destruction and loss of life. Officials in Pakistan said at least 32 people have been killed in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces since the start of the monsoon season. Last month, at least 32 people were also killed in severe storms in a country that has reported extreme weather events in the spring, including strong hailstorms.

The Climate Rate Index report in 2025 put Pakistan top of the list of the most affected countries based on 2022 data. Then, extensive flooding submerged approximately a third of the country, affecting 33 million people – including killing more than 1,700, and caused $14.8bn worth of damages, as well as $15.2bn of economic losses. Last year, more floods affected thousands, and a heatwave killed almost 600 people.

“I don’t look at this as a crisis of climate. I look at this as a crisis of justice and this lopsided allocation that we are talking about,” Pakistan’s climate change minister, Musadiq Malik, told Al Jazeera. “This lopsided allocation of green funding, I don’t look at it as a funding gap. I look at it as a moral gap.” Earlier this year, a former head of the country’s central bank said Pakistan needed an annual investment of $40 to $50bn until 2050 to meet its looming climate change challenges despite being responsible for about half a percent of global CO2 emissions.

In January 2023, pledges worth about $10bn from multilateral financial institutions and countries were reported. The following year, Pakistan received $2.8bn from international creditors against those pledges. Earlier this year, the International Monetary Fund said Pakistan will receive $1.3bn under a new climate resilience loan programme, which will span 28 months. But Malik said those pledges and loans were not enough given the situation Pakistan finds itself in. (Al Jazeera)