SC raps provinces for ignoring climate change in budgets

• Directs court order be placed before prime minister for perusal
• Orders officials to present climate change strategies at next hearing

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday regretted that the recent provincial budgets for 2024-25 failed to allocate funds or propose effective strategies to address climate change, despite warnings from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) about urban flooding due to heavy monsoon rains in the country.

“Climate change is a serious existential threat to the people of Pakistan which affects directly the fundamental rights of the people, still the recent provincial budgets have not allocated any climate fund for climate change or come up with any effective strategies,” regretted Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah in a three-page order he authored.

“The lack of allocation of funds becomes doubly worrying as monsoon rains are round the corner and the country has still not recovered from the devastating floods of the year 2022.”

Considering the critical importance of the issue, the apex court also directed that its order be placed before the PM Secretariat for perusal of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Headed by Justice Shah, a three-judge bench had taken up a petition filed by the Public Interest Law Association of Pakistan through Advocate Syed Faisal Hussain Naqvi, which had highlighted the existential threat that climate change poses to the country.

During the hearing, Roomina Khursheed Alam, Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, the Ministry of Climate Change and climate change secretary informed the court that five posts for members of the authority established under Section 5 of the Climate Change Act, 2017 have been advertised and 752 applications received.

These applications are under process and the five posts will soon be filled, the PM’s coordinator said.

In its order, the Supreme Court directed the exercise be completed within a fortnight without fail and the notification of a duly constituted authority be placed on record on or before the next date of hearing.

When inquired if the climate change ministry has any policy in place and the effective steps taken in order to address the challenges of climate change, nothing concrete was placed before the court, though it was mentioned that the NDMA and PDMAs (provincial disaster management authorities) were looking into these matters.

The court also expressed disappointment after hearing the chief secretaries of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan, and expressed concern that the provincial governments have failed to take tangible measures to address climate change challenges, citing a lack of clear strategies, action plans, and adequate on-the-ground implementation.

The chief secretaries assured the apex court that they would submit before the next date of hearing relevant strategy/action plans to deal with the issue of climate change in their respective provinces.

When the chief secretaries were asked whether any special allocation has been made in the recent provincial budgets to deal with climate change, their reply was in the negative.

The court ordered the chief secretaries, Ms Alam and the officers concerned to appear before it on the next date of hearing and apprise it of their strategies and steps taken.

The case will be taken up again on July 15.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court appointed Ayesha Khan, the regional managing director of Acumen — an organisation that invests in social entrepreneurs for sustainable development in Pakistan’s agricultural landscape — as amicus curiae to assist it during the next hearing.

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2024