ISLAMABAD (Xinhua): Pakistan recorded its second-warmest year in 65 years in 2025, underscoring growing climate risks that are intensifying floods and threatening the country's economy, according to the Economic Survey 2025-26 released on Thursday.
The survey said 2025 followed 2024, the hottest year on record, marking two consecutive years of exceptionally high temperatures. Pakistan's national annual mean temperature reached 23.9 degrees Celsius in 2025, 1.09 degrees above the long-term average of 22.8 degrees Celsius.
"Climate change is no longer a distant or abstract threat to the country but a present reality," the survey said, warning of increasing economic and social challenges linked to extreme weather events.
Northern regions experienced particularly sharp warming, with temperature anomalies reaching 1.24 degrees Celsius in Gilgit-Baltistan, 1.29 degrees Celsius in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 1.56 degrees Celsius in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, all recording their highest annual temperatures in 65 years.
The survey noted that Pakistan, despite contributing less than 1 per cent of current global greenhouse gas emissions and about 0.4 per cent historically, remains among the countries most vulnerable to climate change.
Pakistan received 288.5 millimetres of rainfall in 2025, about 3 per cent below the long-term average, although rainfall patterns remained uneven across regions. Monsoon rainfall from July to September was 23 per cent above average, contributing to widespread flooding across the country.
According to the survey, rising temperatures are accelerating glacial melt and altering monsoon dynamics, resulting in more intense rainfall events and heightened flood risks. -- Xinhua
