Pakistan suffered climate-induced losses worth $29bn in past three decades: World Bank

Climate-related disasters in Pakistan have resulted in economic losses of $29 billion over the past thirty years, according to a report by the World Bank. 

The report, which was released last week, stated that Pakistan is exceptionally vulnerable to climate change compared to many other countries.

"Pakistan's climate has been changing over recent decades and the country faces rates of warming that are considerably above the global average," the report stated. 

It also said climate change poses an especially serious risk to the country's agricultural sector. 

Between 1992 and 2002, for example, droughts in the southern Sindh and Balochistan provinces killed two million livestock, and required emergency services to provide food and safe drinking water to the farming communities living there, according to local news outlet Dawn.

Even small changes in the country’s precipitation patterns could have a widespread effect on the country’s water resources, according to the report, putting pressure on its agricultural sector. 

These vulnerabilities to climate change, in addition to other external factors such as poor resource and talent management, are holding the country back, the report said.

Pakistan suffered devastating floods earlier this year that killed more than 1,700 people and displaced millions more.

The floodwaters left one-third of the country submerged and reportedly cost the country at least $16 billion in damages. It also lost around 45 percent of its agricultural output.