Climate change news from the ground, in a warming world Was this forwarded to you? Sign up here [[link removed]] Laurie Goering [[link removed]]

Climate editor

As a hotter planet drives more intense rainfall and faster melting of glaciers, spectacular floods [[link removed]] have claimed lives and destroyed homes, farms, businesses and roads once again - this time across vast swathes of Pakistan.

Recovery will be difficult.

With the country's government already heavily in debt - and inflation running at 25% - finding the cash to help hard-hit families bounce back from their losses will be a struggle.

Humanitarian aid is very unlikely to fill the gap, with donors facing rising demand for their dollars as extreme weather and other crises proliferate globally.

Who will end up footing the bill? Often, poor people themselves, as efforts to create an international fund to pay for climate change-driven "loss and damage" [[link removed]] flounder.

A flood victim takes refuge along a road in a makeshift tent, following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Mehar, Pakistan, August 29, 2022. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

But global warming isn't the sole cause of the disaster. A dozen years after the country's disastrous 2010 floods, successive governments have failed to adequately warn Pakistan's people about climate change and help them prepare for its impacts, climate experts say.

Without more measures to reduce the risks and slash planet-heating fossil fuel use globally, Pakistan - like many other countries - is likely to face a growing onslaught of climate change disasters [[link removed]], they warn.

"What you see today is just a trailer of what's in store for us with poverty, hunger, malnutrition and disease if we don't pay heed to climate change," climate and development expert Ali Tauqeer Sheikh told our correspondent Zofeen Ebrahim.

Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury a leading solar expert, stands before solar panels at the rooftop of his institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 9, 2022. Thomson Reuters Foundation / Md Tahmid Zami

What could help avoid that grim scenario? Greater investment in climate adaptation programmes, warning systems and government social welfare systems, as well as much faster expansion of clean energy like solar and wind power.

In Bangladesh, families have installed about 6 million home solar systems [[link removed]] in the past two decades, in a push seen as "a remarkable success story."

Today, with global fuel prices high and risks from extreme heat rising, these systems are saving cash and lives, allowing users to power fans and other cooling amid blackouts - without high bills.

But finding land for bigger solar installations in a densely populated country with little ground to spare is proving a challenge. That's leading to a drive for industrial-scale rooftop solar installations, on everything from garment factories to steel and electronics plants.

In Europe, meanwhile, high fuel costs are testing the resolve of politicians [[link removed]] to stick to their promises to act on climate change, as discontent over soaring energy bills spreads and citizen groups threaten protests.

But governments should not retreat to drilling and mining more fossil fuels but use the crisis to accelerate a switch to renewables, argues David King, chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.

"If we push in that direction, we are creating a safer future," he told our Brussels correspondent Joanna Gill.

See you next week!

Laurie

Death and deforestation: Cocaine trade adds to Amazon's woes [[link removed]]

The murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips have stoked concern in Brazil about links between drugs smugglers and environmental crime

Pakistan floods deal fresh blow to struggling small businesses [[link removed]]

Hit by floods and soaring prices, self-employed Pakistanis want government aid and action to fight climate change impacts

In Bangladesh, solar power brings work, but land shortage slows growth [[link removed]]

Solar home systems have brought electric power to millions, but a lack of land and finance are hampering the development of large-scale plants

Heat or eat? Winter protests loom as energy poverty sweeps Europe [[link removed]]

Spreading strikes and protests over energy-fuelled inflation force politicians into a corner over climate goals

EXPLAINER-Obscure energy treaty threatens huge state losses over climate action [[link removed]]

Italy's multi-million-dollar payout to a UK oil and gas company has sparked renewed calls for the EU to quit a treaty critics say could hinder efforts to phase out fossil fuels

OPINION: Why an oil firm’s legal win is bad news for climate action [[link removed]]

Climate researchers are concerned about the impact of an international energy treaty, under which UK-based oil firm Rockhopper was awarded over 190 million euros

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