Pakistan remains in urgent need of international assistance after a year of pummeling devastating climate impacts and the ripple effects of global fossil fuel dependence. Pakistan was at the forefront of the push for a loss and damage fund at COP27, and its prime minister is calling for additional aid ahead of an international donors conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 9.

Extreme heat in the spring and early summer, at least 30 times more likely because of climate change caused devastating damage and dropped birds from the sky. The country faced blackouts because Russia’s exploitation of Europe’s dependence on it for methane gas set global prices skyrocketing. And finally, superlative-exhausting flooding exacerbated by climate change killed more than 1,700 people, wiped out cotton crops, destroyed 2.2 million homes, and affected 33 million Pakistanis — and then set off a “beyond bleak” crisis of waterborne disease. (Bloomberg $, AP, Bloomberg $, The New Humanitarian)