With climate change and global warming, it is important for all countries to build climate resilience, even more for Pakistan. During recent conversations, the IMF asked the government of Pakistan to use its resources more effectively and efficiently to build a climate-resilient infrastructure and strengthen its ability to attract climate finance is timely.
According to a story in Dawn, “Formulating sound public investment policies and aligning them with national climate adaptation and mitigation goals would be a step in the right direction. The Fund wants the next budget to be a “turning point” for planning mechanisms and investment portfolios based on climate adaptation. At the moment, Pakistan’s capital stock and efficiency of public investment are low. The IMF has underscored the need for improving transparency on climate-related actions in the budget documents by providing information on key aspects of the public investment programme.”
Pakistan’s people and its economy “have suffered massively due to bureaucratic inertia, policy interia, and a reactionary response to climate disasters. Notwithstanding the official claims, no concerted effort has thus far been made to plan and align public investments with national climate mitigation and adaptation goals.”
The Dawn editorial warned, “With Pakistan just one more natural disaster away from yet another human and economic catastrophe, it is critical to ensure climate resilience of the economy through sound climate-related public investment management.”
