2026 Category: Speakers

Dr. Sharmila Faruqui is a Member of the National Assembly representing Pakistan Peoples Party and has been an active parliamentary voice on climate, energy, and water policy. She has raised concerns in the National Assembly about the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund, pressing the government on the gap between international commitments and the funding actually delivered to countries like Pakistan. She has also been at the forefront of the parliamentary debate on Pakistan’s solar net metering policy, challenging the government when it moved to revise the terms for solar consumers, arguing that citizens who had invested in clean...

David Fugazza is a glaciologist at the University of Milan whose research tracks one of the most visible frontlines of climate change: the accelerating disappearance of mountain glaciers. Working within the university’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy, he applies satellite imagery and drone-based remote sensing to monitor glacier retreat across the Alps and, critically for Pakistan, the Karakoram-Himalayan range, one of the most glaciated regions outside the poles. His published work spans glacier mapping, darkening of ice surfaces, debris cover evolution, and the downstream consequences of melt for water systems and community safety. He has directly co-authored research on...

Jorge Gastelumendi is a distinguished climate leader with over two decades of global expertise in climate policy and finance. As the Senior Director of the Atlantic Council’s Climate Resilience Center, he spearheads transformative solutions aimed at protecting one billion people from climate impacts by 2030. His extensive background includes roles as a carbon fund manager at the World Bank and co-chair of the Green Climate Fund’s board. He also currently serves as a co-lead for the UN High-Level Climate Champions’ Race to Resilience campaign and is an advocate for private sector mobilization, he focuses on bridging the gap between public...

Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani is one of Pakistan’s most prominent statesmen, having served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2008 to 2012. A committed voice on climate diplomacy, he was designated as the Founding Chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Speakers’ Conference, a global forum dedicated to fostering parliamentary dialogue and cooperation on challenges such as climate change, renewable energy, and water scarcity. He has repeatedly emphasised that Pakistan is among the countries most severely affected by climate change, and has called for effective policy-making, institutional responsibility, and public engagement to address the growing threats of extreme weather events, melting glaciers, and...

Ali Gülcegün works at the forefront of the global push for clean energy as Project Manager at the Global Renewables Congress, a project of the World Future Council. Coordinating high level policy dialogues, managing strategic partnerships, and driving communications, he plays a central role in building the international frameworks needed to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuels. With a background in multilateral diplomacy and international policy, Ali brings a sharp global perspective to the fight against climate change. He holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of Bayreuth and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and...

Dr. Pema Gyamtsho is the first Director General of ICIMOD to come from the Hindu Kush Himalaya region itself, a fact that says as much about his appointment as his credentials. A Bhutanese scientist and former Minister of Agriculture and Forests, he spent over three decades working on natural resource management, biodiversity, and climate resilience before taking the helm of ICIMOD in 2020. He leads the organisation’s work across eight countries to protect the mountain ecosystems that feed and water over a billion people downstream, pushing hard on regional cooperation as glacial melt, floods, and ecosystem degradation accelerate across one...

Dr. Mohsin Hafeez leads IWMI’s Strategic Programme on Water, Food and Ecosystems and has spent over 25 years working on water resources modelling, agricultural water management, and climate resilience across more than ten major river basins globally. In Pakistan, he has been instrumental in introducing digital planning tools including the Hydro-economic Model for the Indus Basin, helping the government make smarter, more data driven decisions about water distribution and climate adaptation. His view is straightforward: Pakistan cannot continue treating water, food, energy, and the environment as separate problems.

Hassan Khurrum Hanif works at the intersection of agriculture, sustainability, and systems change in Pakistan  a combination that has become one of the most consequential and underinvested spaces in the country’s development landscape. With a background that spans agribusiness, policy, and sustainability practice, he focuses on how food and farming systems can be rebuilt to perform under the intensifying pressure of climate stress, water scarcity, and market volatility. Pakistan’s agricultural sector employs the majority of its rural population and contributes nearly a quarter of GDP, yet it continues to operate largely on decades-old models that were designed for a more...

Dr. Faisal Hashmi has spent years trying to give corporate sustainability in Pakistan the seriousness it deserves. As the senior-most voice on public affairs and sustainability at Coca-Cola Pakistan, he has built cross-sector coalitions spanning government, schools, airports, and civil society, working on waste segregation programmes with the Environmental Protection Agency of Punjab, tree plantation drives with the Lahore Development Authority, and climate resilience initiatives including Recharge Pakistan, which addresses flood risk management and wetland restoration across the country. In 2026, Coca-Cola Pakistan received both the Excellence in Water Stewardship Award and the Innovation in Sustainability Award at the International...

Rana Tanveer Hussain leads the ministry that sits at the collision point of two of Pakistan’s most pressing crises: a food system under strain and a climate that is making farming harder every season. As Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research, he has overseen a government that is both trying to modernise agriculture through better seeds, technology, and private sector investment, and scrambling to defend it against erratic monsoons, heatwaves that now arrive before spring is done, and floods that erase in days what farmers spent months building. He has said plainly that climate change has emerged as...