KARACHI: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Friday the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) response to his country’s request for climate financing was “very positive,” as he oversaw the signing of Pakistan’s first green bond denominated in the local currency.
The IMF’s climate finance funding provides long-term, low-interest loans to help vulnerable countries tackle climate-related risks and transition to greener economies.
Pakistan, which has experienced extreme weather events like floods, droughts and heatwaves, is in talks with the Washington-based lender to secure as much as $1.5 billion in climate resilience funding.
The IMF is also reviewing Pakistan’s economic performance under its $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program.
“Over the last few weeks, we have had very constructive discussions with the IMF with respect to the climate resilience fund,” the minister said while addressing an event in Islamabad, adding it was the first time his country had approached the global lender for climate financing and had got a “very positive” response.
“In the coming days, hopefully, we will get to hear more about it,” he continued.
Aurangzeb witnessed the signing of Parwaaz Green Action Bond, Pakistan’s first-ever rupee-denominated green bond to be listed on the stock exchange.
The Rs1 billion ($3.6 million) bond aims to mobilize capital for environmentally sustainable projects and strengthen Pakistan’s green investment ecosystem.
This is the second green bond after Pakistan issued the $500 million Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) bond, which was oversubscribed by six times.
Recalling the devastating effects of the 2022 floods and growing pollution, the finance minister said Pakistan was beginning to see and accept climate change as an existential threat.
He said out of a total 13,000 glaciers in Pakistan, 10,000 were receding and were expected to cause significant water disruptions.
He pointed out Pakistan needed financing to deal with such challenges for which it looked toward its multilateral and development partners. However, he emphasized the importance of building Pakistan’s own capacity “in terms of investable, bankable projects” in the context of increasing climate disasters.
“After the 2022 flood, the pledges which were made exceeded $10 billion,” he noted. “What we finally received in the country was one third of it.”
About Pakistan’s first rupee-denominated green bond, he said the country would require some key enablers, such as a proper bond yield curve, secondary market liquidity and a green taxonomy framework.
“Hopefully, as it gets sold out, it should encourage more people both locally and internationally to come up with the financing structures,” he added.

PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taliban killed at least five police officers and wounded six others in multiple attacks in the country’s northwest, police said Friday.
There were at least five separate attacks across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a police official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The killings were claimed by the Pakistani Taliban — known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — which in mid-March announced a “spring campaign” against the security forces.
The group has since claimed responsibility for more than 80 attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous province along the porous Afghan border.
Qasim Ali, police chief in the provincial capital Peshawar, said “there has been a noticeable rise in attacks on the police” recently.
Such incidents are a daily occurrence in the region, where the military regularly says it kills “terrorists.”
Ali reported attacks against police in nine district over just two days since TTP announced its offensive, saying the force has responded with more counterterrorism operations.
More than 170 people, mostly security personnel, have been killed in militant attacks against the state in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and neighboring Balochistan province since the beginning of this year, according to an AFP tally.
Balochistan saw a dramatic train siege this month which officials said resulted in around 60 deaths, half of which were separatists behind the assault.
Last year was the deadliest year in almost a decade, with more than 1,600 people killed in attacks in Pakistan — nearly half of them security forces personnel — according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.
The violence is largely limited to Pakistan’s border regions with Afghanistan.
Islamabad accuses Kabul of failing to counter militants operating from its territory that are targeting Pakistan, an allegation the Taliban authorities deny.