Bridging the Gap: Implementation Challenges in Pakistan's Climate Change Legal Regime

Abstract

The country is also among the most climate-vulnerable nations in the world, and emits less than one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The catastrophic floods of 2022, which impacted approximately 33 million people in Pakistan and resulted in losses of more than USD 30 billion, highlighted the vast disparity between Pakistan's climate legislations and action on the ground. The present article critically analyzes the legal approach to climate change in Pakistan, from the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997 to the National Climate Change Policy 2012, the Framework of Implementation of Climate Change Policy 2014–2030, and Pakistan Climate Change Act 2017, along with the paradigm changing judicial interventions in Shehla Zia v WAPDA, Leghari v Federation of Pakistan and D.G. Khan Cement Company Ltd v Government of Punjab. Using a comparative and doctrinal approach, the article places Pakistan under the lens of India, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands, to look for some lessons regarding institutional design, carbon budgeting and rights-based adjudication. The analysis shows that the central implementation gap in Pakistan is due to four interlinked failures in the constitution: constitutional fragmentation and federalization after the 18th Amendment, lack of enforceability, penal and monitoring aspects in the 2017 Act, weak institutional capacity and the lack of political will to ensure compliance of the judiciary. Finally, there is a repositioning of the Pakistan Climate Change Authority and Fund in action, harmonization of federal-provincial mandates, enforceability of a UK-style carbon budgeting and the integration of climate justice into the Pakistani Constitution as key aims of the reform agenda.