ISLAMABAD, May 11 (SABAH): Experts at a webinar stressed the need for planned climate mobility strategies, improved data collection and coordinated policy measures to address the growing challenge of climate-induced displacement in the Punjab and other parts of Pakistan.
The webinar on “Climate Induced Displacement in Punjab, Pakistan,” was organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday. Maryam Shabbir Abbasi, Associate Research Fellow SDPI and Advisory member to Environmental Justice Council Vermont USA, said climate-induced displacement is often reported in Pakistan as “climate migration,” though the terminology varies according to context. She said heavy monsoon rains and unprecedented downpours in 2025 displaced large populations and now National Disaster Management Authority has projected another spell of abrupt rainfall in the Punjab, seeking authorities to adopt preemptive measures.
Maryam Shabbir Abbasi said around 523,000 people were displaced during the 2025 floods in six districts of Southern Punjab, which were among the country’s climate change hotspots facing recurring floods, droughts and heatwaves. She identified Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Jhang and Rahim Yar Khan among the worst affected districts.
She noted that rural populations impacted by climate disasters were increasingly migrating to urban areas after floods had destroyed their homes. However, most migration remained unplanned, with affected communities lacking resources to adapt to new environments. “The displaced communities are often exploited in labour markets through lower wages, which contributes to malnourishment and rising infant mortality,” she said, adding that media coverage of climate mobility was essential for creating awareness.
Highlighted the absence of reliable datasets to track climate migrants in the Punjab, she said factors such as extreme rainfall, riverine flooding, droughts and heatwaves were major drivers of displacement. She warned that displaced populations were often forced to settle in slum areas, which put additional pressure on urban infrastructure.
Mehak Masood, Programme Officer at International Organization for Migration, , said the term climate mobility better captured the complexity of the issue. Elaborating that planned movement is considered migration while forced movement due to disasters amounted to displacement, she said climate-induced migration, environmental migration and climate mobility were interconnected concepts reflecting the realities faced by vulnerable communities. Masood said droughts and floods were accelerating displacement across Pakistan and making climate change and migration increasingly interlinked issues. Citing World Bank projections, she said as many as 260 million people globally could be internally displaced by 2050 due to climate impacts.
Referring to Pakistan’s 2022 floods, she said 33 million people were affected and nearly eight million displaced. “Migration has historically been humanity’s adaptation strategy, but climate change is now accelerating it while shrinking safe destinations,” she observed.
She stressed the need for recognizing mobility within Pakistan’s National Adaptation Plan and welcomed the Punjab’s Climate Resilient Plan, while emphasizing the importance of data-driven projections for informed policymaking.
Masood said Pakistan Synergy Mobility Group had developed a white paper on climate mobility across provinces to promote localized solutions and ensure safe migration with livelihood opportunities.
Zulfiqar Kumbhar, Environmental journalist, said climate migration remained an underreported issue in Sindh despite repeated disasters since 2010. He said recurring abnormal rainfall, pluvial flooding, sea intrusion and other climate shocks had created various categories of migrants, including flood, heatwave, cold wave and coastal migrants.
Kumbhar said nearly 160,000 climate migrants were living in settlements spread along a 10-kilometre stretch of the Super Highway in Sindh that links Karachi to Peshawar yet remained invisible on paper.
He said most of such settlements survived on philanthropy rather than government support and pointed to governance and social acceptance issues faced by migrant communities in Sindh.
Dr. Amber Raheel, Director Environment and Climate Change Research EP&CCD, Punjab described climate-induced migration as an emerging challenge requiring an interdepartmental response. She said the Punjab currently lacked a dedicated legal framework for climate migration, though the recently developed Climate Resilient Action Plan proposed measures to build institutional capacity for addressing the issue. Raheel acknowledged major data gaps regarding climate migration in the province and said departments including the Provincial Disaster Management Authority had limited data on displaced populations. She said PDMA had rescued around 0.7 million people from disaster-hit areas, while nearly 0.6 million had been relocated to temporary shelters.
She said the Punjab is preparing its first Heatwave Management Plan in coordination with the Pakistan Meteorological Department while revising heatwave thresholds for better preparedness.
The Punjab government is working on a draft Climate Change Act to establish statutory rules and private sector engagement mechanisms, she said, adding that a Punjab Climate Observatory would also be established to provide real-time climate data for evidence-based policymaking.
Dr. Shafqat Munir Ahmed, SDPI Deputy Executive Director (Policy), said climate migration had remained a major agenda item in international climate negotiations for at least two decades.
He said the Punjab government’s participation at COP30, led by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, reflected growing official recognition of recurring climate shocks in Southern Punjab, including droughts and heatwaves.
Dr. Munir said migration itself constituted a form of loss and damage, as communities were uprooted from their places of origin and governments incurred additional costs for resettlement. He stressed that anticipatory action frameworks and preemptive planning could reduce displacement risks, save lives and ensure more organized and resource-efficient relocation of affected populations.
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