Awaiting climate justice

Pakistan's catastrophic 2022 floods - described by the UN as a "monsoon on steroids" - left the country reeling under more than $30 billion in damages. Yet, three years on, the global community's response remains dishearteningly hollow. As Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal revealed this week, Pakistan received a mere $600 million in foreign assistance, while the rest of the so-called aid came in the form of loans, often repackaged from existing financial facilities.

The world's fifth most climate-vulnerable country continues to pay for a crisis it did not cause. This failure is about the global North's moral bankruptcy on climate reparations - where the victims are forced to borrow from their aggressors to rebuild what their emissions destroyed. The government's recent decision to rely on domestic resources instead of "external crutches" is both pragmatic and telling. It reflects Pakistan's loss of faith in an international system that has repeatedly failed to deliver. But this inward turn comes at a cost. With Rs822 billion in damages - including Rs430 billion in agriculture and Rs307 billion in infrastructure - the fiscal strain will further tighten an already fragile economy. As the world heads toward another round of climate negotiations, Pakistan's experience should serve as an example of caution and global negligence. Without tangible action, international climate forums risk becoming annual exercises in hypocrisy. Climate reparations must no longer be deferred to bureaucratic committees or couched in ambiguous "aid" packages. The global North must pay up as a moral and historical obligation.

If the world can mobilise billions overnight for wars, it can certainly mobilise funds to rebuild lives lost to floods. Pakistan's swollen rivers and shattered fields will remain a standing indictment of the world's failure to deliver climate justice until international obligations are not met.