Climate change is currently a bigger threat than terrorism as the country has been affected by two major super floods, extreme weather events, heatwaves, and droughts in the last fourteen years
In the February 8, 2024 general elections of Pakistan, climate change was one of the key issues discussed by the mainstream political parties.
Pakistan is susceptible to the impacts of climate change. In the last fourteen years, the country has been affected by two major super floods, extreme weather events, heatwaves, and droughts. Hundreds of people have died from climate-induced events in the recent decade.
Climate change, currently a bigger threat than terrorism in this country, is a political issue. It is a hot topic in Pakistan’s politics. The people are worried because the politicians are making promises with no clear vision on how to tackle the climate crisis.
It was a central subject of the political parties’ election manifestos in the recent election. Other than the mainstream political parties, for the very first time, the right-wing religious political parties also included climate change in their manifestos.
Election manifestos, and big claims
The major political parties made ambitious commitments in their fancy election manifestos.
In its 59-page manifesto, the Pakistan People’s Party parliamentarians dedicated one chapter to climate change with the attractive title “A Green New Deal” with sub-headings like Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability and Policy Measures, Adaptation, Mitigation, International Climate Justice, and Finance.
The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) also provided a moderate space to climate change issues.
Its ambitious climate promises and delivery in the previous short-term government included building a climate-resilient, smog-free Pakistan, and air quality emergency are the main heading of the manifesto.
The party also highlighted its previous tenure’s performance in the establishment of the “Loss and Damage Fund” at COP27 for countries severely affected by climate change.
Before the general elections, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) also unveiled their election manifesto. It gave a prominent space to Climate Change Mitigation, Environmental Sustainability, Clean and Renewable Energy, Climate Change a Silent Killer, and Carbon Pricing.
The Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), the newly established rightwing religious political party, focused on storing water resources, and the construction of small and large dams across the country.
According to the Elections Commission of Pakistan (ECP) open data, at least 167 political parties have been registered in the country.
For the very first time, most major political parties in the country unveiled ambitious climate change and environmental targets in their manifestos, which is an incredibly positive indicator, but the implementation and fulfilment of these targets would be a herculean task.
In political and official documents, climate change is not a new phenomenon in the country.
Over a decade, after the devastation caused by 2010 floods, it has remained a hot topic among the masses, non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, and political and parliament corridors.
Though very unfortunate and a harsh reality, limited efforts have been made to mitigate the issue of climate change on the ground.
Slow legislation and implementation
Five years after the 2010 super floods. In 2015, a decision was made to reinstate Pakistan’s Climate Change Division as a ministry.
After the floods, it took seven years for the parliament to pass “The Pakistan Climate Change Act, 2017” legislation to meet the country’s obligations under international conventions relating to climate change, provide comprehensive adaptation and mitigation policies, plans, programmes, and other measures required to address the effects of climate change.
After the establishment of the ministry, it failed to achieve any major milestone. For years, the essence of the climate change law was not implemented in letter and spirit.
As per the Pakistan Climate Change Act, 2017, a climate change authority and climate change fund need to be established in the country. The establishment of these two important bodies took seven years.
On May 18, 2024, the federal government established the country’s first “Climate Change Authority” under the Climate Change Act 2017.
The formation of climate change authority was made possible after the interference of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The court ordered the government to operationalize the body, reasoning that climate change is an issue that affects all Pakistanis’ fundamental rights and, therefore, measures to mitigate its harmful impacts should not be put off any longer.
The court observed that climate change is the most serious existential threat to the people of Pakistan and the government must act non. The formation of the Climate Change Authority took at least fourteen years.
2022 super floods
After the 2022 super floods. The federal and provincial governments were not prepared for the massive flood’s devastation. The flood rainwater affected the upper mountain, and lower riparian areas in the South were severely affected.
The gushing flood water killed people, animals, destroyed houses, bridges, and other communication networks. The government announced an emergency in the flood hit areas. In the first phase, the aim was to rescue people.
Military helicopters and 1,122 boats joined the rescue operation in flood hit areas.
The second phase was rehabilitation, the biggest challenge for the Pakistan government as it was already struggling with an economic crisis. The rehabilitation of millions of people requires a large budget.
No government department had tangible data on the extent of damage this flood had caused. So, the government decided to conduct a survey in the flood hit areas.
After spending months on a needs assessment survey, the district administration, NDMA, PDMA, and military officials tried visiting door to door for data collection.
After five months, the data was collected, but the government was reluctant to officially release the data through the media and international humanitarian organizations.
In response to the climate crisis and flood disasters, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), and other agencies collected data at the field level.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) factsheet estimated that at least 1,739 people died because of the floods, while thirty-three million people were adversely affected, and millions of houses, livestock, and significant communication infrastructure were destroyed.
The World Bank assessment estimates total damages to exceed $14.9 billion, and total economic losses to reach about $15.2 billion.
During the floods, dozens of friendly nations sent humanitarian aid cargo aircraft, which also contained medicine and temporary shelters, tents, and other emergency items.
Foreign aid pledges
Rehabilitation was a major challenge for the government. After the flood in September 2022, the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres visited the flood hit areas in Sindh and Balochistan.
In Pakistan, Guterres appealed to the world that “Pakistan needs massive financial support. This is not a matter of generosity; it is a matter of justice.” He also assured the government of Pakistan that the UN will call a donor conference.
A few months after Guterres’ visit, the UN called a donors’ conference. It had one agenda, to raise money for the flood-affected people in Pakistan. Held at Geneva, the UN named it Climate Donors Conference.
Donors from around the world pledged more than $9b (£7.4b) to help Pakistan recover from the devastating floods. The amounts were half of the estimated $16.3bn Pakistan needed to recover from the massive disaster.
Due to irregularities in each sector, ensuring transparency in spending donor funds has always been a major challenge for Pakistan.
Spending of funds
To know the exact amount of climate change loss and damage funds in Pakistan, one must go through a lot of bureaucratic red tape.
After the donors’ conference, no one knows the exact amount received by the government of Pakistan, except a handful of officials in the Islamabad power corridor.
Tracing the donor’s climate finance, its spending, and the share of the provinces is like a black hole for the journalists, politicians, and masses.
The bureaucracy does not even respond to the media queries. They delay and decline the right to information requests about climate finance. Instead of climate change experts, the bureaucracy has a chokehold on important climate-related positions.
On May 30, 2024, the Pakistani prime minister changed the composition of the Task Force on Global Warming and Heat Wave constituted in 2022.
Among the ten task force members, nine are serving bureaucrats of the Pakistan Administrative Service, including one service lieutenant general who is also chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) – one of the country’s most important and first response government organizations for climate change crisis and other natural and manmade disasters.
These officials are on the verge of retirement and have a basic understanding of climate change.
Instead of spending the donors’ funds on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction. It is very unfortunate that the accountability of the chairman NDMA, a serving top-rank military officer, is untouchable.