Earth’s climate is changing.

• Major climate patterns are being disrupted; rainfall patterns are being dislocated; snowpack is being depleted; wildfires are spreading. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)—an essential climate-stabilizing network of ocean currents—is at risk of collapse.
• Vital ecosystems and farming are strained, and food scarcity is expected to become more prominent in all regions, undermining the stability of household budgets, local economies, and some nations.

This is the story of planetary health affecting human security and wellbeing. It is the result of a polycrisis, in which multiple overlapping structural drivers of change are all moving in the wrong direction, and compounding each other’s effects. It is the underreported background reality causing inequality to worsen, economic stresses to spread, and trust in established institutions to falter.

This last point deserves immediate attention: Today’s institutions were not created to manage the problems we face in this time of polycrisis; that does not mean they are not acting in good faith and taking many of the appropriate steps to address compounding risks and impacts. In many cases they are, but even well-funded climate action strategies are often focused on only part of the overall challenge.

We need to do much more than our institutions are structured to do, and most countries do not have a coherent strategy for evolving institutions rapidly, transparently, cohesively, and cost-effectively. Instead, we have seen dismantling of urgently needed aid funds and agencies, and a costly diversion of resources to military and technology priorities that do not reduce the worsening atmosphere of threat, harm, and cost.

The reluctance of some governments and leading financial institutions to prioritize climate-resilient practices will not shield them from risk or cost. We live in an age of risk; understanding the balance of hidden costs and co-benefits is essential to making informed decisions about the future.

In 2026, we see a surge in public understanding of the need for turning good ideas and bold visions into meaningful action that serves human needs, builds resilience, and spreads opportunity sustainably. 2026 should also be the year when public officials at all levels recognize the need to work with communities, stakeholders, and coalitions, to advance the best ideas, in the most relevant, rooted, and value-building ways.

As reported by the Guardian, just “20 companies have contributed to 35% of all carbon dioxide and methane since 1965”. It should be those whose business models rely on a high-cost self-destructive system who demand systemic change. Multidimensional performance metrics are going to create the incentive for rapid progress; those who will be outperformed should start innovating and raising their game, now.

Cooperative future-building is the urgent call of the moment. Governments should resist the temptation to focus innovation and development priorities on national political priorities and look for ways to leverage trade, co-investment, policy alignment, and cooperative innovation, to reduce risk and expand opportunity in partnership with other nations.

We recommend international negotiations around climate, energy, food, health, and other sustainability priorities, consider ways to mobilize in the following areas of action:

1. Open insight-sharing – Welcome stakeholders to the table; invite an open sharing of concerns, priorities, solutions, and visions for a cooperative crisis response, to reduce the time lag required to develop the needed innovations.
2. Data to expand opportunity – Artificial intelligence innovations should be used not to replace human talent, but to support high-quality, reliable translation of complex datasets into actionable inights for building resilience. Resilience activities should expand opportunity, including by diversifying local economies, and data should enhance this effect.
3. Mainstreaming – Treat the Sustainable Development Goals as what they were intended to be—a dynamic, adaptable blueprint for improved human security and wellbeing, in all countries and communities. Incentivize banks and businesses that perform well against several SDGs at once.
4. Infrastructure upgrades – All people everywhere need physical infrastructure to support communications, insight-sharing, and mobility, and infrastructure needs to evolve in the age of polycrisis. Nations can, and should, cooperate to support each other’s ability to upgrade infrastructure for resilience-building human development.
5. Food, Nature, and health – To be secure against future shocks, food systems need to improve and sustain human and planetary health. Prioritizing investments and commodities that deliver for food supply security, the health of Nature, and human wellbeing, will improve national economies and budgets and reduce risk for everyone.

National governments should act on previous commitments to include local and regional governments, consider and prioritize local needs and visions for a sustainable future, and urgently realign existing spending with these better, higher-value approaches. The following are tools that can help to make this cooperative surge a reality:

• Participatory process – Far more detailed, locally relevant practical insight is available when stakeholders are able to inform the design and implementation of infrastructure and economic development plans. Structured local meetings can ensure money is not wasted and incentives drive value-building private investment.
• Cooperative de-risking – De-risking only large investors or industrial actors can miss many of the weak points in the wider value chain. By including the most vulnerable, especially those without financial means, cooperative de-risking strategies can reduce risk for everyone and accelerate the delivery of both financial and non-financial returns.
• Earth system science data – The Earth is an integrated planetary system; the biosphere, which broadly overlaps with the climate system, depends on complex chemical and geophysical arrangements. Understanding Earth system science data is essential to understanding where risk and opportunity are in our time of compounding crises.
• Co-investment mechanisms – Cooperative investment strategies, that layer and sequence inflows of capital from multiple sources and sectors, expand available resources and allow for accelerated reallocation of existing expenditures. Macroeconomy stabilization funds can protect consumers, including public agencies, against price shocks and support needed innovation in a timely and efficient manner.
• Agroecology – Today’s food systems are not sustainable; they will not be able to reliably deliver sufficient food for human needs. Agroecological and regenerative farming practices restore depleted soils, protect and sustain ecosystems and watersheds and support urban-rural cooperative development strategies that optimize public spending and private investment to benefit all.

Turning good ideas into meaningful action that saves lives and helps to secure the biosphere is the task of our time. No-nonsense decisions to advance mainstream climate-resilient development must be central to multilateral negotiations, to meet the moment and secure the future.