WITH the authorities dragging their feet for seven years on the establishment of a Climate Change Authority and Climate Change Fund, as envisioned in the Pakistan Climate Change Act of 2017, the Supreme Court has finally put its foot down. On Friday, a three-member bench hearing a related petition asked the federal government to establish the CCA within a fortnight and thereafter operationalise the CCF, reasoning that climate change is an issue that affects all Pakistanis’ fundamental rights and, therefore, measures to mitigate its harmful impacts should not be put off any longer. During the proceedings, which saw deliberations on Pakistan’s unique vulnerability to the changing climate, the attorney general described it as “the most serious existential threat to the people of Pakistan”.

With the memory of the devastating monsoon of 2022 still fresh in everyone’s minds and freak weather wreaking havoc in many parts of the country of late, it is understandable why the Supreme Court has attached such urgency to the matter. However, experts have previously pointed out that the establishment of the CCA and operationalisation of the CCF are not such straightforward matters that they can be resolved with a simple order. For example, there are various complexities involved in setting up the authority, as its mandate will likely overlap with subjects in the provinces’ domains, and with the work of the Ministry of Climate Change. Little work has been done since the passage of the Climate Change Act to identify the possible sources of friction and eliminate or work around them. Likewise, Pakistan’s indigenous climate fund will require engagement with a broad range of domestic and international stakeholders, and its modalities will need to be worked out in detail so as to avoid any conflicts that could arise. These are not issues that the judiciary can resolve. Therefore, while it has provided a much-needed push to the government to get to work, the court will need to be patient. On the other hand, the government, too, needs to demonstrate its commitment. After many years of complacency, a healthy momentum has finally built up in national-level efforts to address climate change. It is time for that momentum to be used to implement the Act in line with its vision. The costs of complacency can be extremely high for a climate-vulnerable country like ours.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2024