THE federal government has just initiated an important but overly cautious process of streamlining its institutional landscape dealing with climate change. The primary motivation is to strengthen the ability to unlock climate finances. But would establishing the Climate Change Authority, reconstituting the Climate Change Council, or updating the Rules of Business to eliminate redundancies from the climate ministry’s mandate alone help turn around the nation’s climate vulnerabilities or access international finance?
It is indeed important to delineate the roles and responsibilities of multiple players and strengthen coordination between national and provincial stakeholders. These changes, however, need to be guided by a clear roadmap of Pakistan’s climate journey. Can the process be aligned with domestic economic reforms, inclusion, and climate rights? Concurrently, can it help enhance our eligibility to avail climate finance options, which include concessional lending, trade, and investments? How can the financial flows, even if small, be accessed and made predictable to support Pakistan’s drive for resilience, rehabilitation and reconstruction after climate disasters?
Global climate initiatives announced at each Conference of the Parties, particularly since the Paris Agreement in 2015, have provided ample opportunities to interested parties to engage with the presidency of each COP to take advantage of possible opportunities. Britain, Egypt and the UAE, the presidencies of the last three COPs in Glasgow, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dubai, each announced about a dozen initiatives, inviting interested parties to join in. Several of them were backed by ambitious financial mechanisms.
These initiatives, pledges, and side deals are typically........