Pakistan gets lowest climate funding from ADB in 2011-20

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan received the lowest funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for climate finance from 2011 to 2020 among 10 countries, an ADB evaluation report said on Tuesday.

The report, ADB Support for Action on Climate Change from 2011 to 2020, showed that overall climate finance in the case studies of the 10 countries represented 15.2 percent of total lending by the bank.

Maldives received the highest share of climate finance totalling 39 percent, with Pakistan holding the lowest share at 5 percent.

The share of climate-tagged projects to total projects was highest in India, which almost reached the 75 percent target. It was followed by China at 65 percent and Bangladesh at 64 percent. Overall, 55 percent of the total projects in the 10 countries were climate-tagged.

Pakistan’s Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) final review validation found that the CPS, 2015–2019 was committed to clean energy, disaster risk management, and mainstreaming of environmental and climate change considerations. However, it also noted that the achievements had been mixed.

Government of Pakistan had requested ADB assistance to implement its national climate change policy, and particularly to develop its climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce green house gas emissions.

However, the impact of renewables on the energy mix was still quite small and was hampered by the absence of a clear government policy on solar and wind power. Adaptation measures related to flood and disaster risk management also showed mixed progress.

The evaluation included virtual missions and reviews of ADB’s collective support to a key country from each region: China, Fiji, India, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Another set of countries from each region was added for a lighter desk review: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Maldives, Mongolia, and Pakistan.

These countries were chosen based on the size of their climate change portfolios, range of sectors and modalities, recent available evaluation evidence from country assistance programme evaluations (CAPEs), validations of CPS final reviews, and the country risk profile.

Specific attention was given to the Pacific, atoll nations, and small island developing states (SIDS) in general, to examine the bank’s regional and/or country approach to managing the synergies from the range of its support.

The report examined climate-related interventions and regional approach to gauge good practices and lessons. For the virtual country missions, key informant interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), and surveys of executing and implementing agencies were conducted to supplement the data.

National consultants from each of the five countries convened these FGDs with beneficiaries, using a structured template. The discussions were organised in consultation with the respective clients.

Of the CPSs approved since the Covid-19 outbreak, only that for Indonesia incorporated green recovery as an important strategic consideration (the others were for China, Maldives, Pakistan, and Papua New Guinea).

Indonesia CPS was the only one to discuss the need for a green recovery from Covid-19 with ADB supporting the country to “emerge stronger from the Covid-19 pandemic by focusing on three strategic pathways,” one of which was strengthening resilience “by supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, environmental sustainability and green recovery, disaster risk management, and finance, and water and food security.”