Pakistan has had its fair share of climate change in the recent past. The recent smog in Punjab was just a reminder for the analysts and the policymakers to buckle up. The country’s vulnerability to climate change is well acknowledged having faced floods, earthquakes, heat waves, and droughts that have adversely affected the life, property as well as economic growth.
The role of government and institutions is paramount to keeping the issue alive and ultimately transform the system into a resilient one. However, countries like Pakistan have suffered from lack of governance, and weak institutions, in turn failing to address the issues at hand. This column will look at the policies and actions taken by the government - and their effectiveness - over the years for climate change, summarised by the Asian Development Bank in its report called ‘Climate Change Profile of Pakistan’.
Surprisingly, institutionalization of climate change in Pakistan dates back to the 70’s where it took first environmental steps. In 30 years from 1971-2001, the country signed and approved 14 international environmental commitments that included Kyoto Protocol, and UN Framework Convention for Climate Change amongst others. However, these efforts didn’t yield much due to the country’s infamous coordination between departments and lack of political will and resources.
Later in 2010, the Ministry of Environment was devolved to the provinces under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Subsequently in 2011, a new Ministry of Disaster Management was set up, which was later renamed to become Ministry of Climate Change in 2012. This ministry saw demotion to a division with budget slashed, and then up-gradation again in subsequent years. Today, environment is under provincial governments, while climate change remains a federal subject.
Unfortunately, actions and implementations by the government institutions were not as swift as the changes in status had been. Lack of political will or eagerness and fickle policy focus inflicted the progress. Though climate change and environment has been institutionalized, the evolution of acceptance of the issue has taken too long. Like many other departments, the government’s approach has been patchy, resting mostly on ad hoc reaction. In short, there has been little long term strategizing.
At present, climate change is largely represented by the government’s disaster risk management arrangements. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) deals with environment and climate related issues whereas Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) are the provincial and district level bodies with interrelated objectives. Even though NDMA has had a strong political support, it too suffers from lack of funds, capacity and research.
As for the policies, National Climate Change Policy (2012) is the main policy framework for climate change in Pakistan, which was eventually launched in 2013. This is the first comprehensive policy that addressed the challenges the country faces now and in future due to climate change. The focus of the policy is on both adaptive and mitigation strategies to combat the adverse effects of climate change but prioritize adaptation measures.
The biggest challenge the policy faces is the implementation. Though the policy sets forth an action plan, ADB highlights in its report, “NCCP has made policy implementation contingent upon devising an “action plan” at the federal, provincial, and local government levels. With much confusion and limited understanding of the administrative and legal powers of the regulations, policies, and programs transferred to the provinces, there seems to be less interest in adopting a policy with less clear directives.” It further adds that the government is busy in prioritizing some other more immediate threats like terrorism and energy shortfall. Other challenges of NCCP, it points out, include the conflicting or overlapping objectives, responsibilities, and priorities between provinces and federal agencies.
The country does have a detailed policy on paper; it is the implementation and execution of the policy – something common in many departments – that remain a bottleneck. Vertical and horizontal coordination efforts between federal, provincial, and local governments with involvement of all stakeholders are described as the most crucial for the actual implementation of the policy. Moreover, there is a need to improve data on climate change in Pakistan. Lack and access to information is another challenge that the policy faces.
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