ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb this week stressed the need to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund at the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, as Islamabad grapples with the costs of the recent devastating floods.
Ranked among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, Pakistan witnessed yet another devastating monsoon that led to massive flooding, killing more than 1,000 people and 22,000 livestock while washing away crops over 2.2 million acres since late June, as per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), established at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in 2022 before being officially operationalized by 198 countries, aims to help developing and least developed countries (LDCs) cope with both economic and non-economic impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events and slow-onset crises like sea-level rise and droughts.
The Pakistani finance minister left for Washington last week to attend the annual IMF-World Bank meetings, where he has met senior officials of international financial institutions to highlight Pakistan’s economic reforms and aspirations. On Saturday, he spoke at the 15th V20 Ministerial Dialogue, which comprises the finance ministers of countries most vulnerable to climate change effects, to highlight damages from floods in Pakistan.
“Senator Aurangzeb also underscored the need to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund and called for fast-tracking decision-making processes at the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to ensure timely and effective climate action for vulnerable countries,” the finance ministry said on Saturday.
Aurangzeb highlighted the increasing frequency and intensity of floods in Pakistan during his speech, emphasizing that Islamabad continues to fund rescue and relief operations from its own resources, the finance ministry said.
While the fund was set up in 2022, developing and developed countries have been at odds over questions on which entity should oversee the fund, who should pay and which countries would be eligible to receive funding.
Pakistan, which is counted among the most vulnerable countries to climate change effects worldwide, has frequently called for faster payouts from the fund.
Pakistan has experienced increasingly erratic weather patterns in recent years, including heatwaves, droughts, cyclones and glacial melting.
In 2022, record monsoon rains triggered floods that killed over 1,700 people, affecting 30 million more and causing economic losses exceeding $30 billion.
