Pakistan’s Climate Crisis: 7 Alarming Reasons Why Securitization Is a Strategic Imperative

Pakistan’s Climate Crisis demands urgent securitization. Discover how securitizing climate change can protect lives, strengthen resilience, and prevent devastating disasters.

VOW Desk 06/10/2025

3 minutes read

Pakistan’s Climate Crisis is not a distant concern; it is an existential reality. With rising temperatures, flash floods, and melting glaciers, the nation stands at the frontier of one of the world’s most devastating environmental emergencies. Despite contributing less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, Pakistan is ranked among the top 10 most climate-vulnerable states.

The catastrophic 2025 floods are yet another reminder of the country’s vulnerability. These disasters demand a radical shift: treating climate change as a national security threat through securitization.

The 2025 Flash Floods: Scale of Destruction

Since late June 2025, cloudbursts and torrential downpours triggered flash floods across Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit–Baltistan, and Azad Jammu & Kashmir.

Punjab: Over 4.4 million people affected, 2.4 million evacuated, and 4,500 villages submerged.
Nationwide fatalities: More than 900 lives lost, 1,000+ injured.
Infrastructure damage: Over 1,700 buildings, bridges, and roads destroyed.
Economic fallout: GDP growth projections slashed from 3.6–4.2% to near 0–1% due to agricultural collapse and food inflation.

This scale of devastation highlights the dire lack of anticipatory planning and systemic resilience.

Historical Lessons Ignored: 2010, 2022, and Beyond

Pakistan’s climate disasters follow a tragic, recurring pattern:

2010 Super Floods: Displaced 20 million people.
2022 Catastrophic Floods: One-third of the country submerged, 1,700 lives lost, $30 billion in damages.
2025 Flash Floods: Continuing the cycle of destruction and unpreparedness.

Each time, pledges are made, donor conferences held, and promises delivered — only to fade into short-lived responses with minimal structural reform.

Global Inaction and Broken Climate Finance Promises

Despite global commitments under the Paris Agreement and repeated COP Summits (including COP29), follow-through remains weak.

At the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan (2023) in Geneva:

$10.98 billion pledged
Only $2.8 billion disbursed by April 2024
Majority provided as loans, not grants, deepening Pakistan’s debt crisis

This broken promise has transformed disaster recovery into a fiscal trap rather than a genuine support system.

National Gaps: Governance, Poverty, and Weak Infrastructure

Several domestic weaknesses intensify Pakistan’s climate disasters:

Geography: Mountain valleys and river plains highly flood-prone.
Deforestation: Removal of natural flood barriers worsens impact.
Urban sprawl: Encroachment on waterways increases vulnerability.
Weak governance: Early warnings rarely translate into effective evacuations.
Poverty & inequality: Marginalized groups suffer disproportionately — women-headed households, remote mountain dwellers, and daily-wage laborers lack recovery tools.

Together, these factors form a perfect storm of national vulnerability.

See our report on Pakistan’s water crisis (internal link).

Why Securitization of Climate Change Matters

Securitization means framing climate change as a national security priority — not just an environmental concern.

Pakistan’s National Security Policy (NSP) recognizes climate change as a non-traditional threat, while the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) provides adaptation roadmaps. But the disconnect between these two policies has left implementation weak and fragmented.

Key reasons to securitize climate change:

Protect national stability from climate shocks.
Ensure budget allocation matches urgency.
Integrate federal and provincial institutions under a unified command.
Enhance resilient infrastructure for transport, energy, and health systems.
Safeguard food and water security as existential priorities.

Smart Securitization: A Framework for Pakistan’s Future

Pakistan needs smart securitization — a proactive strategy that bridges policy and implementation.

Strategic actions include:

Infrastructure hardening: Roads, bridges, and power grids reinforced against floods.
Civil-military coordination: Security forces’ logistics combined with civilian-led climate planning.
Anticipatory finance: Cash transfers and insurance schemes to support vulnerable groups before disasters.
Hyper-local communication networks: Redundant channels to ensure evacuation alerts reach even remote areas.
Rapid post-disaster assessment: Deploy drones, GIS mapping, and AI for faster relief.

Such measures can transform securitization from a reactive firefighting approach into resilience-building with foresight.

Conclusion: Reframing Pakistan’s Climate Crisis as a Security Imperative

The 2025 flash floods are yet another wake-up call. Pakistan’s Climate Crisis can no longer be treated as a seasonal anomaly.

Securitizing climate change is not just necessary — it is vital for national survival. By framing it as a security challenge, Pakistan can marshal urgency, resources, and institutions to safeguard its people.

Climate change is the battlefield of our age — and securitization is Pakistan’s best weapon for survival in an era of intensifying floods, droughts, and heatwaves.