Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s candid remarks during the post-budget press conference revealed a sobering truth: climate change is no longer a distant threat for Pakistan — it is our everyday reality. As temperatures in Islamabad reached a staggering 45°C, the minister’s observation that the capital is now regularly hit by windstorms and hailstorms, events once considered rare, resonates deeply with a public growing increasingly anxious about environmental unpredictability.
The Pakistan Economic Survey echoes this concern, underlining that climate change is no myth but a harsh and present danger. From erratic rainfall patterns to deadly heatwaves and crop failures, the effects are already taking a toll on human health, food security, and economic stability. The data is unambiguous: Pakistan is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, and its adaptation gap is widening.
The federal government has allocated Rs700 billion — approximately 6.9% of current expenditure and 8.2% of development funds — towards climate-related initiatives in the upcoming fiscal year. These include a carbon levy aimed at discouraging fossil fuel consumption and other mitigation and adaptation programs. While these steps are commendable, they are nowhere near sufficient. Former State Bank Governor Shamshad Akhtar’s statement at the Breathe Pakistan conference that Pakistan needs $40–50 billion annually until 2050 to prevent climate-driven economic collapse underscores the gravity of the challenge.
To bridge this enormous funding gap, the government must urgently move from rhetorical commitments to robust institutional action. Climate resilience must be embedded in every level of governance — from agricultural planning and urban development to industrial regulation and energy transition. Simultaneously, Pakistan must push harder in global forums for access to international climate finance, especially the loss and damage funds pledged by developed nations.
Equally critical is public engagement. The minister’s acknowledgment of the role media initiatives like Breathe Pakistan can play in shaping climate awareness should be a wake-up call to all sectors. Media, academia, and civil society must work collaboratively to transform awareness into advocacy and advocacy into action.
In the face of rising temperatures, deadly floods, and water shortages, climate change is not a chapter in an environmental textbook — it is the defining crisis of our time. And as Finance Minister Aurangzeb rightly pointed out, it is no longer a hypothetical future — we are living it now. Pakistan must act decisively today, or tomorrow may offer no choices at all