Pakistan's Punjab declared a health emergency due to toxic smog on Friday, banning construction, shutting schools for another week and moving universities online, with a three-day lockdown possible, the province's senior minister said on Friday.

Punjab battles toxic smog every winter as cold air traps dust, emissions, and smoke from illegal stubble burning on fields. Air quality has deteriorated drastically in recent weeks and the province's capital Lahore currently ranks as the world's most polluted city, says IQAir.

"A complete lockdown will be enforced on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (next week) if the situation does not improve by Wednesday," said Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, addressing a press conference in Lahore.

Citizens were advised to stay indoors. Air Quality Index (AQI) readings in Lahore reached 637 at 3 p.m. (1000 GMT), according to Swiss group IQAir, significantly higher than levels recommended by the World Health Organization.

The government had ordered the closure of construction, brick kilns, and furnace-based plants in Lahore and the city of Multan, the minister said.

Punjab's government had last week ordered schools to close until Nov. 17, and on Friday the shift to online learning was extended for another week. Colleges and universities will also shut down, moving to virtual classes.

The eastern province has already banned entry to parks, zoos, playgrounds and other public spaces.

South Asia faces severe pollution each year due to trapped dust, emissions and stubble burning - the practice of setting fire to fields after the grain harvest.

Punjab has blamed this year's particularly high pollution levels partly on toxic air flowing from neighbouring India, where air quality has also reached hazardous levels.

India's capital of New Delhi, the world's most polluted capital city, banned all non-essential construction, moved younger children to virtual classrooms and asked residents to avoid using coal and wood from Friday to combat increasing air pollution.

New Delhi's air quality level reached 539 on Friday, according to live rankings by IQAir, the worst amongst global capitals.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the political deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Monday called on industrial countries to help Afghanistan in the fight against climate change.

Stanikzai made the remarks at a conference in Kabul titled “From Isolation to Inclusion – Afghanistan’s Urgent Call for Climate Action,” which was held on the day the UN climate talks kicked off in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

"Our demand from the United Nations, the great powers, the rich countries and the countries from which gasses come is to help us improve our environment and serve our people," Stanikzai said.

Stefan Rodriguez, the Chief of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), also said that climate change has forced some Afghans to live in tents as natural disasters regularly occur in the country.

Rodriguez, however, said that after three years, Afghanistan has now gained access to financial mechanisms in the environmental sector and some institutions are ready to resume their incomplete projects in Afghanistan.

The organizers of the conference warned that if the international community does not step up to assist Afghanistan in the fight against climate change, there will be dire consequences.

They called on COP29 in Baku to keep the issue of fighting climate change in Afghanistan away from political issues and work with their financial and technical partners to prevent the spread of negative effects of climate change in the country.

An Afghan delegation will attend the upcoming UN climate change summit COP29 in Azerbaijan scheduled to take place from Monday, November 11.

According to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) foreign ministry spokesman, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said “delegation of the Afghan government will be in Baku".

It was not immediately clear in what capacity the delegation would participate at COP29, but sources indicated it would have observer status.

Afghanistan is ranked as the country sixth most vulnerable to climate change and IEA authorities have pushed to participate in COP summits, saying their political isolation shouldn't bar them from international climate talks.

Having tried and failed to attend UN climate change summits in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, this year an invitation from COP29 hosts Azerbaijan came through.

Officials from the country's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) have repeatedly said climate change should not be politicized and called for environment-related projects put on hold due to the IEA’s takeover to be reinstated.

"Climate change is a humanitarian subject," deputy NEPA head Zainulabedin Abid said in a recent interview with AFP.

"We have called on the international community not to relate climate change matters with politics."

Among the poorest countries in the world after decades of war, Afghanistan is particularly exposed to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is spurring extreme weather.

Drought, floods, land degradation and declining agricultural productivity are key threats, the UN development agency's representative in Afghanistan, Stephen Rodriques, said in 2023.

Flash floods in May killed hundreds and swamped swaths of agricultural land in Afghanistan, where 80 percent of people depend on farming to survive.