Climate action takes a backseat in federal budget FY27

Except for disaster management finance, allocations in almost all climate categories have decreased compared to the outgoing financial year. The mitigation funds have been reduced from Rs603 billion to Rs124 billion, while adaptation money has been slashed from Rs85bn to Rs70bn. The “green component” of subsidies also experienced budget cuts, with the energy sector’s allocation declining to Rs423 billion from Rs529 billion. Similarly, the food, industry, transport, and agriculture sectors also faced cuts in the proposed budget presented by the government on June 12. Giovanni Maurice Pradipta, who is a policy adviser at global NGO Germa­nwatch, questioned this approach. “Given the country’s exposure to floods and heat waves, adaptation and resilience should receive at least as much attention as mitigation,” he said, adding it was equally important to prepare developing countries’ budgets and fiscal space for climate action, as it was to push for multilateral (global) solutions. Overall, the climate budget for the next year has shrunk except for the disaster spending. In addition to the newly introduced disaster tagging, the government earmarked Rs19bn under the head of reconstruction, while rec­overy and rehabilitation funds have risen from Rs1.1bn to Rs21 billion. Former climate change minister Malik Amin Aslam said the budget reflected a “suicidal sto­ry” as he questioned a decrease in climate allocations. “The funding or project stream for addressing climate adaptation issues, in particular heat stress, is totally missing. Two international reports [WB, University of Chicago] have rung the red warni