Shehbaz Sharif urges ‘real action’ on climate change at COP31 summit

ANTALYA: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for COP31 climate action, telling the Leaders’ Summit that expressions of solidarity must translate into tangible measures when disaster strikes the world’s most vulnerable countries.

Finance that does not deepen debt

“When climate disasters strike, vulnerable countries need timely help and finance that does not deepen their debt,” the prime minister said, calling for grant-based finance, public-private partnerships and a significant increase in resilience and adaptation funds for struggling economies. “Climate change knows no border. No nation can face it alone,” he added.

Water must never be weaponised

The prime minister also took a firm line on water. “Water must never be weaponised. No nation should be allowed to put the lives and livelihoods of people downstream at risk. Water-sharing agreements must be honoured in letter and spirit,” he said. He did not name India, but the remarks came against the backdrop of New Delhi’s decision in April 2025 to place the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance.

The 2022 floods, and a warning come true

Mr Sharif recalled his warning four years ago that the climate disaster in Pakistan would have repercussions beyond the country’s borders. “That warning has become a stark reality. The future we feared has become the present we are living,” he said. He pointed to the devastating 2022 floods, which submerged a third of the country and affected around 33 million people — even though Pakistan accounts for less than 1% of global carbon emissions. He thanked Türkiye for standing shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan during the floods, and said: “At COP31, let our success be measured not by the promises we make here, but by the families we protect, the resources we deliver and the meaningful action we sustain.” A day earlier, at the “35 by 35” dialogue, he had put Pakistan’s clean-energy investment need at $188 billion by 2035. On the sidelines, he also met General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, president of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council. A day earlier, UN Secretary-General António Guterres had told leaders the climate crisis was outrunning the world, and that fossil fuels “must go the way of the dinosaurs.”