Climate of corruption

The IMF report sidesteps how governance rot directly manufactures climate catastrophe.

- BY ALI TAUQEER SHEIKH

File photo of floods in Pakistan

CORRUPTION and elite capture are the hidden drivers amplifying Pakistan’s climate vulnerability. The country ranks near the top of both the corruption and climate risk indices — an overlap suggesting causation. Yet this critical nexus remains glaringly absent from the IMF’s Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Report. The omission is striking given the IMF's own $1.4 billion investment in climate resilience through the Resilient and Sustainable Finance facility.

Could systemic corruption lie at the root of Pakistan’s worsening climate exposure? Can the country build climate resilience without first confronting the governance failures that amplify environmental disasters? The GCDR has not addressed this urgent nexus between corruption and climate risk.

Fatal blind spots: Corruption in Pakistan drains up to 6.5 per cent of GDP annually, according to the GCDR. Meanwhile, climate disasters and their extended impacts are estimated by the World Bank and other sources to cost Pakistan about 9.5pc of GDP each year through direct damage and broader economic disruptions. Together, these shocks represent a combined annual economic loss exceeding 15pc of GDP, highlighting climate risk as a foundational, not secondary, threat to Pakistan's economic stability.