As the world prepares for COP31, Pakistan has an opportunity to advance climate finance for strengthening the environmental security of the Hindu Kush-Karakoram-Himalaya (HKH) region. The case should be built on the recognition of the international communities’ exceptional vulnerability of SIDS through dedicated allocations from the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage. Pakistan should ask for a comparable consideration to be extended to the HKH cryosphere, whose accelerating degradation is a major driver of sea-level rise and a growing source of catastrophic losses across Asia.
The latest UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2026, released in October, warns that global temperatures are set to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Even the lowest-overshoot pathway would require global greenhouse gas emissions to fall by 18% by 2030, 45% by 2035 and 69% by 2040, relative to 2025 levels. Current national pledges fall far short of this trajectory, while current policies could lead to approximately 2.8°C of warming this century.
Given the high risk profile of Asia, Pakistan should seek a Cryosphere Declaration at COP 31 that recognizes the HKH as a global climate-risk priority and establishes a pathway for dedicated cryosphere finance under the Fund for Responding to Loss an Damage, the Adaptation Fund and mitigation financing connecting all three as part of one risk and shared transboundary responsibility.