Published on, Sept. 1 -- September 1, 2025 1:17 AM

Climate change in Pakistan is no longer a forecast; it is a lived disaster. From the 2022 floods that displaced millions and caused an estimated $30 billion in damages to the 2025 heatwaves and monsoon cloudbursts, our country has become a laboratory of climate vulnerability.

Climate change has also become a political battlefield shaped by narratives of populism, trust, and blame. In Pakistan, left- or right-wing populist leaders deploy it as a discourse of victimhood, justice, or fate. Recent scholarship and political debate suggest that how citizens interpret and respond to climate change is deeply entangled with populist worldviews.

A 2022 study by Robert Huber and colleagues found ...