The devastating floods that swept through Buner last week have once again exposed Pakistan’s acute climate vulnerability. Within an hour, an intense downpour unleashed torrents of rain—over 100 to 150 millimetres—turning streams into raging rivers. Entire villages were submerged, homes reduced to rubble, and more than 300 lives lost across KP and the northern areas. What unfolded in Buner is not a freak event but part of a disturbing pattern: Pakistan, despite contributing less than one percent to global greenhouse gas emissions, is among the countries paying the highest price for a warming world.

Over the last fifteen years, the country has endured one climate catastrophe after another. The 2010 “super floods” displaced nearly 20 million people and killed almost 2,000. In the following decade, recurrent monsoon floods across KP, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Punjab disrupted lives year after year, exposing illegal river encroachments and fragile infrastructure. The 2022 nationwide floods pushed Pakistan into the global spotlight—33 million people affected, over 1,700 lives lost, and damages estimated between 30 and 40 billion US dollars. And now, in 2025, the people of Buner have joined this long list of victims, their misfortune another reminder of the climate injustice Pakistan faces.

The Rising Toll of Climate Disasters

Data from the past two decades shows the staggering scale of flood-related losses in Pakistan. In 2010, vast swathes of the country were underwater; agriculture, transport networks, and power systems were crippled, with recovery costs estimated at 10 billion dollars. Between 2015 and 2021, flash floods struck with increasing frequency, often concentrated in KP’s valleys and Punjab’s riverine belts. Though smaller in scale, they cumulatively killed hundreds and displaced thousands. The 2022 floods were unprecedented, not only in their human toll but also in........

© The Friday Times