Pak becomes first country in Asia to initiate access to support from the Global Shield to close financial protection gap through enhanced pre-arranged finance

BAKU, Nov 20 (SABAH): Pakistan, ranked as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate-induced disasters, reaffirmed its commitment to enhancing financial protection against climate-induced risks as a Global Shield beneficiary country at COP29. Following a comprehensive in-country process, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination (MoCC&EC), with support from UNDP Pakistan, has finalized the priority areas for its request for support to scale up pre-arranged finance through the Global Shield.

While officially handing over  Pakistan’s ‘Request for Climate and Disaster Risk Finance and Insurance Support’ to the Global Shield, Coordinator to the Prime Minister, Ms. Romina Khursheed Alam, reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to mitigating the financial impacts of climate change. She stated: ‘Pakistan’s strategy under the Global Shield exemplifies our commitment to harnessing innovative financial instruments and global partnerships. I urge the international community to step forward and support Pakistan’s journey to build financial resilience against climate risks.’

The Global Shield against Climate Risks, a joint initiative of the G7 and the V20 Finance Ministers, is driving a systematic, coherent, and sustained approach to financial protection to ensure that when disasters strike, funds are swiftly channelled to those most in need. In a video message, Samuel Rizk, Resident Representative UNDP Pakistan, commended Pakistan as ‘the first country in Asia to conclude an intensive country-wide consultative in-country process, led by MoCC&EC and supported by UNDP, with diverse stakeholders across national and provincial governments and the private sector.’ 

Speaking at the session, Global Shield Co-Director, Nilesh Prakash noted: ‘Today’s handover event highlighted Pakistan’s comprehensive and bottom-up approach to climate resilience. This country-led initiative has been instrumental in mapping out the financial protection gaps and prioritizing key areas within Pakistan’s request for support to the Global Shield, and by extension serves as a useful model for informing the deployment of loss and damage funds.’

UNDP Pakistan, along with the Global Shield Secretariat, will further support the Ministry in implementing the Global Shield support package with a focus on expanding financial protection for critical infrastructure, making climate risk insurance accessible for smallholder farmers, and protecting livelihoods through shock-responsive social protection.

Joerg Linke, GIZ Competence Center Climate highlights the opportunity that ‘making social protection systems more shock responsive provides for supporting the most vulnerable when a climatic event occurs.’ Mr. Martin Frick, Director of WFP’s Global Office in Berlin highlighted that ‘linking Climate and Disaster Risk Financing Instruments and Insurance with Adaptive Social Protection can deliver people-centred solutions against climate risks’.

At the event, Hamza Haroon, Regional Director of South Asia CVF/V20, emphasized the importance of addressing the financial needs of vulnerable communities against climate change impacts.

By implementing pre-arranged finance solutions, Pakistan aims to enhance its financial and technical capacity for safeguarding livelihoods, crops, assets, and infrastructure across high-risk regions.