Pakistan’s unending political crisis has sidelined climate challenges the country faces

The ongoing political turmoil in Pakistan is distracting its government and the public from the critical challenge of climate adaptation. One of the key challenges being neglected is the aftermath of last year’s August floods, which displaced nearly eight million people in Pakistan. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre named the floods the world’s largest disaster displacement event in 10 years.

But ever since April 2022, when the former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan lost a no-confidence motion, the country has seen violent face-offs and heavy-handed state action. The shift in attention has been most evident in how official periodic updates on the state of flood-affected people stopped in November 2022, resulting in a lack of transparency regarding rehabilitation efforts.

Flood-affected population neglected

As part of its Floods Response Plan, Pakistan declared a need for $816 million to help recover from these floods. However, as of July 2023, only 67.7% of this plan has been funded. Without the required funding, the government struggles to deliver the needs of all identified sectors. This has resulted in severe consequences, including an “alarming surge” in food insecurity among those in flood-affected areas.

In a joint 2023 outlook report, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme designated Pakistan as “very high concern” for food insecurity, noting the country has a “high number of people facing critical,...

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