The 80th United Nations General Assembly convenes this month under the theme "Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights". For Pakistan, the session offers not just another forum for speeches, but a crucial stage to demand justice on behalf of climate-vulnerable nations.
Each word of the UNGA theme — peace, development, human rights — rings hollow when measured against the reality of climate injustice. There can be no peace when communities are repeatedly displaced by floods, no development when agriculture collapses, and no human rights when people are stripped of homes and livelihoods by a crisis they did not create.
The delegation Pakistan sends to New York must put climate change at the heart of its diplomacy. This is not a matter of prestige but of survival. With less than one per cent contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, Pakistan has become one of the top ten most climate-vulnerable states (Germanwatch Global Climate Risk Index, 2021). The injustice is clear: those who polluted least are paying the highest price.
Scientists confirm that monsoon patterns in South Asia are being intensified by climate change (IPCC AR6, 2021), a trend that raises fears of many more disasters in the future.
Pakistan's recent ordeal makes this injustice tangible. Since late June 2025, heavier-than-normal monsoon rains and cloudburst floods have claimed over 1,000 lives, inundated farmland and disrupted livelihoods. The catastrophe displaced 33 million people, destroyed 2 million homes, damaged 4.4 million acres of crops and inflicted $30 billion in economic losses. The scars of earlier floods in 2010 and 2011 are still raw, both in infrastructure and in memory.
The country's experience with previous disasters only strengthens the case. In 2010, unprecedented floods displaced 20 million people and caused losses of more than $10 billion (World Bank, 2010 Post-Disaster Needs Assessment). The following year, Sindh was hit again, with nine million affected. In 2022, the devastation was catastrophic: a third of the country under water, 33 million people affected, 1,700 dead, and $30 billion in losses (World Bank, 2022 Damage and Needs Assessment). That single event pushed nine million more Pakistanis below the poverty line.
Pakistan's vulnerability is compounded by geography. Accelerated melting of over 7,000 glaciers — the largest concentration outside the poles — now brings both short-term floods and long-term water scarcity. Record-breaking heatwaves, with temperatures soaring above 50°C, have triggered heatstroke and dehydration among vulnerable communities while stunting crops. Agriculture, the backbone of Pakistan's economy, is at the mercy of a climate crisis it did not create.
This is the message Pakistan's delegation must carry to New York: climate justice is not charity but obligation. In 2021, Pakistan submitted its revised Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), pledging an unconditional 15% reduction in emissions by 2030 and a conditional 35% cut if finance and technology were made available. It committed to raising renewables to 60% of the energy mix and electric vehicle adoption to 30% by 2030. These are ambitious goals for a struggling economy. Without global support, they will remain ink on paper.
On the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Pakistan adopted them as national policy in 2016. Yet the UNDP's Integrated SDG Insights Report 2023 reveals that the country is on track for only 35 out of 169 targets. Climate shocks such as the 2022 floods have rolled back years of progress, while the financing gap is estimated at 16% of GDP annually. At COP29 in Baku, Pakistan endorsed the Declaration on Children, Youth and Climate Action, acknowledging the generational stakes. But commitments without financing are meaningless.
Pakistan's delegation should cite these facts directly in their speeches and bilateral meetings during the UNGA session. They must remind the world that unless climate justice is embedded into multilateral action, the UN risks hollowing out its own theme of "peace, development and human rights".
Yet, it would be dishonest to ignore Pakistan's internal failures. A recent report by The Citizenry and Climate Action Centre shows that Sindh province received Rs48.8 billion in climate-related allocations from 2007-2023/24, but only Rs20.2 billion was spent. The Sindh Directorate of Climate Change, allocated Rs40 million, reported zero expenditure. In other words, funds were earmarked for climate-related projects but not a single rupee was utilised.
The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency used just 10% of its Rs3.4 billion budget, while the Provincial Disaster Management Authority spent only 23% of its Rs20.5 billion allocation.
The pattern of mismanagement is depressingly familiar. After the 2005 earthquake, the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), created to oversee recovery, quickly became a byword for inefficiency. Billions of rupees in funds earmarked for rebuilding schools, hospitals and housing either lapsed or vanished into questionable contracts. In 2011, the Auditor General of Pakistan flagged irregularities of over Rs7 billion in ERRA's accounts, citing ghost projects and unauthorised procurements.
More recently, the NDMA has faced similar scrutiny: the Auditor General's 2023-24 report raised Rs28.62 billion in audit objections, of which only Rs2.65 billion was recovered. The report detailed unauthorised expenditures from the National Disaster Management Fund, overpriced tenders, and violations of procurement rules.
In short, weakened by institutional fragility and political interference, Pakistan's disaster management bodies have become toothless structures that add to disasters rather than reduce them.
Therefore, when Pakistan pleads for climate justice, it must also demonstrate climate accountability. The world will not take our demands seriously if we cannot spend even our own budgets transparently.
Still, the inequity remains stark. Developed economies can absorb shocks with resilient infrastructure and fiscal cushions. Poor countries like Pakistan face devastation and decades-long recovery. The principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" enshrined in climate agreements should not be treated just as a slogan but as a recipe for survival.
At UNGA, Pakistan must press this case forcefully: that climate finance is a debt owed, not aid bestowed; that emissions must be reduced urgently by those most responsible; and that loss and damage funding must be operationalised swiftly.
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