last 30 years, global south countries have been particularly affected by the impacts of extreme weather events.

The US was ranked seventh on this list.

The CRI 1993-2022 ranks Dominica, China, and Honduras, as the top three countries most affected by climatic impacts. India has been ranked sixth in the index. Whereas, Pakistan has been ranked 56th in the index, with a loss of over 11,000 lives and $4.8 billion.

Along with Pakistan, China and India have also been ranked in the list of the most affected countries in the long-term index for 1993-2022, for experiencing recurring extreme events.

Observing that COP29 failed to yield an ambitious New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) on climate finance, the report called for greater support by high-emitting countries for the most vulnerable countries to tackle the climate crisis.