Pakistan’s climate minister says country facing ‘crisis of injustice’ as more deadly flooding and extreme weather events hit the country.
Pakistan’s climate change minister has slammed the “crisis of injustice” facing the country and a “lopsided allocation” of funding as heavy rains and the latest flash flooding cause more damage, destruction and loss of life.
Officials in Pakistan said at least 32 people have been killed in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces since the start of the monsoon season.
Last month, at least 32 people were also killed in severe storms in a country that has reported extreme weather events in the spring, including strong hailstorms.
The Climate Rate Index report in 2025 put Pakistan top of the list of the most affected countries based on 2022 data. Then, extensive flooding submerged approximately a third of the country, affecting 33 million people – including killing more than 1,700, and caused $14.8bn worth of damages, as well as $15.2bn of economic losses.
Last year, more floods affected thousands, and a heatwave killed almost 600 people.
“I don’t look at this as a crisis of climate. I look at this as a crisis of justice and this lopsided allocation that we are talking about,” Pakistan’s climate change minister, Musadiq Malik, told Al Jazeera. “This lopsided allocation of green funding, I don’t look at it as a funding gap. I look at it as a moral gap.”
Funding shortfall
Earlier this year, a former head of the country’s central bank said Pakistan needed an annual investment of $40 to $50bn until 2050 to meet its looming climate change challenges despite being responsible for about half a percent of global CO2 emissions.
In January 2023, pledges worth about $10bn from multilateral financial institutions and countries were reported. The following year, Pakistan received $2.8bn from international creditors against those pledges.
Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund said Pakistan will receive $1.3bn under a new climate resilience loan programme, which will span 28 months. But Malik said those pledges and loans were not enough given the situation Pakistan finds itself in.
“Two countries in the world [China and United States of America] produce 45 percent of the carbon emissions. The fact that the top 10 countries of the world account for almost 70 percent of the carbon burden is also something people are aware of. But 85 percent of the world’s green financing is going to the same 10 countries, while the rest of the world – some 180-odd countries – are getting 10 to 15 percent green financing.
“We are paying for it through these erratic climate changes, floods, agriculture devastation.”
According to a study done last year by the climate change ministry and Italian research institute EvK2CNR, Pakistan is home to 13,000-plus glaciers.
However, the gradual rise in temperatures is also forcing the melting of those glaciers, increasing the risk of flooding, damage to infrastructure, loss of life and land, threat to communities and water scarcity.
“In addition to land and life, flooding [due to glacier melt] swept away thousands of years of civilisation [in Sindh province]. The mosques, temples, schools, hospitals, old buildings, monuments, everything got washed away.
“Add to that the loss of education and access to health care, safe drinking water, waterborne diseases, lack of access to hospitals and clinics, and infant mortality,” the report said.
Last month, Amnesty International said in a report that “Pakistan’s healthcare and disaster response systems are failing to meet the needs of children and older people who are most at risk of death and disease amid extreme weather events related to climate change”.
“Children and older people in Pakistan are suffering on the front line of the climate crisis, exposed to extreme heat or floods that lead to disproportionate levels of death and disease,” said Laura Mills, researcher with Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Programme.
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.
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