ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Thursday that a team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would be in Pakistan for a four-day visit next week to take forward the discussion on a $1 billion fund for climate resilience.
Pakistan has been ranked as the most vulnerable country to climate change in 2022 when it faced devastating monsoon floods that claimed over 1,700 lives, washed away swathes of agricultural land, affected 33 million people, and incurred losses worth $33bn, according to governmental estimates.
The country had requested $1bn from IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RSF) in October, the minister had revealed during his visit to Washington then.
“The next IMF mission is [scheduled for] 24th to 28th [February], which will be here to take the climate resiliency fund discussion forward,” Aurangzeb said in an informal talk with reporters in Islamabad.
He said that for now, discussions would be held on the structure for the amount with an agreement as a goal. Reiterating the government’s request, the minister said: “In my view, the amount should be at least a billion dollars.”
The funding under RSF is made available to nations who commit to high-quality reforms to build resilience against climate catastrophes through adaptation.
It is repayable over 30 years, including a 10-year grace, and is normally cheaper than terms for an Extended Fund Facility (EFF), such as the $7bn loan programme with Pakistan which is underway.
In October 2024, IMF recommended Pakistan to invest one per cent of its GDP annually — equivalent to over Rs1.24 trillion based on current estimates — in climate resilience and adaptation reforms to be ready to fight increasing cycles of extreme weather conditions.
The upcoming climate fund mission would be followed by another staff mission, tentatively in the first week of March, for the first biannual performance review of the $7bn EFF.
Confirming that visit, Aurangzeb said: “All is on schedule [right] now.”
A technical mission of the IMF was recently in Pakistan to scrutinise the judicial and regulatory system as part of the ongoing $7bn programme to address governance and corruption vulnerabilities.
During the visit, a delegation led by Joel Turkewitz discussed judicial performance, governance and reforms in a meeting with Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi.
