Climate vulnerability

It has become far too easy for the world to warn Pakistan about climate risks while offering little beyond frameworks, advice and debt-linked facilities. Whether it is the World Bank speaking of environmental fragility or the IMF promoting its Resilience and Sustainability Facility, the message is framed as support but delivered as a burden. These familiar refrains resurfaced once again at the closing plenary of the Sustainable Development Conference in Islamabad, where international financial institutions expressed deep concern over Pakistan’s escalating climate vulnerability, rapid population growth and shrinking natural resources. The remarks were presented as guidance — yet they served largely as reminders of how little has changed in the global response to the climate crisis Pakistan confronts daily.

This persistent imbalance between advice and action defines the global climate order. Pakistan is pushed to integrate climate considerations into its public financial management in a context where genuine international support has been chronically delayed or quietly diluted. The Loss and Damage Fund, celebrated as a historic breakthrough, remains largely symbolic for frontline states.

Meanwhile, adaptation financing comes slowly, and mostly as loans that strain already limited fiscal space. None of this negates Pakistan’s own obligations. Air pollution is worsening, groundwater is vanishing and environmental regulation remains weak. Rapid population growth is placing unsustainable pressure on a resource base already eroded by decades of mismanagement. The state cannot afford complacency in the hope that external help will fill the gaps. But it is equally true that no country can withstand the frequency and scale of climate disasters Pakistan faces without meaningful global assistance.

If the global community is serious about climate justice, then predictable financing and substantial grants must replace procedural promises. Pakistan is trying to act but these efforts cannot compensate for a global financing system that remains structurally unjust.