On May 12^th, 2025, Mr. Muhammad Idrees Mehsud, Member (DRR), National Disaster Management Authority, delivered an intriguing lecture to the participants of 37^th SMC on “Climate Change”. He rightly pointed out that while climate change is affecting all the countries of the world Pakistan is especially vulnerable, it ranks among the top countries on the Global Climate Risk Index.

Mr. Muhammad Idrees Mehsud discussed the global climate change situation with regard to global warming, increasing pollution, intensifying water cycle, shrinking glaciers and decreasing forest cover. He also highlighted how the global climate change situation impacts Pakistan, such as rising sea levels causing salinity in Pakistan, melting glaciers leading to floods and excessive temperatures triggering heatwaves.

Mr. Muhammad Idrees Mehsud elaborated upon international conventions relevant to Pakistan, such as The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and The Kyoto Protocol and also the Conference of Parties (COP) that meets yearly to find solutions to climate change.

Mr. Muhammad Idrees Mehsud termed Pakistan’s average losses due to climate change as immense and he explained that climate finance and carbon credits are means of recouping financial losses. He also defined that policy interventions, maximizing potential of existing capacities and ensuring uptake of climate resilience by all stakeholders may mitigate negative effects of climate change in long run.