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Shared Ecosystems Demand Urgent Indo-Pak Climate Cooperation
11 Sep
Summary
- Shared rivers, mountains, deserts, coasts, and deltas link India and Pakistan's climate resilience
- Disasters originating in India cascade downstream, making joint early warning and infrastructure management essential
- Lack of diplomatic relations since 1993 hinders coordinated climate governance, despite successful examples elsewhere
As of September 11th, 2025, South Asia remains bound by an interconnected ecosystem that links the climate resilience of India and Pakistan. This shared environment, from the Indus River system to the Himalayan ranges, has become a hotspot for cascading climate disasters that originate in one country and devastate the other.
In recent years, events like the 2014 Kashmir floods, the 2022 transboundary heatwave, and the intensifying Arabian Sea cyclones have demonstrated how climate threats move from upstream origins to downstream impacts. Experts warn that without joint early warning systems and coordinated management of shared water infrastructure, Pakistan will remain dangerously vulnerable to decisions made by upstream floodgate controllers in India.
Despite the lack of diplomatic relations between the two nations since 1993, successful examples of shared dam management, such as between Armenia and Türkiye, show that cooperative climate governance is possible even amid political tensions. Conversely, unilateral actions like Ethiopia's construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam have created permanent regional conflicts, underscoring the urgent need for India and Pakistan to work together to prevent such disasters in the future.
