Pakistan is likely to receive another $500 million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in December as the lender considers more climate impact projects, Bloomberg reported.
The Manila-based lender aims to improve coastal drainage systems in Pakistan to help prevent another devastating flood.
About 1,700 people have died in floods caused by heavy monsoon rains and melting glaciers.
Pakistan has estimated the cost of the damage at around $40 billion, and the government and the United Nations have blamed climate change for the disaster.
The Asian Development Bank is offering climate aid in the form of up to $5 billion in new loans as part of its growing push to help countries in Central and West Asia cope with the effects of floods, droughts and extreme weather. Expects.
“The whole world is facing a kind of climate emergency,” Yevgeny Zhukov, the bank’s director general for Central and West Asia, which includes Pakistan, said in an interview in Karachi.
“We are trying to refocus our investment, not just in Pakistan but in the region, on a greater focus on climate change.”
The lender, which earlier this month gave Pakistan $1.5 billion for social security and food security after devastating floods, is approving $500 million for the climate-ravaged country in December.
ADB, which is currently working on $25 billion in projects in the region, is reviewing its next year’s pipeline for climate change impacts, Zhukov said.
The bank, which has traditionally invested in infrastructure, transport and energy projects, is building more capacity for disaster relief and transitioning to renewable energy, the bank’s director general for Central and West Asia said. mentioned.
“We have to do something, otherwise if we continue to do business as usual and continue to invest in infrastructure like we do and then next monsoon that infrastructure will be washed away,” Zhukov said.
