The Climate Injustice Paradox: Why Pakistan Bears the Burden of a Crisis It Didn’t Create

Abstract

Pakistan, responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, has emerged as a tragic emblem of climate injustice, enduring catastrophic climate impacts disproportionate to its minimal role in precipitating the crisis. The 2022 super floods—which submerged a third of the country, displaced 33 million people, and inflicted $30 billion in losses—epitomize this paradox. This article examines how Pakistan’s acute vulnerability to climate change, driven by geographic precarity, socioeconomic fragility, and historical inequities, underscores systemic failures in global climate governance. While industrialized nations, historically accountable for the majority of emissions, evade meaningful reparations, Pakistan and other Global South countries face escalating disasters without adequate financial or technological support to adapt or recover. Through a mixed-methods approach combining empirical data, policy analysis, and ethical critique, this study argues that the climate crisis is not merely an environmental issue but a profound moral failure. It highlights the limitations of international mechanisms like the Paris Agreement and the Loss and Damage Fund, which remain underfunded and politically contentious, leaving frontline states like Pakistan to shoulder burdens they did not create. The article further employs a postcolonial lens to interrogate how legacies of resource extraction and uneven development exacerbate climate vulnerability in formerly colonized regions. Ultimately, this research calls for urgent reforms grounded in climate justice: binding emission cuts by high-polluting nations, equitable climate finance, debt relief, and reparations to redress historical responsibility. By centering Pakistan’s plight, the article underscores that addressing climate injustice is not only a moral imperative but a prerequisite for global solidarity and sustainable resilience in an increasingly unstable world.