IT’S CLIMATE EMERGENCY NOT CLIMATE CHANGE: UNCONDITIONAL NEED FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE & EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE IN THIS CATASTROPHE.
Climate justice is an essential moral and ethical value and may be regarded as one that tries to identify how climate change adversely affects vulnerable communities and future generations. It promotes the fair sharing of the burden brought about by the climatic change and the obligation in terms of mitigation measuring an imperative awareness of advocacy and policy change.
The idea reflects the notion that the impact of a changing climate including its harsh nature of extreme weather patterns, increased sea levels, and resource scarcity is not equally dispersed. Rather, the marginalized and underprivileged groups are frequently the targets of the influence, even though they have played a small role in the causative factors. Climate justice advocates, therefore, promote fair solutions that address the needs of the most vulnerable, attempt to halt the greenhouse gas emissions issue, and make sure that the costs and the benefits of addressing the issue should be shared in an equitable manner taking into account historical and systematic injustices
The notion of climate justice becomes even more urgent and complicated in the particular context of Pakistan. The socio-economic disparities that already exist in the country go a long way in enhancing the effects of environmental hazards, hence the need to pursue equitable distribution of climate losses and gains becomes even more important. When phenomena of climate change, like catastrophic floods or decades of drought, hit the society, which already struggles with the inequality problems, it is not a summation of issues; it grasps and increases the injustices that are already there. The marginalized groups who usually have little in terms of resources, infrastructure, and safety nets are by definition less suited to respond to or overcome climate shocks.
“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring
-Pablo Neruda
from coming.”
PAKISTAN: THE MOST CLIMATE VULNERABLE COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
Pakistan is exceptionally susceptible to climate change whereby harsh realities like glacial melting, soaring temperature, acute water shortages, and heavy displacement due to climate change are ubiquitous. Wide range of climatic extremes, such as the snow-capped mountains along the Northern border and the coastal regions along the Southern flank, makes the country pretty vulnerable to all the climatic related risks. These are the glacial lake outburst floods, excessive rains, elongated droughts, severe heatwaves, and sea level rise.
In spite of the fact that Pakistan makes up less than 1 percent of global greenhouse gas emission, it is often listed among the most climate-vulnerable nations in the world. It has been reported that it might be the most climate-vulnerable nation to the whole world by 2025. According to other analyses, including the Global Climate Risk Indexing, Pakistan is considered the fifth most climate-vulnerable global country and Trinity 4 Inform Risk Index ranks Pakistan 23rd out of 194 states in the world in terms of risk exposure to the disaster.
The society suffers tremendous social and economic losses as a result of frequent weather related calamities. The devastating floods of 2022 alone led to the estimated losses of more than USD 30 billion. This flood has affected 33 million individuals as well as displaced approximately 8 million citizens. Moving forward, the overall economic price of not acting on climate change as faced by Pakistan is expected to have the mind-blowing figure of 1.2 trillion dollars by 2050.
Moreover, it constitutes the moral and pragmatic foundation of the leading role of Pakistan in the establishment and implementation of global climate finance mechanisms, including the Loss and Damage Fund. This imbalance is reiterated in the Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) 2024 of the nation to make a strong case of why the developed countries must increase their climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building provisions to tackle this high-stakes situation among the nations of the world.
A Timeline of Devastating Floods since the Inception of Pakistan
The history of Pakistan has been long and destructive when it comes to such natural disasters as floods, as in total, 29 major floods and inundations have occurred since independence in 1947. The first traces of a major flood were reported in 1950 followed by a similar trend of occurrence in the second half of 20th century with major floods being registered in 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, and 1995.
The arising trend in the 21st century which is most threatening is the rising number and intensity of such disasters. Since the year 2010, Pakistan has experienced major flooding almost annually. It is a fairly routine event that has been occurring every year, highlighting an important shift in the trend which means that climate change is making the situation worse.
The shift of the relatively rare and occurring major floods in the 20th century to almost an annual event since 2010 is a solid empirical confirmation of a climate change signal in Pakistan. Although there have been a number of contributing factors to the historical floods, the regularity at which they occur annually signifies the inherent changes in the way the monsoons have been and the increased glacier melt, directly correlates to the global warming.
This implies that the problem of floods in Pakistan does not qualify to be referred to as an isolated natural disaster anymore; as it has transformed into a recurrent climate induced disaster. The trend forces the fact that flood management cannot be a reactive emergency management anymore; instead, it is a systemic problem of climate adaptation. With human and economic costs rising alarmingly, it needs long term proactive planning and a continuous investment in the deployment of resilience mechanisms, not just the relief efforts after the disaster to meet these rising expenditures.
The floods that keep occurring in Pakistan have accrued immense direct and indirect costs both on lives and economies, with the recent occurrence indicating the augmentation of destruction.
- 1992 Flood: It was a disaster causing death of 1,008 people, destruction of 13,208 villages and 38,758 square kilometers of land was flooded.
- 1995 Flood: This was another flood that killed 2 190 people, 10 000 villages and flooded out 17 920 square kilometers of prime land in the country.
- 2010 Flood: Extreme monsoon led to one of the calamitous floods in Pakistan. It affected 160.000km2 of the land and claimed 1985 lives and 17553 villages submerged. It affected around a fifth of the total land of Pakistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was the worst-affected area where over 90 percent of all the deaths took place. Floodwaters then moved down south into the Indus River destroying western Punjab at least 1.4 million acres of farmlands as well as southern province of Sindh. The healthcare infrastructure was also devastated by the floods causing water-borne diseases outbreak and having a strong effect on the power grid, which was damaged by nearly 10,000 transmission lines and transformers. The long-term impacts were enormous destruction of agriculture worth over 2.9 billion dollars, loss of 200,000 livestock, and the destruction of thousands of miles of road and rail systems.
- 2022 Floods: The devastating floods drowned about a third of the country and affected the lives of some 33 million people mostly in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. The disaster resulted in a direct loss of 1,739 lives, direct damage of 14.9 billion dollars and economic loss of 15.2 billion dollars, which represented 4.8 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of that year. Balochistan and Sindh recorded record rainfall, with Sindh having 784 percent more rainfall than the average August rainfall, and Balochistan recording 500 percent more rainfall than August averages.
More than 2.2 million houses were destroyed with 82 percent of them in Sindh. More than 1,170,000 livestock lost their lives, more than 43 percent being in Balochistan, and 37 percent in Sindh. As well, thousands of kilometers of roads (more than 8,100 kilometers, 64 percent of the total in Sindh) and hundreds of bridges (439, with 38 percent of the total in Sindh and 24 percent in KP) were destroyed, which slowed the movement over the impacted areas.
The floods displaced 7.9 million of people with close to 600,000 in relief sites. The disaster had highly worsened the food security situation in the nation and triggered the spread of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dengue fever, and malaria, and skin infections.
The comparative and continuous negative effects of significant floods and especially the very similar patterns of destruction in 2010 and 2022 signify that an existing and dire lack exists in the disaster management process within Pakistan. Even though disaster management structure with multiple levels has been institutionalized in 2007, the fact that disasters continue to cause widespread damage indicates more structural problems. These are institutional disintegration, inadequate enforcement power, poor utilization of climate finance structures, and lack of voicing the vulnerable groups in decision-making.
Moreover, other causes of this deterioration such as mismanagement of the countries water resource, poor and vintage infrastructure, lack of preparedness in the case of a disaster, political decision making, deforestation and misuse of land have largely contributed to the situation. What adds to the problem is the existence of little early warning systems and slow emergency relief actions.
This means that rising frequency and intensity of climate events is not only a challenge but is heavily compounded by inherent governance and infrastructural shortfalls which increase their lethal potency. This fact renders climate justice an issue of good governance, distribution of resources fairly, and resilience building where investment in resilience must be endurable and strong enough to save its citizens who are vulnerable.
Climate governance: policies initiatives for climate action
First environmental legislation: Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997 (PEPA)
The Pakistan Environmental Protection Act (PEPA) came into force in 1997 and has been used as a cornerstone legal tool to govern the country in terms of its environmental management. The act presents a comprehensive set of rules, standards, and guidelines on how to tackle various challenges in the environment, such as air and water pollution, waste and biodiversity conservation. PEPA gives to Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to develop and enforce environmental standards, undertake statutory environmental impact assessment for new projects, and proactively establish and enhance activities on sustainable development practices in the whole nation.
Although PEPA was a landmark legislative position as it provided a sort of institutional platform to environmental protection in Pakistan, it is worth mentioning a conceptual gap. In its original version, the Act did not touch the issue of climate change per se and did not integrate the elements of climate justice. What this suggests is that the bedrock environmental legislation was mostly concentrated on conventional internal pollution and conservation approaches and before climate change was internally accepted as an independent, comprehensive, justice-related risk, one that necessitated a broader and specialized legislative apparatus.
This early emphasis was based on the environmental issues at the time. As a result, as climate change developed a better understanding of its systemic characteristics and the severe consequences of the issue to human rights and equity, it became imperative to create the following, highly focused legislation that would specifically deal with these aspects. This course of action shows that legal and policy changes in Pakistan are part of an evolving process that is informed by the growing knowledge about the problem but also by the growing need to address climate-related problems within the country.
NATIONAL CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY (2012/2021)
In continuation of the previous strategies on the environment, Pakistan designed a more practical climate framework known as its National Climate Change Policy (NCCP). This policy was originally accepted in the year 2012 and later revised in the year 2021 to deliver a powerful national plan to handle the climate change issue. The NCCP lists strategic priorities and steps needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the inevitable climate change effects, and to ensure sustainable development in all sectors.
One of the fundamental principles of the policy is that the policy looks into integrating climate implications in all policies and programs in sectors and to develop more research, capacity-building, and international collaboration to address issues that arise due to climatic changes. The policy lays particular focus on key areas that present a major concern in terms of national security and resilience that is water security, food security, energy security, disaster preparedness and ecosystem protection.
In spite of being exhaustive and expressing clear objectives in major areas, the successful operation of the National Climate Change Policy has been significantly derailed by intense challenges. This underscores a very serious and longstanding gap between the high expectations set out on paper and the actual implementation on the ground.
The frequency of this problem in the climate governance of Pakistan indicates that the policy itself is good in theory, but fails to achieve real results as a result of practical obstacles. These bottlenecks are likely to be integrated with the lack of lasting political commitment, inadequate and unstable supply of resources, low capacity, and problems of effective enforcement systems. Unless a serious attempt is made to eliminate such hindrances in its operations, the ideals of climate justice reflected in the policy about maximizing outcomes in a fair way in safeguarding the individuals who are vulnerable are mostly an idea but not achieved on the ground.
Pakistan Climate Change Act 2017 & Establishment of PCCC and PCCA
Pakistan has made a significant step forward towards institutionalizing climate governance in the country with the adoption of the Pakistan Climate Change Act in 2017, marking a new turning point in the climate legislation of the country. This historic Act formed two important institutions that are intended to facilitate and spearhead climate action, namely the Pakistan Climate Change Council (PCCC) and the Pakistan Climate Change Authority (PCCA).
The PCCC as an inter-ministerial high level body is headed by the Prime Minister, which demonstrates the priority the country has given to the issue of climate change. It is a multi-based structure that comprises various federal and provincial ministers in charge of climate change, finance, agriculture, and other important areas, and chief ministers of the provinces, as well as up to thirty non-official experts representing chambers of commerce, non-governmental organizations, and scientific communities.
The mandate of the Council is wide and most important: it has been mandated to coordinate and oversee the implementation of the provisions of the Act, monitoring the implementation of the international climate agreements and oversee the mainstreaming of the concerns on climate change in decision-making processes at all federal and provincial government ministries, divisions, departments, and agencies.
The objective of this holistic strategy is to create the integrated climate-compatible and climate-resilient development in the context of several sectors of the economy. The PCCC will also be tasked in approving and supervising policies, strategies, and adaptation programs such as National Adaptation Plan, National Communication which is submitted to UNFCCC as well as guidelines to protection resources and biodiversity facing threats of climate change.
The Act also added to the Council, with the explicit creation of the Pakistan Climate Change Authority (PCCA). Although details regarding the composition of the Authority have not been given in the provided information, establishing the authority through the Act implies that the said authority would help in shaping policies and measures that the Council would then approve which would then operationalize the PCCC strategic directives.
The development of such institutional mechanisms by the Pakistan Climate Change Act was a clear effort to close the long standing loopholes between policy formulation and actual enforcement which had been a common challenge to previous environmental and climate action. The Act, by making the governance of climate an institutionalized process with specific bodies having well-defined mandates, was aimed at improving the coordination, enhancing accountability and offering just a more predictable structure in tackling the fearsome climate issues faced by Pakistan. But, in the end, effectiveness of these institutions is largely determined by the level of political commitment, proper funding and resulting enforcement that can convert legislative intent into positive climate justice results.
Environmental Jurisprudence: Landmark Precedents on Climate Action
Despite the political case, the role of judiciary of Pakistan has been panicle. The environmental jurisprudence has played a pivotal role in ensure the proper implementation and awareness among the people. these are few cases which hold a precedential stature to be cited;
Shehla Zia Case:
This was the landmark case in front of Supreme Court of Pakistan and was the first to establish landmark status of environmental rights in Pakistan. The petition was filed by the petitioners led by Shehla Zia to contest the construction of a grid station by the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) on a residential area on the basis that this would create the chances of environmental pollution and a right to life and property.
When the case was heard as a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, the Supreme Court took cognizance of the fact that the constitutional right to life comprised the right to a healthy and clean environment as well. This verdict was a watershed since it opened the door to environmental litigation in the country and effectively led to the later drafting of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act of 1997 as an environmental governance becomes a constitutional requirement in Pakistan.
It can be submitted that when requests were made to respondents not to construct such grid station in discrimination of fundamental rights, it was not paid heed to by them. It was held that Supreme Court took cognizance of the matter under Article 184(3) because the word life, in terms of Article 9 of the Constitution, is so broad that the menace and invasion alleged would interfere with fundamental right of a citizen.
What is Right to Life is not expressly defined in the constitutional law of Pakistan. Right to life is an open ended guaranteed provision of our Constitution. But taking into consideration the international knowledge on the problem and having taken into account the connotations of the meaning of life, as it is stated in US and India, the Supreme Court stated it as following:
“The word
life' is very significant as it covers all facets of human existence. The wordlife’ has not been defined in the Constitution but it does not mean nor can it be restricted
only to the vegetative or animal life or mere existence from conception to death. Life
includes all such amenities and facilities which a person born in a free country, is entitled
to enjoy with dignity, legally and constitutionally.”
Khewra Salt Mine case (1994 SCMR 2061):
The second petition was General Secretary v. This case, (Director Industries vs. Residents and mine workers of Khewra), was initiated in the name of residents and mine workers of Khewra over the pollution of water supply source to those residents and mine workers. Lease by the government to the mines had shortened the area of water reservoir which serves the people with drinking water as well as the poisonous water, which flows out of the mines, contaminates the drinking water reservoir with poisonous water.
There was also an allegation that the allotment and granting of lease to miner in the water catchment area is malafides and illegal. The Supreme Court gave notices which were addressed to the respondents under it Article 184 (3).
The Court noted that the claim of the petitioners pronouncement, though made in broad sense actually is to enforce the right of the inhabitants to access clean and unpolluted water. Referring to the previous order on Shehla Zia case the Court upheld its definition on the term to the word life and admitted the petition on the conclusion that the polluted water will cause serious threat on human existence. The scope of Article 184(3) of the Constitution was also debated so as to determine its significance and the statement that the Court must interpret the constitutional law in a liberal and vibrant manner. It was aptly noted
Asghar Leghari vs Federation of Pakistan Case:
The same was heard in Lahore High Court and petitioned by a Pakistani farmer and lawyer called Asghar Leghari against the federal government due to its lack of implementation of the National Climate Change Policy 2012 and its framework. The court discovered that the failure by government to take any action regarding climate policy violated important expectations like life, human dignity, water, food, and energy security.
The ruling resulted in the decision to establish a Climate Change Commission by the court to oversee the implementation of policies by the executives and a demand to have future judicial checking of the actions. This case directly appealed the notion of climate justice as a descendant of environmental justice with its focus on equity, human rights, intergenerational responsibility and equitable apportionment of climate change costs and benefits. The ruling of the court changed how climate is governed in Pakistan as it forced the state to be liable under the law over failure to act on climate adaptation and mitigation.
D.G Khan Cement Company v. Government of Punjab (2021 S C M R 834)
The case involves a notice by the Government of Punjab under section 3 and 11 of the Punjab Industries (control of Establishment and Enlargement) ordinance, 1963 declaring some portions of District Chakwal and Khushab to be a negative Area outlawing the setting up of new cement factories and enlargement of existing cement factories in these areas. The D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd., that has a cement manufacturing facility at the site of the notification, objected to the notification on multiple grounds, including a lack of jurisdiction, scientific study on the water level, failure to provide hearing and violation of right to trade and it also alleged discrimination on cement manufacturers.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan affirmed the notification, as it found that the Provincial Government was justified in declaring an area a Negative Area under the Ordinance and that it was done in the best interest of the people so far as organized and planned industrialization is concerned. This Court supported the obligation to sustainable development and the precautionary principle in the realm of environment law according to which the ban on the industrial activities within the Negative Area was not permanent and might be altered in case of appearance of new circumstances. Climate democracy and intergenerational justice were also noticed in the Court.
climate change.
Despite that, there are myriad other precedents which can be cited on this matter, but the most significant thing is to further creating awareness among the mass that they can understand the gravity of this life-threating catastrophe, next paragraphs with explore that policy recommendations and way forward, that what one can do to mitigate the horrendous ramification of climate change in Pakistan.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Water scarcity and flood management
Flood Management and Water Security continues to be a staple issue in the Pakistan climate policy that is very much accentuated by the recent flood events in the areas like Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab. The National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) focuses on enhancing water storage capacity coupled with improvement of irrigation systems and flood protection infrastructure alongside enhanced pre-planning against disasters in anticipation of the changes of the risk of increasing flood due to melting of glaciers and the more unpredictable monsoon rains.
These have been reconfirmed by recent devastating floods in Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab especially in 2025. Gilgit-Baltistan is experiencing increased glacier recession, accelerated floods and flash floods caused by rapid glacial lake outbursts (GLOFs), whereas in Punjab, riverine floods of tributaries of the Indus Basin triggered by intense monsoon rains still cause extensive destruction.
Policies on managing floods by the government involve rehabilitation and construction of major dams such as Tarbela and Mangla dams- though not a commendable step to invest billion of dollars on concrete wall with a maximum storage capacity of 10MAF, when the floods came with the capacity of 30 to 50 MAF’s flow of water. Moreover, building of embankments and land spurs as well as installation of advanced meteorological and hydrological monitoring to provide early warning at community level. The awareness among the people, development of capacities within the communities that are prone to floods, forms an important element of any strategy taken to minimize human lives lost and disruption of the economy.
Pakistan is still experiencing institutional and legislative weaknesses in implementation of flood management. At present, Pakistan has no comprehensive enforceable Flood management legislation and also it has poor coordination and capacities in Flood risk management institutions that include NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority), PDMAs (Provincial Disaster Management Authorities) and the local district level. Take, for instance, most District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) are poorly resourced and lack sustainable budgets and trained human resources that introduce weaknesses in pre-disaster preparation and emergency response at lower tiers. With these inadequacies in the organization, the flood fighting and rehabilitation efforts often are unable to keep up with the requirements despite flood contingency plans and post-monsoon rehabilitation operations.
International climate justice commissions and other forums must consider the vulnerability of climate effected countries and their losses in climate enigmatic events. Similarly, the COP conferences and other international submits on climate change has contested the case of these counties that they must be provided with the financial, infrastructural, and even educational and technological assistance to develop the capacity to mitigate the climate emergency. but still the power houses of the world and industrial arena in exportation, namely, USA, and China the biggest emitter of the CO2 or not concerned about this disaster.
secondly, the climate change is not border bound, it will effected regardless, but those counties, which are close to the young mountains of the world, with 13000 glaciers or those counties which are on the verge of the coastal lines are facing horrendous effect of the destruction. world must act now to create and implement strict global laws to manage, counter and implement global climate justice and effective governance of this conundrum.
