Climate change needs global teamwork, not isolation

July 16, 2026

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has made an important point that deserves serious attention. Climate change is not a problem any single country can solve alone. When he met UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher in Islamabad, he called for stronger international cooperation to face this growing crisis. This is exactly the right message, and other world leaders should listen.

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe. Pakistan knows this pain firsthand. The devastating floods of 2022 affected millions of people and showed how vulnerable the country remains to climate shocks. Rebuilding after such disasters takes years, and the human cost is enormous. Families lose homes, farmers lose land, and children lose access to schools.

The prime minister is right to stress disaster preparedness. Early warning systems save lives. Strong emergency response teams save lives. But these systems are expensive to build and maintain. Poorer countries like Pakistan cannot always afford to build them alone, even though they often suffer the worst effects of a crisis they did little to create. This is why international support matters so much.

Pakistan has made genuine progress. Both federal and provincial disaster agencies have improved over the past few years. But progress is not enough when the threat keeps growing faster than the response.

The world must treat climate change as a shared emergency. Wealthy nations, international organisations, and vulnerable countries all have a role to play. Cooperation should not be viewed as charity. It is basic self-interest, because climate disasters anywhere eventually affect stability everywhere. The time for coordinated action is now, not after the next disaster strikes.