CLIMATE governance in Pakistan is flawed. It is ineffective and unresponsive to climate threats. Its ability to deliver climate actions to communities across the provinces is limited. In its present shape, it cannot help turn around the economy in various sectors. The Supreme Court’s recent suo motu notice and the constitution of an inter-ministerial committee by the prime minister have rekindled hopes that some institutional ills — fragmented legislations, unclear institutional mandates, and archaic rules and regulations — may be rectified.

After the Paris Agreement was signed, the Nawaz Sharif government passed the Climate Change Act, 2017, primarily to enable the implementation of the global climate agreement through the creation of three interrelated institutions: the Climate Change Council (CCC), the Climate Change Authority (CCA), and the Climate Change Fund (CCF).

Zahid Hamid, the minister concerned at the time, championed the Act, but it was never implemented on account of two factors causing unease: a) it would undermine the 18th Amendment and provincial powers would be recentralised by the federal government; b) since almost all functions of the climate ministry were assigned to the CCA, there were fears that it faced the prospects of dissolution. The Act has since languished in a bureaucratic maze. Neither the Supreme Court nor the government can move forward meaningfully without addressing these lingering apprehensions.

Successive governments have sidestepped these misgivings. Parliamentary interest, let alone oversight, has remained weak, and momentum on the initial intent has been lost. Imran Khan’s government did not set up the CCA or CCF. Led by Malik Amin Aslam,........

© Dawn