Why is Pakistan still groping for climate finance?

At every international climate summit, Pakistan makes the same argument, and makes it well. We contribute a sliver of global emissions, yet we drown, burn and wither. The 2022 floods turned a third of the country into a lake, and the gap between what we need and what we receive is now a fixture of our diplomacy. But there is a question we rarely ask in the corridors of Islamabad or on the panels of Karachi. If the money arrived tomorrow, who would know what to do with it?

Climate finance is not a cheque. It is a discipline that sits where climate science, economics, banking, public policy and project appraisal meet. A grant proposal that cannot withstand a cost-benefit test will not survive a donor's review. A bankable renewable energy project needs someone who can model cash flows, price risk and structure debt. Our deficit, then, is not only a deficit of dollars. It is a deficit of people who can speak all these languages at once.

Here lies an uncomfortable irony. Climate science is indispensable, and nothing in this column should be read otherwise. But in Pakistan, the climate conversation has often been treated as the property of scientists and environmental science graduates. An economist who raises a question about mitigation costs, or a banker who asks about adaptation returns, can find herself politely dismissed as non-technical. The word does a great deal of quiet damage. It tells capable professionals that this field is not for them.

The distinction matters, and it cuts both ways. Knowing how the atmosphere behaves does not tell you how to structure a blended finance facility. Knowing how to run a balance sheet does not tell you whether a flood defence will hold. Neither qualification, alone, makes anyone a climate finance specialist. We should also be honest about a related assumption. A degree in environmental science does not automatically signal deep climate expertise. Climate change entered many Pakistani curricula only recently, and dedicated coursework was historically thin in several programmes. This is not an accusation against any university or graduate. It is a reminder that the label on a degree is not the same as the knowledge behind it.

Meanwhile, a large reservoir of talent sits untouched. Pakistan has bankers, treasury officers, investment analysts, corporate finance managers and economists who understand capital, risk and return. With structured, multidisciplinary training, many could become the climate finance specialists we lack. Instead, the perception that this territory belongs to environmental professionals keeps them away. That is not a minor missed opportunity. It is a self-inflicted shortage.

Part of the confusion lies in how narrowly climate finance is understood. To some it means grants from rich countries. To others it means donor assistance, or private investment in solar and wind. To still others it is a synonym for adaptation funding. It is none of these alone. It is the craft of combining public budgets, concessional loans, grants, commercial capital and guarantees so that a climate objective becomes financially possible. That requires asking hard questions. What does the project cost? What is the present value of its benefits? Who bears the risk? Is it environmentally meaningful, economically justified and financially sustainable all at once?

Consider a farmer in Sindh choosing between heat-tolerant seed and a new irrigation system, or a municipality weighing flood-resilient drainage against the cost of repeated damage. Consider a bank deciding whether a rooftop solar loan portfolio is sound. Each case needs the scientist's understanding of the hazard, the economist's valuation of the benefit and the financier's eye for repayment. Remove any one and the decision becomes guesswork.

This is where the problem turns institutional. The State Bank has issued green banking guidelines, and ESG expectations and a national green taxonomy are taking shape. These are welcome steps, and it would be unfair to say nothing is happening. But rules do not implement themselves. A taxonomy is only as useful as the people who apply it. If banks, businesses and government departments lack professionals who grasp both the financial instruments and the climate science underneath, compliance becomes trial and error, with each institution interpreting new requirements through whatever limited understanding it happens to have.

Some are trying to fill the vacuum. Climate Action Skills Foundation, a Karachi-based organisation, has announced an Advanced Certificate in Climate Finance, built on its own modest resources. Such efforts deserve respect. But a cohort of fifteen or twenty participants cannot answer a national shortage. The real question is why our universities and academic policymakers have not yet offered a comprehensive pathway of their own.

Climate finance should become a recognised major, specialisation or interdisciplinary programme. Finance and economics students should be able to elect climate science, environmental studies and climate policy. Environmental science students should be able to study investment analysis, economics and financial management. Leading private universities, with their flexibility and resources, are well placed to pioneer this. The aim is not to replace scientists with bankers, or the reverse. It is to produce professionals fluent in the language, limits and demands of both.

Pakistan cannot build climate finance capacity by keeping science, economics and finance in separate silos. We have asked the world to pay for the damage. Now we must ask who will understand the bill, structure the solution and spend the money wisely.