Existing funding systems are not working for the new realities of climate change and its impacts on people, particularly those most marginalised and least responsible. There is an urgent need for a better targeted, more reliable, and more comprehensive global response. Humanitarian and development funding is not currently sufficient, is not rooted in climate justice and does not address the full spectrum of loss and damage. Without confronting and addressing the gaps in existing systems, catastrophic climate events will devastate individual lives, families, and communities.

In June 2022 after a devastating heat wave, Pakistan began experiencing torrential monsoon rains, which, combined with melting glaciers, contributed to the worst flooding the country has ever experienced. Climate change increased extreme monsoon rainfall, flooding highly vulnerable communities.1 One in seven people in Pakistan – 33 million people – have been impacted by the flooding and over 1,600 people have died, with around 2 million homes damaged or destroyed.2 As a result, an estimated 20.6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and the cost of the damages has recently been estimated as US$30–40 billion.3 The story of Pakistan in 2022 is not unique. The humanitarian and development response to flooding in the country in 2010 did not embed resilience in communities made vulnerable by climate change, leaving them susceptible to later floods. But this failure takes on a new definition in the context of fundamentally altered climate systems with accelerating and constant changes, where events and impacts are not extraordinary but expected. 4 Across the world, responding to disasters as if they occur in isolation, rather than as part of an escalating pattern of climate change, is a failure of responsibility to the communities worst hit and contributes to cycles of crisis. Failing to respond to climate losses and damages creates vulnerability worldwide, as climate change impacts drive displacement, impact food supply chains and undermine wider economic stability.