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Pakistan

Towards a resilient Pakistan : Moving from rhetoric to reality

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Foreword

A potentially pivotal moment in the fight against climate change, when affluent nations pledged $100 billion (£76 billion) in yearly funding by 2020 to help the developing world to deal with the effects of the global climate crisis, has given way to a stark reality. Three years beyond the original deadline, only a small fraction of the promised climate finance has been delivered.

With every passing year countries like Pakistan — those countries most vulnerable to climate change — count the mounting cost of increasingly frequent and intense droughts, floods and tropical storms, without the level of support they desperately need from the most polluting nations to protect their people.

No amount of financial aid can bring back what the communities worst affected have lost in disasters like the unprecedented floods that hit Pakistan last year. The toll exacted by climate disasters defies monetary valuation. How can money alone begin to compensate those who have suffered the loss of loved ones, homes, connections to their communities, and ties to their land and culture?

Having said this, loss-and-damage finance is the least the countries on the front line of the climate crisis deserve. It is a necessity without which the cycle of suffering will relentlessly continue.

Pakistan has massive infrastructure damage to deal with in the wake of the floods, including 2 million homes and over 28,000 schools and health facilities that need to be repaired or entirely rebuilt. Millions of people remain reliant on humanitarian aid, and the impact
of the floods threatens to push 9 million more people below the poverty line as the economy struggles, stifled by runaway inflation and spiralling debt.

Without additional and significant international support that allows for both full economic recovery and radical climate adaptation, those living in poverty now will have little hope of a better future, and Pakistan will be unprepared for the next disaster — which may be waiting just around the corner.

The people of Pakistan are not lacking in the initiative and innovation needed to create a more resilient future as climate change bites. Islamic Relief is already working with local communities to implement a wide range of climate-adaptation projects — from reforestation and drought-resistant crops to gabion walls and check dams that protect against soil erosion and landslides; from water-storage ponds and filtration plants to drip-irrigation technology to preserve precious water resources and keep agriculture alive.

What the country and its poorest communities desperately need now is international climate finance to implement such programmes on the massive scale required to effect lasting change. The global cost of adaptation is estimated to be $140—$300 billion a year by 2030 (£107—£229 billion), with needs in Pakistan alone ranging between $7 billion and $14 billion (£5.3—£10.7 billion).

The upcoming COP28 climate conference represents an opportunity to secure more support and address all the broken promises on climate finance. It is time for the world’s richest countries to commit to hitting the $100 billion annual funding target without further delay, and to flesh out and activate the potentially ground-breaking Loss and Damage Fund for climate reparations that Pakistan and other developing countries lobbied successfully for at COP27.

The people of Pakistan simply cannot afford any further delay. Climate change is here, and decisive action is critical.