The World Bank has said that Pakistan needs $350 billion to combat climate change between 2023 to 2030, urging for a comprehensive climate financing strategy.

Pakistan is currently the fifth most climate-vulnerable country in the world, according to the Global Climate Risk Index. At the same time, Pakistan also faces some of the highest disaster risk levels in the world, ranking [23rd] out of 194 countries as per the 2024 Inform Risk Index.

In 2022 alone, floods affected 33 million people across the country and displaced 8m people. They caused an estimated Rs3.2 trillion (US$14.9bn) of damage — equivalent to 4.8 per cent of the GDP for the fiscal year 2022.

In a 2022 report, the Bank said it estimated the total investment “for a comprehensive response to Pakistan’s climate and development challenges between 2023 and 2030 amount to around $348 billion (or 10.7 per cent of cumulative GDP for the same period)”.

According to the report, this consisted of $152bn for adaptation and resilience, in addition to $196bn for deep decarbonisation.

Furthermore, the World Bank admitted the figure was “enormous” compared to the historic average annual development budget at federal and provincial levels — which had stood at around $11bn per year between 2011 and 2015.

“However, this estimate is likely an underestimation due to the unavailability of data on the investment needs of key transformations, such as a sustainable agri-food system, flood risk management plan, shock-responsive social protection system, and climate-resilient rural connectivity,” the report said.

Earlier, the World Bank had pledged to provide $20bn to Pakistan under a 10-year country partnership framework (CPF) to support inclusive and sustainable development within the country.

The framework, according to the statement, aimed to focus on several critical areas such as reducing child stunting through increased access to clean water and sanitation services; and decreasing learning poverty through quality education.

More critical areas include increasing resilience to floods and other climate-related disasters; increasing fiscal space and better management and more progressive public expenditures for development; and increasing productive and inclusive private investment to improve external trade balances.