Islamabad, August 18, 2025 (Kamran Raja): Senator Sherry Rehman delivered a powerful keynote address at the National Climate Justice Youth Film Festival 2025, cautioning that Pakistan faces an intensifying cycle of climate disasters without meaningful global support, while destructive domestic policies continue to erode the country’s natural defences.
Opening her remarks, Senator Rehman said, This festival is not just about films. It is about lived experience. It is about the voices of young people who are showing the world how climate breakdown is already reshaping their lives, their futures, and their communities.
Highlighting the scale of the current crisis, Senator Rehman revealed that 63 districts across Pakistan are flooded, with one-third of the country submerged, and more than 660 lives lost to catastrophic flooding since June 26, 2025. She drew parallels with the devastation of 2022, stressing, Once again, Pakistan is paying the price for a crisis it did not create.”
Senator Rehman sharply criticized the global imbalance in climate finance, noting that while USD 7 trillion is spent annually on fossil fuel subsidies, little is available for climate-vulnerable countries like Pakistan. She cited World Bank estimates that Pakistan will require USD 348 billion by 2030 to sustain resilience against escalating climate threats.
Turning to local environmental degradation, she condemned rampant deforestation and flawed forestry policies, Pakistan retains only 5% forest cover, the lowest in South Asia. Forests have declined by 18% in the last three decades, from 3.78 million hectares in 1992 to 3.09 million hectares in 2025. In Chitral’s Rumbur Valley alone, 700,000 trees were felled, with 8.8 million cubic feet of timber marked for cutting. She described forests as Pakistan’s “dhaal” (shield) against climate extremes, warning that destructive practices were stripping valleys bare, intensifying floods, and threatening livelihoods. Senator Rehman also raised alarms over unchecked plastic pollution and toxic air quality, Plastic is choking our storm drains, blocking natural water flows, and worsening urban flooding. Globally, only 9% of plastics are recycled, with much of the burden shifted to poor countries like ours. Local air pollution is a serial killer. Brick kilns, unchecked construction, and vehicular emissions are destroying lungs and shortening lives.
Despite these challenges, she urged youth to take ownership as agents of change, No one is coming to save us. We must build resilience with what we have, save lives with what we can, and protect our own green spaces. From reducing plastic waste to defending our forests, change begins at home. But change must also come globally, from those most responsible for heating our planet. The National Climate Justice Youth Film Festival 2025 gathered young filmmakers, activists, and policymakers from across Pakistan to amplify stories of resilience, vulnerability, and the urgent demand for climate justice.