South Asia is reeling. From the overflowing Sutlej and Chenab rivers in Pakistan’s Punjab to the inundated plains of Sindh, and from the deadly landslides in India’s Himachal Pradesh to the washed-out roads of Bihar, this monsoon season has once again turned catastrophic. In Pakistan, the floods have claimed more than 900 lives, displaced over two million people, submerged thousands of villages, and destroyed hundreds of kilometres of roads along with dozens of bridges.
India has reported more than 300 deaths in Himachal Pradesh alone, where relentless landslides have collapsed houses and blocked vital national highways. Meanwhile, across Nepal and Bangladesh, rising waters have swamped homes, schools, and cropland, with fresh warnings that the Brahmaputra and Ganges systems may yet surge further.
These unfolding tragedies are not isolated local disasters but rather regional climate shocks that compound food insecurity, threaten public health, and drive mass displacement across one of the world’s most densely populated and vulnerable regions.
South Asia: A global hotspot under severe pressure
South Asia holds about 25% of the global population on less than 5% of the world’s land area. This extraordinary density exerts severe pressure on ecosystems, freshwater resources, and agriculture. Every shock, whether flood, drought, or heatwave, ripples instantly through food supply chains, health systems, and social stability.
It is also the land of three great mountain ranges, the Himalayas, the Karakoram, and the Hindu Kush—home to some of the world’s largest glaciers outside the polar regions. These glaciers feed the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra river systems that sustain nearly 2 billion people. Yet the rate of glacier melt is accelerating alarmingly, driven by rising temperatures, black carbon deposition, and shifting monsoon patterns.
Every submerged village, every washed-away bridge, every family camped under tarpaulins on a hot roadside is a reminder that climate inaction has human faces
Glacier retreat will first increase the risk of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and flash flooding, and later threaten long-term water availability, ecosystem health, energy generation, and food security across the region. For South Asia, this is not just an environmental issue; it is a question of survival for millions.
South Asia contributes less than 10% of global greenhouse gases, yet it is among the hardest hit by climate breakdown. Meanwhile, the Global North continues to approve new oil and gas fields, expand shipping fuelled by fossil carbon, and under-deliver on finance promises. This is a climate debt, and floods from Lahore to Kullu to Dhaka are the invoice.
Loss & Damage: From promise to delivery
The fund for responding to Loss and Damage, agreed at COP27 and operationalised at COP28, was meant to address precisely these catastrophes. Yet pledges stand at less than US$1 billion, while South Asia’s recovery costs run into tens of billions each season.
At COP30 in Belém, Brazil (10–21 November 2025), governments will gather under the UNFCCC to assess progress on the Paris Agreement, climate finance, and the operationalisation of the Loss & Damage Fund. This is a critical political moment: negotiators will be under pressure to scale up finance, finalise disbursement mechanisms, and put responsibility on the biggest emitters.
For South Asia, this is the right time to raise its collective voice—turning the 2025 floods into a rallying point for climate justice. The devastation across Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh must be tabled at Belém as evidence of why the Fund must move from words to action.
The COP30 moment: Pakistan, South Asia, and SACEP
At Belém, Pakistan must not raise this issue alone; it should act in close collaboration with countries in the region to present a united South Asian front. A collective voice will be harder to ignore when demanding scaled-up Loss & Damage finance, fair responsibility from the Global North, and immediate disbursement mechanisms.
Equally important, the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP), the regional intergovernmental body, should highlight these floods at all global levels: the UNFCCC, UNEP, G20 climate forums, and international media. SACEP has the mandate to carry the regional message of climate injustice and transform it into a coordinated South Asian push for finance, resilience, and accountability.
From tragedy to accountability
Every submerged village, every washed-away bridge, every family camped under tarpaulins on a hot roadside is a reminder that climate inaction has human faces. For South Asia, COP30 is not just another negotiation. It is a demand for survival, dignity, and justice.
The floods of 2025 are not the last. But COP30 can decide whether they remain endless disasters or the turning point toward accountability and action.