March 12, 2023

To face climate change, Pakistan must act to protect environment

topic:	Climate action
located:	Pakistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

As Pakistan reels from the devastating impacts of climate change, including the widespread flooding that submerged the country last year, a delegation of the Green Climate Fund (CGF) has toured the country where the concepts of conservation of nature and environmental protection are still underdeveloped and ignored. The CGF’s mission is to “support the efforts of developing countries in responding to the challenge of climate change.”

In this important trip, according to official communications, the GCF delegates met Pakistan's senior official tasked to look after environmental matters and conducted a workshop to "equip participants with the necessary knowledge and skills to develop project proposals.” The reported purpose was to focus on the accreditation process to the fund and on project development.

Pakistan has a current portfolio of around $135 million with the GCF for climate mitigation projects, despite sustaining substantial losses worth much more than that due to the environmental disasters and greenhouse gas emissions caused by high-polluting countries. Just the immediate financial losses inflicted by last year's floods are estimated to be around $10 billion, not to mention the thousands of lives lost.

Pakistani officials have been quite vocal about the underfunded portfolio and have charged the international community for not doing enough to respond to the needs of Pakistan. 

But apart from receiving funding from international organisations, there is an imminent need for the government to play its part in conservation efforts. A large part of the damage from the flooding could have been averted with fair governance, forward-looking development plans and above all conservation practices.

There are simple ways of sustainable support for reforestation, water conservation and agricultural development that can prevent the local community from some of the consequences of natural catastrophes.

Instead, the Pakistani government has supported the growing real estate sector and development projects on floodpaths, which have cost Pakistani citizens immensely as they were washed away, all the while helping the rich investors increase their profits.

The donor community and these humanitarian agencies have also ignored climate change mitigation as experts point to frequent environmental shocks for poor water quality, biodiversity loss, health issues and migration. 

In Pakistan, a state on the brink of an economic meltdown, there is a clear dearth of a robust national action plan to deal with this imminent crisis, and one must be clearly instated to prevent future financial, ecological and human losses. As a country on the frontlines of climate change, Pakistan needs to give top priority to the conservation of nature in order to survive.

Image by Huzaifa Waheed