Pakistan has fiscal space to fight climate crisis: Aurangzeb

He was speaking at a session titled ‘Mobilising Climate Financing for Pakistan’ during the Breathe Pakistan Climate Conference. Referring to the devastating floods of 2022, the finance minister said the 2025 floods were even more intense and widespread, with three rivers and almost the entire country affected. “Despite some demands to seek international funding, the government decided not to, as it deemed there was a fiscal buffer and fiscal space available,”Aurangzeb said. “Let’s first use the funds that are available now and put them to good and effective use.” The minister said the “ball on climate funding” was now in Pakistan’s court and stressed that macroeconomic stability was as essential as “basic hygiene” to unlock climate-related financing. He also emphasised the need for coordinated efforts among all ministries to bring the climate change discourse into the mainstream, warning that otherwise it would remain confined to academic discussions. “It is quite clear that we have to work very closely with our counterparts, including the ministries of climate change and planning. We need to take a whole-of-government approach,” he said. Adeel Abbas, senior climate change specialist and regional climate lead at the World Bank Group, presented global statistics on climate financing and noted that tackling climate change was a collective responsibility requiring efforts to bridge the “huge financing gap”. Explaining climate financing, he described it as an “innovative instrument” that can utilise revenues generated through carbon