Pakistan stands at the frontier of the climate crisis, where rising temperatures, flash floods, and melting glaciers are no longer distant threats but existential perils to national integrity and the well-being of its populace. Despite contributing less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the country has become one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable states. In the 78th year of its inception, Pakistan is once again reeling under the fury of nature. The 2025 floods are a stark reminder of Pakistan’s acute vulnerability to climate-induced disasters, highlighting gaps in infrastructure resilience, anticipatory planning, and disaster response.
The reported scale of destruction in 2025 is alarming. Since late June, the cloudbursts and torrential downpours have triggered flash flooding across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, AJK, and Gilgit–Baltistan. Record monsoon rains up to 80 percent above average in Punjab and Balochistan have displaced people, submerged villages, and claimed hundreds of lives. In Punjab alone, more than 4.4 million people have been affected, with about 2.4 million evacuated, and over 4,500 villages submerged. Nationwide, fatalities have surpassed 900, with more than 1,000 injured, alongside the destruction of about 1,700 buildings, roads, bridges, and vast agricultural assets. The economic fallout is dire, with early estimates warning that GDP growth for 2025–2026 may dwindle to as low as zero to one percent, far below the targeted 3.6–4.2 percent, due to an agricultural collapse and surging food prices.
This massive devastation, however, is not unprecedented. Unfortunately, Pakistan has a tragic legacy of climate-related disasters. Whether it’s the 2010 super floods that displaced over 20 million people, or the catastrophic 2022 floods that submerged one-third of the country, killing over 1,700 and causing damages exceeding $30 billion, the climate-induced disasters seem to prevail in a recurrent pattern. Each disaster is followed by pledges, donor conferences, and short-lived responses, yet little systemic change takes place in planning, zoning, infrastructure, and risk management. The 2025 floods are part of this painful spiral where lessons from the past tragedies remain unlearned.
Several interlinked factors drive these disasters, both at the global and national levels. Despite international commitments under the Paris Agreement and repeated COP summits, including COP29, global follow-through remains insufficient. At the International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva (2023), over $10.98 billion was pledged for post-flood recovery; however, as of April 2024, only $2.8 billion had actually been disbursed, representing less than a third of the promised amount. Worse still, much of the finance has come in the form of loans rather than grants, deepening Pakistan’s debt burden. This stark under-delivery underscores a lack of political will and meaningful action at the global level, turning disaster recovery into a chronic fiscal trap instead of a genuine support mechanism.
At the national level, several structural factors amplify the impact of climate disasters. The country’s flood-prone geography— spanning mountainous valleys and river-fed plains, is exacerbated by unchecked deforestation, encroachments on waterways, and unplanned urban sprawl. Weak governance means early warnings rarely translate into effective evacuation or infrastructure reinforcement. On top of that, poverty and inequality leave marginalized communities, daily-wage labourers, women-headed households, and remote mountain groups utterly exposed, without safe housing or the resources needed to recover. Together, these national vulnerabilities combine with global inaction to trap Pakistan in an ever-deepening cycle of flood-induced destruction.
Securitization of climate change implies framing it as a national security priority requiring the same urgency and resources as traditional security threats. This involves integrating climate risks into core national planning, ensuring that early warning systems translate into immediate action, budgets, and coordination across federal and provincial institutions. Pakistan’s National Security Policy (NSP) already recognizes climate change as a non-traditional security threat, while the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP) outlines measures for adaptation and resilience. However, the gap lies in the weak implementation and lack of integration between the two. The NSP frames climate shocks as risks to national stability, but it does not translate this into concrete resource allocation or operational mechanisms. Similarly, while the NCCP provides sectoral roadmaps, it suffers from chronic underfunding, fragmentation, and weak enforcement at the provincial and district levels.
Smart securitization offers a way to bridge this gap, linking the NSP’s security lens with the NCCP’s policy tools, ensuring climate risks are treated not only as environmental concerns but as existential threats to livelihoods, fiscal stability, and national cohesion. Critical lifelines, such as roads, bridges, power grids, and healthcare facilities, must be hardened against floods and storms to protect communities and sustain recovery. Civilian leadership should remain central, supported by the logistical capacity of security forces under a coordinated climate command. Anticipatory measures, such as pre-authorized cash transfers and insurance schemes, can minimize losses before disaster strikes. Meanwhile, redundant, hyper-local communication networks and rapid post-disaster assessments ensure that communities stay informed and adaptive. In this way, securitization can channel urgency into resilience-building rather than reactive firefighting.
The 2025 flash floods are yet another wake-up call. Pakistan can no longer afford to treat climate disasters as seasonal aberrations. Securitizing climate change is not optional; it is a timely necessity. Through smart securitization and reframing the climate crisis as a crucial national security challenge, Pakistan can marshal the urgency, institutions, and resources needed to protect its citizens. Climate change is the battlefield of our age, and securitizing it is the only way to ensure the survival and well-being of the populace in a future where floods, droughts, and heatwaves will only intensify.
