With no end to future pandemics in sight, Pakistan needs to brace itself for the looming health crisis compounded by the impacts of climate change. Since the onset of covid-19 in 2020, innovations in science and support from the international community facilitated governments in creating vaccines to tackle its hazardous health impact. However, to mitigate its effects and to prevent outbreak of contagious diseases, international governments have to work towards addressing the environmental crisis.
Since 2020 we are all living the consequences of our broken relationship with nature. Covid-19 and other zoonotic diseases have emerged owing to the over-exploitation of natural resources. Intensive industrial agriculture, changes in the way land is being used, and unsustainable trade, production and consumption, have contributed towards deadly diseases through frequent contact between wildlife, pathogens and humans.
Climate change is real and its impact is long lasting. It is one of the greatest development challenges Pakistan is currently grappling with. The country, owing to its geographic location is prone to natural disasters and over the years has witnessed extreme weather events, heatwaves, floods, droughts and other such events that impeded its economic growth. The Global Climate Risk Index has placed it among the ten countries most affected by climate change. It loses 0.52 percent of GDP per unit on an annual basis due to climate-change-induced catastrophes. The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda calls upon Pakistan to combat climate change, as it is adversely impacting agriculture and livestock sectors, the main contributors to the country’s economy.
Owing to limited resources, lack of adequate fiscal space and competing urgent priorities in fiscal policy responses such as covid-19, Pakistan needs to work on increasing the flow of climate finance into the economy. The government has acknowledged the importance of integrating climate change into the mainstream planning and budgeting processes. It accepts climate change is no more a niche issue that could be addressed in isolation. but needs to be incorporated in all the strategic and policy documents that govern the economy such as Medium-Term Budgetary Framework and Budget documents. The process of integration requires a deep insight to the impact of climate change on Pakistan’s finances. Such sectoral medium-term strategic plans ensure that climate-related projects and initiatives, with cost estimates, are set out in a succinct manner. This includes clear policy targets for climate change including mitigation and adaptation.
If the government fully realizes the importance of wisely allocating and spending budget on climate related activities, we would be able to combat major disasters and contagious diseases that stem from it. Besides, it must be ensured that climate funds are decided and spent by the local people, the process should be inclusive and participatory and need to bring women in each and every step of the way. If the government fully realizes the importance of wisely allocating and spending budget on climate related activities, we would be able to combat major disasters and contagious diseases that stem from it. Besides, it must be ensured that climate funds are decided and spent by the local people, the process should be inclusive and participatory and need to bring women in each and every step of the way.
The process of integrating climate change at the provincial level shall be aligned with the budget planning and approval component of the Public Financial Management (PFM) cycle. Provincial governments must take all the necessary steps to include climate change components in the pre-budget document stage and take into account the aspects of climate change and costs of adaptation and mitigation in macro-economic analysis, macro-fiscal forecasts and in devising budget strategy.
Moreover, provincial governments must take up the responsibility to highlight climate-related issues during the budget preparation stage and make them a part of budget circulars and guidelines, sectoral and annual development plans and allocations. Finally, budget review, budget approval and accountability stage shall ensure that all financial elements of climate change are addressed in the processes.In order to ensure smooth and effective integration of climate change into budgeting, governments have to align reform measures with the budget cycle and clearly define roles of all the important stakeholders including relevant government departments.
In Pakistan, the devastating impacts of climate change requires a well-coordinated response from federal and provincial governments. A clear plan of action needs to be formulated to mobilize adequate finances to mitigate and adapt to climate breakdown. Climate finance in a developing country like Pakistan could be drawn from public, private and other alternative sources of finance such as the global Green Climate Fund
However, the challenge for any developing country is to find a way to access the climate fund as getting money out of it is quite a cumbersome task. The federal and the provincial governments of Punjab and KP allocated over $5billion during the FY 2019-20 and 2020-21 out of which $3.811 billion was spent on climate-related activities. Nonetheless, the question remains whether such allocations are being used properly and are they reaching the vulnerable population?
Through the Climate Budget Tagging tool, the governments are able to track their climate budget, know what they are spending and where the money is flowing. The Government of Punjab has already taken the initiative to raise awareness around the importance of climate budget tagging and is holding capacity-building workshops to equip officials with the necessary skills to be able to tag climate-related expenditures in the existing database. The government is using Financial Accounting and Budgetary System (FABS) data to facilitate aggregation of separate climate related elements. The process of climate budget tagging is carried out through first identifying climate- related expenditure if it is for adaptation or mitigation purposes, classifying climate-related expenditure and assessing the climate relevance of expenditure in the budget.
If the government fully realizes the importance of wisely allocating and spending budget on climate related activities, we would be able to combat major disasters and contagious diseases that stem from it. Besides, it must be ensured that climate funds are decided and spent by the local people, the process should be inclusive and participatory and need to bring women in each and every step of the way.
