t is that time of year, again, when the world gathers to debate climate ambition at yet another Conference of the Parties. The venue this time is Belém, in the Brazilian Amazon. The city has been in the news for reasons that contradict the very spirit of these negotiations. Earlier this year, headlines showed a four-lane highway being carved through protected forest to create faster access routes for summit delegates. It is a familiar pattern. Recent climate conferences have been hosted by autocratic states that silence climate activists at home, by oil-producing nations that quietly dilute text in negotiating rooms while professing ambition at the podium, and by countries that built their wealth on a century of emissions while offering lectures on restraint to everyone else.

As COP30 opened, indigenous peoples and civil society organisations gathered outside the restricted perimeter. They protested the barriers, both physical and political, that still prevent frontline communities from shaping decisions that directly affect them. Security checkpoints controlled movement. Delegates walked through the gates even as many of those already living the daily consequences of climate change remained on the other side. The exclusion was not incidental. It mirrored the architecture of global climate governance itself.

A week earlier, the UN Environment Programme had released the Emissions Gap Report (2025). It is yet another reminder that the Paris Climate Agreement remains aspirational at best. Even if every country fulfills its current pledges, the world is heading toward roughly 2.3 degree Celsius to 2.5 degree Celsius of warming by the end of this century. The report also confirms what vulnerable countries already know: that adaptation finance is far below what is required, and the shortfall will impact the countries that lack institutional readiness to protect their people.

Pakistan sits at the centre of this reality. And not because Pakistan is hit the hardest by climate change, but because, as veteran climate leader Ali Tauqeer Sheikh reminds us, Pakistan is least prepared.

Almost every global ranking of climate vulnerability places Pakistan near the top. The metrics combine exposure (heatwaves, floods, droughts, glacial melt) with readiness (institutions, planning, capacity and inclusivity). Pakistan’s exposure is geographical and environmental; its vulnerability is institutional. We are not unprepared because the country lacks ideas or policies. God knows we have many—too many, possibly. We are unprepared because most........

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