ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb this week stressed the need to operationalize the Loss and Damage Fund at the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, as Islamabad grapples with the costs of the recent devastating floods.
Ranked among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, Pakistan witnessed yet another devastating monsoon that led to massive flooding, killing more than 1,000 people and 22,000 livestock while washing away crops over 2.2 million acres since late June, as per the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), established at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt in 2022 before being officially operationalized by 198 countries, aims to help developing and least developed countries (LDCs) cope with both economic and non-economic impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events and slow-onset crises like sea-level rise and droughts.
The Pakistani finance minister left for Washington last week to attend the annual IMF-World Bank meetings, where he has met senior officials of international financial institutions to highlight Pakistan’s economic reforms and aspirations. On Saturday, he spoke at the 15th V20 Ministerial Dialogue, which comprises the finance ministers of countries most vulnerable to climate change effects, to highlight damages from floods in Pakistan.
