The monsoon has never been as prolonged and destructive as it is right now in Pakistan, where floods have struck devastation in all four provinces.
The fact that the rain is said to have exceeded the country's average rainfall by more than 385 percent can be used to estimate the extent of the destruction.
A tsunami of death and destruction caused by the deluge amplified by total lack of planning has made the lives of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis miserable.
Floods brought on by prolonged periods of torrential rain continue to wreak devastation across the entire country, wiping out entire communities and wiping out livelihoods in their wake.
The fact that the rain is said to have exceeded the country's average rainfall by more than 385 percent can be used to estimate the extent of the destruction.
A tsunami of death and destruction caused by the deluge amplified by total lack of planning has made the lives of hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis miserable.
Floods brought on by prolonged periods of torrential rain continue to wreak devastation across the entire country, wiping out entire communities and wiping out livelihoods in their wake.
Pakistan's response to climate change has been characterised by a lack of political will, a reluctance to acknowledge that the complex effects of climate change necessitate efforts from various sectors of the government and society, and, most importantly, insufficient institutional frameworks.
Despite federal policy endeavours, there has been glaring lack of coordination and consistency between the federal and provincial governments on activities connected to the climate. Unfortunately, the lack of governmental commitment and the apathy of the support services are the two main causes of the problems arising from the current bad weather.
Lack of an effective institutional framework has allowed Pakistan to continue with its disgraceful climate change policies. With little participation from the climate ministry, the UNDP or other UN organisations suggested almost all of the 35 or so projects that were supported by the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund, and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).
The same is true for programmes funded by friendly nations, like the clean energy project worth 60 million euros that Germany funded and the projects for bettering climate resilience and water governance that the UK funded.
In spite of ratifying the Climate Convention in 1984, the government did not follow through with any meaningful actions. While failing to put its 2012 climate strategy into practise at home, Pakistan's contribution to the global conversation on climate change has been little.
All nations have made a commitment to taking steps to mitigate climate change, including lowering greenhouse gas emissions and preparing their economy for its negative effects. Climate change efforts should include targets that are based on results and be informed by reliable evaluations of the effects of climate change.
The Planning Commission's creation of a Task Force on Climate Change was the first significant attempt to thoroughly evaluate the effects of climate change on Pakistan and suggest solutions.
Several multidisciplinary working groups contributed to the task force's report, which was then submitted, however it took the government three years to implement the suggestions in a climate change policy.
Most of the more than 100 policy suggestions made by the NCCP remain unimplemented years after its passage. A revised version of the policy was recently released by the government, which falsely claimed that it reflected the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were approved in 2015.
A fatal flaw in our climate policy is that the Ministry of Environment, which is understaffed, underfunded, and small, has been given the task of carrying out our ambitious climate policy as well as overseeing the implementation of the roughly a dozen environmental conventions that Pakistan has ratified and for which it is the focal point.
After the 18th Amendment, which gave the provinces most of the responsibility for ecology and the environment, the situation only got worse. The Ministry of Climate Change was created in place of the Environment Ministry, which was set to be abolished.
The federal government has done nothing to ensure that the provincial governments carry out the policies decided upon in Islamabad or to address the objections of the smaller provinces over their inability to take climate-related action.
The climate change ministry's draught Climate Change Bill, which included a strong institutional framework for efforts connected to climate change, was enacted by the parliament in 2017. The National Climate Change Council (NCCC), which is chaired by the prime minister and tasked with approving national climate-related policies and coordinating their implementation, was established by the legislation.
Additionally, it established a National Climate Change Authority (NCCA) with a broad range of responsibilities, including creating projects for the multinational Green Climate Fund as well as a National Climate Change Fund to raise and disburse money for climate-related initiatives and programmes.
