event details - Pakistan’s Adaptation Priorities for COP31

1. Background and Rationale

Adaptation sits at the centre of Pakistan’s climate agenda. From Himalayan glacial melt and recurring floods to intensifying heatwaves, prolonged droughts, and growing pressures on the Indus delta, resilience is no longer a long-term planning concern but an immediate question of lives, livelihoods, and economic stability. Pakistan’s National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and NDC 3.0 identify priority needs across water, agriculture, heat and health, disaster preparedness, mountain ecosystems, and resilient infrastructure, naming adaptation as the central pillar of the country’s climate response.

COP31 in Antalya offers a critical opportunity to translate these national priorities into internationally recognised asks. Belém delivered two instruments that shape this moment: the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) framework, with roughly 59 indicators to measure resilience progress, and a political commitment to triple adaptation finance by 2035. The Baku Adaptation Road Map keeps implementation on the agenda between COPs. Together, these create a credible channel through which Pakistan can seek predictable, programme-based support, provided its asks are specific, grounded in evidence, and designed in a way that does not add unfunded reporting burdens on already-stretched national institutions.

This webinar will examine how Pakistan can use the GGA indicators and the broader adaptation architecture to secure practical support at COP31. It will draw on provincial implementation experience, scientific evidence from the Hindu Kush Himalaya, and coalition opportunities with mountain and climate-vulnerable states, so that the country’s negotiating position carries both quantified evidence and a clear implementation story.

2. Topics of Discussion

• Global Goal on Adaptation: using the indicators to measure resilience outcomes while preserving country-led flexibility and recognising finance, technology and capacity gaps.
• From NAP to implementation: costed provincial and district adaptation programmes, clear institutional roles,  and access to predictable, programme-based finance.
• Priority risks and evidence: heat and health, flood and drought preparedness, water and food security, and linked mountain-to-delta risks, informed by local experience and climate science.
• Coalition opportunities: working through the G77 and China and with other vulnerable and mountain countries on shared adaptation asks, while identifying impacts that require separate loss-and-damage support.

3. Expected Outcome

The webinar is expected to produce a shared understanding of Pakistan’s adaptation priorities at COP31 and the evidence base needed to defend them in the negotiating room. Discussion will surface practical implementation challenges drawn from provincial and district experience, align technical experts and civil society around a common reading of the Global Goal on Adaptation framework and the Baku Adaptation Road Map, and clarify where coalition work with mountain and climate-vulnerable states can add weight to Pakistan’s position. The convening will also help bridge the gap between national planning documents and the operational realities faced by implementing institutions, so that the country’s negotiating messages reflect what delivery actually requires.

The outputs will include a short synthesis note capturing the agreed adaptation priorities, the supporting evidence and provincial examples, and the institutions, coalitions, and partners best placed to carry these forward through COP31 and into implementation. The synthesis will feed directly into the Pre-COP dialogue process and into PREC’s wider position papers for Antalya.