{"id":20119383,"date":"2023-07-31T06:43:44","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T01:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?post_type=opinion&p=119383"},"modified":"2024-04-12T09:58:44","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T09:58:44","slug":"opinion-pakistani-political-crisis-distracts-from-urgent-climate-challenges","status":"publish","type":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/opinion-pakistani-political-crisis-distracts-from-urgent-climate-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Pakistan’s political crisis distracts from urgent climate challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The ongoing political turmoil<\/a> in Pakistan is distracting its government and the public from the critical challenge of climate adaptation. One of the key challenges being neglected is the aftermath of last year\u2019s August floods<\/a>, which displaced nearly eight million people in Pakistan. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centr<\/a>e named the floods the world\u2019s largest disaster displacement event in 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But ever since April 2022, when the former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan lost a no-confidence motion<\/a>, the country has seen violent face-offs and heavy-handed state action. The shift in attention has been most evident in how official periodic updates on the state of flood-affected people stopped in November 2022<\/a>, resulting in a lack of transparency regarding rehabilitation efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flood-affected population neglected<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As part of its Floods Response Plan<\/a>, Pakistan declared a need for USD 816 million to help recover from these floods. However, as of July 2023, only 67.7%<\/a> of this plan has been funded. Without the required funding, the government struggles to deliver the needs of all identified sectors. This has resulted in severe<\/a> consequences, including an \u201calarming surge<\/a>\u201d in food insecurity among those in flood-affected areas. In a joint 2023 outlook report<\/a>, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme designated Pakistan as \u201cvery high concern\u201d for food insecurity, noting the country has a \u201chigh number of people facing critical, acute food insecurity.\u201d Millions of children living near stagnant water in flood-affected areas are at risk of dying<\/a> from water-borne diseases. Many are suffering from acute malnutrition<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Recommended<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/a>\n\n\n\n

Extreme heat and other climate-induced threats<\/a> are on the horizon. But instead of ringing alarm bells and immediate action, military authoritarianism is clamping down on all forms of dissent<\/a>, peaceful protest<\/a> and freedom of speech<\/a>. Pakistan\u2019s power struggle is disrupting governance amidst a misplacement of priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khan\u2019s previous government made climate action one of its key messages, with initiatives such as a massive tree-planting programme<\/a>, pioneered in Khan\u2019s home province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and extended to the country. The current government is much more focused on infrastructural development<\/a>, but neither issue is seeing much action in the current situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bad news in the budget<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The new government\u2019s 2023-2024 fiscal budget features a 16%<\/a> hike in military spending. Meanwhile, the climate change division\u2019s budget has been slashed by more than half with a reduction of 58% from last year.<\/a> Last year, special flood-response funding was put in place for the country\u2019s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). During this fiscal round, that was removed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, there has been no budgetary increase in the NDMA\u2019s annual funding, despite a number of critical limitations it has identified<\/a> since 2022\u2019s floods. Such limitations include a lack of comprehensive flood telemetry systems, weather stations, disaster-management personnel, risk and hazard assessments and heavy-duty earthmovers. Each of these is crucial to monitoring the early signs of natural disasters and implementing a swift response, so Pakistan\u2019s vulnerability persists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Police<\/div>
Climate action has taken a back seat in Pakistan, where violent protests featuring rioting and tear gas have dominated for a year (Image: Hussain Ali \/ Alamy)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The budget cuts come in tandem with the discontinuation of some nature-based climate solutions that were spearheaded by the previous government. For example, the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami afforestation program ended<\/a> on 30 June this year, without rolling over to the new fiscal year. Elsewhere, the scaling-up of the Glacial Lake Outburst Flood project<\/a> in northern Pakistan (a flood risk reduction programme run in partnership with the UN Development Programme) is set to expire at the end of this year, with no indication of renewal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some hope, but limited time to act<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Not all the news is negative. The chapter on climate change<\/a> in Pakistan\u2019s Economic Survey 2022-2023, shows a growing allocation and \u2013 crucially \u2013 utilisation of funds from 2018 onwards for areas like water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). The Climate Adaptation Plan that was underway when the survey was released received cabinet approval<\/a> on 26 July. Pakistan\u2019s flagship Living Indus Initiative<\/a>, which caters to the most important river basin in the country, is likely to benefit from a Memorandum of Understanding signed with China<\/a> in June on water conservation, drought relief and other sustainable development matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Pakistan to fully benefit from such initiatives, however, political parties must find a way to cooperate on national priorities. There is less than half a year until COP28<\/a>. Before this, it is imperative that Pakistani leadership \u2013 across political parties \u2013 demonstrates how it is protecting those frontline communities impacted disproportionately by the climate crisis, including flood-affected displaced people. Only then, when political opponents learn to deal with domestic issues in a peaceful and stable manner, can Pakistan rightfully demand climate reparations<\/a> from those rich countries that pursued a polluting pathway to development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bruising political fight in Pakistan is confounding efforts to adequately support a population facing severe environmental threats<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":20119385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[761],"tags":[20000192,50029993,544],"country":[20000112],"class_list":["post-20119383","opinion","type-opinion","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate","tag-disasters","tag-elections","tag-finance","country-pakistan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOpinion: Pakistan's political crisis distracts from urgent climate challenges<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A bruising political fight in Pakistan is confounding efforts to adequately support a population facing severe environmental threats\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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