As Pakistan endures another summer of extreme heat, mounting water stress and increasingly erratic weather patterns, the latest federal budget raises important questions about whether climate resilience remains a national priority.

The Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination received just Rs2.48 billion under the federal PSDP, an 83 per cent reduction from the Climate Change Division's Rs14.3 billion development allocation in FY2021-22. The sharp decline sits uneasily with Pakistan's growing vulnerability to climate related disasters.

It is true that climate-related spending is no longer confined to the Climate Ministry. Investments with climate relevance are now being spread across water management, flood control, energy, irrigation, sanitation, disaster management and provincial development programmes. The budget also includes modest allocations for urban resilience and institutional strengthening. Yet, the sharp reduction in the Ministry's own........

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