Un Climate Change Report

Kicking climate can down the road amid fears of another weak summit

The UN climate summit ended without a fossil fuel phase-out plan or clear climate finance roadmap, with India's delayed climate pledge adding to the challenges

Bhupender Yadav urges rich nations to meet climate funding goals at CoP30

India's environment minister Bhupender Yadav told the CoP30 high-level segment that developed nations must raise ambition, deliver climate finance at scale, and ensure technology is affordable and acc

What is the COP30 climate summit, and why does it matter this year?

World leaders are meeting in Brazil's Amazon city of Belem for COP30, the 30th UN climate summit, to discuss how to curb global warming and act on past promises to cut fossil fuel use

UN report warns countries still far from meeting Paris climate goals

Ten years after the Paris Agreement was adopted, a latest UN report has showed that countries are making progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions but not fast enough to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The 2025 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Synthesis Report, released by the UN Climate Change on Tuesday, said the 64 new national climate plans submitted between January 2024 and September 2025 would collectively cut emissions by about 17 per cent below the 2019 levels by 2035. Though this marks "real and increasing progress", the report said that "major acceleration is still needed in terms of delivering faster and deeper emission reductions and ensuring that the benefits of strong climate action reach all countries and peoples". NDCs are climate action plans that every country makes under the Paris Agreement. These plans set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and outline how each country will adapt to the impacts of climate change. Together, these

Small coalitions could unlock $66 bn a year to fight climate change: Study

Small coalitions of fossil fuel-importing nations can raise $66 billion annually through cooperative levies to help low-income countries cut emissions and fight climate change

Decoded: How human poop became Microsoft's tool to fight climate change

To offset the impact of its AI data centres, Microsoft is investing in a method which involves buying human and farm waste and piping it thousands of feet underground through a pump

Earth to exhaust carbon budget for 1.5-deg C limit in 3 years: Scientists

If the world continues to release carbon dioxide at the current rate, the carbon budget for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will be exhausted in just over three years, according to an international group of scientists. The carbon budget refers to the total amount of carbon dioxide the planet can emit while still having a good chance of staying below a certain temperature threshold. In this case, the limit is 1.5 degrees Celsius, which countries agreed to at the Paris climate conference in 2015. Exceeding the carbon budget does not mean the 1.5-degree limit will be crossed immediately. It means the world is on course to surpass it very soon unless emissions are drastically cut. The latest "Indicators of Global Climate Change" study, published in the journal Earth System Science Data, also found that the carbon budget for 2 degrees Celsius could be exceeded by 2048 if current levels of CO2 emissions continue. Scientists said human activities have led to the release of

Inaction worsened global climate crisis, says UN climate panel chief

Climate impacts are unfolding faster than expected and scientists have been surprised by the speed of temperature rise, the chief of the United Nations' climate science panel has said. In an interview with PTI, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Chair Jim Skea said the world is in a worse situation than three years ago due to inaction on climate change. "If you look back over the last, say, five years or so, I think scientists have been surprised by the speed at which temperatures have risen globally and by the very obvious nature of climate impacts we have already seen... wildfires in some parts of the world, floods and more extreme events. "So, things do appear to be happening, perhaps more quickly than people expected," he told PTI. The year 2024 was the hottest year on record and the first with the global average temperature 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the past decade (2015-2024) was the 10 .

Climate change to worsen space junk problem, reducing Earth's orbit drag

Climate change is already causing all sorts of problems on Earth, but soon it will be making a mess in orbit around the planet too, a new study finds. MIT researchers calculated that as global warming caused by burning of coal, oil, gas continues it may reduce the available space for satellites in low Earth orbit by anywhere from one-third to 82% by the end of the century, depending on how much carbon pollution is spewed. That's because space will become more littered with debris as climate change lessens nature's way of cleaning it up. Part of the greenhouse effect that warms the air near Earth's surface also cools the upper parts of the atmosphere where space starts and satellites zip around in low orbit, That cooling also makes the upper atmosphere less dense, which reduces the drag on the millions of pieces of human-made debris and satellites. That drag pulls space junk down to Earth, burning up on the way. But a cooler and less dense upper atmosphere means less space cleaning .

Over 77% of Earth's land became drier in last 30 years, warns UN report

Over 77 per cent of Earth's land experienced a drier climate during the three decades leading up to 2020, compared to the previous 30-year period, according to a report released by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on Monday. During the same period, global drylands expanded by approximately 4.3 million square kilometres an area nearly a third larger than India now covering more than 40 per cent of the Earth's land. The report, launched at the 16th conference of the UNCCD in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, warned that if efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions fail, another 3 per cent of the world's humid areas are projected to transform into drylands by the end of this century. Meanwhile, the number of people living in drylands has doubled to 2.3 billion over the past three decades. Models suggest that as many as 5 billion could inhabit drylands by 2100 in a worst-case climate change scenario. These billions of people face even greater threats to their lives and liveliho

COP29: 'X' factor could shape Global South's future, climate talks at Baku

After two weeks of intense negotiations at the UN climate conference here, countries are facing an 'X' sitting in a bracket instead of a clear figure for the trillions of dollars needed to help developing nations fight climate change -- a problem they did not create. Developed countries, which built their economies on fossil fuels and are responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, are still avoiding a key question: how much climate finance will they provide to developing countries each year starting in 2025? At the UN climate conference in Baku, they are required to update the climate finance goal of USD 100 billion agreed upon in 2009 to at least USD 1.3 trillion per year to meet the needs of developing countries amid the intensifying impacts of climate change. It's the final day of the conference, and countries are awaiting a new "acceptable" version of the draft text that can be refined to produce a balanced outcome. The draft text on the new ..

COP-16: World's 1st global ecosystem atlas unveiled; how will it help biz

The new initiative aims to help governments, businesses, financial institutions, and local communities to make informed decisions, support sustainability and manage risks

Commonwealth leaders to discuss slavery reparations, climate change

Island leaders are expected to issue a declaration on ocean protection at the summit, with climate change being a central topic of discussion

Differential exposure: How climate change hits the poor the hardest

Among Indian firms, the paper finds smaller non-agricultural firms are more exposed to flooding and heat than larger firms

Severe drought returns to Amazon. And it's happening earlier than expected

Holder of one-fifth of the world's fresh water, the Amazon is beginning the dry season with many of its rivers already at critically low levels, prompting governments to anticipate contingency measures to address issues ranging from disrupted navigation to increasing forest fires. The Amazon Basin is facing one of the most severe droughts in recent years in 2024, with significant impacts on several member countries, stated a technical note issued Wednesday by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, which includes Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. In several rivers in the southwestern Amazon, water levels are the lowest on record for this time of year. Historically, the driest months are August and September, when fire and deforestation peak. So far, the most affected countries are Bolivia, Peru and Brazil, according to ACTO. On Monday, Brazil's federal water agency decreed a water shortage in two major basins, Madeira and Purus, which cove

Education systems under siege: Climate change threatens global learning

A UNESCO report claims that heat, floods, and storms are causing widespread learning loss, especially in low- and middle-income countries, threatening decades of educational progress

China warns of hotter, longer heatwaves as avg temperatures hit new highs

Last year, average national temperatures hit a new high, leading to record levels of glacial retreat and melting permafrost in the northwest

Mission 2025 group urges governments to aim more ambitious climate goals

Corporate backers include consumer goods company Unilever, the world's biggest furniture retailer IKEA and British sustainable energy company Octopus EV

Mission 2025 group urges governments to aim more ambitious climate goals

Corporate backers include consumer goods company Unilever, the world's biggest furniture retailer IKEA and British sustainable energy company Octopus EV

Four in five people want stronger climate action, says UNDP survey

Only 7 per cent of people globally said their country should not transition at all