Former climate change minister, PPP Vice President Senator Sherry Rehman, assailed the federal government on Wednesday for slashing funds for environment protection in the upcoming budget for fiscal year 2025-2026.
The federal government has earmarked a major chunk of next year’s budget for climate-resilient development, but its failure to set a clear course of action and policy contradictions weigh heavily on financial allocations that amount to hundreds of billions.
The budget under the head of ‘environment protection’ has also reduced from Rs7.2billion to Rs3.1bn, with funds for ‘pollution abatement’ going down from Rs6.29bn to Rs3.1bn.
“As far as climate is concerned, I am disappointed to share that in the environment protection budget, which used to be Rs7.2bn — which was already quite low — has now been slashed by more than half to Rs3.1bn.
What will we do with this money? We will start depending more and more on international money. There have already been aid cuts in climate funding internationally,“ Senator Rehman said.
She continued that the people are under severe hardship as temperatures continue to rise.
“Currently, [the temperature] stands at 49 degrees Celsius in parts of Balochistan and Sindh. In other countries, when the temperature nears 40°C, a national emergency is declared,” Rehman noted.
“Last year, Jacobabad in Sindh saw 50°C. It will only continue to rise from here onwards. Pakistan has recorded 53°C in the past three years in different cities in the south — in Balochistan and Sindh,” she added.
She said that this meant that Pakistan was becoming the hottest place on the planet, adding that she had been speaking about this issue for four to five years now.
She said that Pakistan in the past two weeks has ranked as the most climate-vulnerable country in the world.
The Climate Risk Index (CRI), published by Germanwatch, ranks countries by the human and economic toll of extreme weather. The latest edition highlights increasing losses and the urgent need for stronger climate resilience and action.
Pakistan was ranked as the most vulnerable country to climate change in 2022, followed by Belize and Italy, according to data in the 2025 CRI report released by Germanwatch in February.
Pakistan’s ranking was mainly due to the unprecedented floods in 2022, mainly caused by record-breaking monsoon rainfall, Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs), and other factors.
The report highlighted that over 33 million people were affected and over 1,700 lives were lost due to the floods. It also says that climate change made the severity of extreme monsoon rainfall increase by 50 per cent.
In March, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) also issued a drought alert for Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab due to scant rainfall.
