Adv Muhammad Waseem Abro
CLIMATE experts and economists believe that the unequal distribution of resources between developed and developing countries is a major factor behind the issue of climate justice.
While the Supreme Court of Pakistan has recognized the Right to a Clean Environment as a fundamental constitutional right, public awareness and engagement with concepts like climate justice remain significant challenges within Pakistani society. There is currently no comprehensive, legally mandated rights-based approach in Pakistan’s climate change laws and policies. The existing legal and policy framework primarily focuses on adaptation and mitigation measures, often failing to explicitly integrate human rights protections.
Climate justice is a human-centered approach to tackling climate change while addressing the many intersecting social issues that have contributed to it. It recognizes that climate change has emerged from interlocking systems of capitalism, resource extraction, labour exploitation and the commodification of nature and that those who are hardest hit are often those who are least responsible. During COP26, climate justice highlighted the unequal burden of climate change on low-income countries, which contribute least to it but bear the brunt. The Glasgow Climate Pact operationalized the Paris Agreement by finalizing the Paris Agreement Rulebook at COP26.
Pakistan, home to over 240 million people, is extremely vulnerable to emerging climate change challenges. The country faces frequent heatwaves, severe floods, droughts, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and sea intrusion. By 2050, Pakistan is expected to experience a temperature increase of about 1.3°C to 1.5°C, threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions residing in the coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan.
The country is highly vulnerable to coastal erosion and inundation, with the Indus Delta already losing fertile land. Studies project significant losses of agricultural land and mangroves in the Indus Delta in Sindh by the end of the century under certain scenarios, with sea-level rise and reduced freshwater flow contributing to the problem. Existing climate change adaptation measures in Pakistan are becoming increasingly ineffective due to the rising intensity of climate impacts, while indigenous and traditional knowledge systems are largely overlooked in official policies.
Pakistan can integrate climate justice into its development agenda by addressing environmental issues such as pollution and water quality, incorporating the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promoting community-based programs led by youth activists and organizations.
There are significant challenges in combating climate change impacts in Pakistan, including policy gaps, low public engagement, lack of effective stakeholder cooperation and institutional coordination and difficulties in gathering adequate data and evidence for compensation claims, which affects the ability to secure fair and reasonable awards. The negotiation process for climate change policy in Pakistan is marked by a significant imbalance of power, primarily between federal and provincial governments and among various ministries. This fragmentation often limits the effective participation of local governments, civil society and vulnerable communities. Furthermore, there is no single, universally agreed-upon definition of “climate-vulnerable people.”
Climate justice is urgently needed in Pakistan because the country is highly susceptible to climate change, with impacts such as water scarcity and extreme weather events disproportionately affecting marginalized communities, including the rural and urban poor and children.
—The writer is an Islamabad-based lawyer
