In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
This study is the first multimalaria model intercomparison exercise. This is carried out to estimate the impact of future climate change and population scenarios on malaria transmission at global scale and to provide recommendations for the future. Our results indicate that future climate might become more suitable for malaria transmission …
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) success at storing atmospheric carbon in forests in Latin America depends on the long-term maintenance of forests. Forest maintenance in Latin America in turn largely depends on community forestry – the direct control and management of forests by men and women …
Economic inequality is rapidly increasing in the majority of countries. The wealth of the world is divided in two: almost half going to the richest one percent; the other half to the remaining 99 percent. The World Economic Forum has identified this as a major risk to human progress. Extreme …
Achieving global food security is one of the major challenges of the coming decades. In order to tackle future food security challenges we must understand the past. This study presents a historical analysis of global food availability, one of the key elements of food security. By calculating national level dietary …
Water scarcity severely impairs food security and economic prosperity in many countries today. Expected future population changes will, in many countries as well as globally, increase the pressure on available water resources. On the supply side, renewable water resources will be affected by projected changes in precipitation patterns, temperature, and …
Mapping the aboveground biomass of tropical forests is essential both for implementing conservation policy and reducing uncertainties in the global carbon cycle. Two medium resolution (500 m – 1000 m) pantropical maps of vegetation biomass have been recently published, and have been widely used by sub-national and national-level activities in …
"Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis" is the contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This comprehensive assessment of the physical aspects of climate change puts a focus on those elements that are relevant to understand past, document current, …
Maternal and child malnutrition in low-income and middle-income countries encompasses both undernutrition and a growing problem with overweight and obesity. Low body-mass index, indicative of maternal undernutrition, has declined somewhat in the past two decades but continues to be prevalent in Asia and Africa. Prevalence of maternal overweight has had …
This monograph is intended to assist planners in LAC in understanding how to assess the GHG emissions reduction benefits of sustainable transport projects, policies, and strategies. The document should aid planners accessing climate finance to support sustainable transport initiatives, as well as to assist evaluators in understanding and measuring GHG …
Climate change has altered not only the overall magnitude of rainfall but also its seasonal distribution and interannual variability worldwide. Such changes in the rainfall regimes will be most keenly felt in arid and semiarid regions, where water availability and timing are key factors controlling biogeochemical cycles5, primary productivity, and …
Data for trends in contraceptive use and need are necessary to guide programme and policy decisions and to monitor progress towards Millennium Development Goal 5, which calls for universal access to contraceptive services. The researchers therefore aimed to estimate trends in contraceptive use and unmet need in developing countries in …
The Gangetic River Dolphin, Asian Elephant, Pangolin and Dugong (sea cow) are among some of the most endangered species from India that feature in the Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered map recently developed by the Zoological Society of London. The map was developed to identify high-priority conservation areas for mammals …
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Thursday that the year 2012 was the ninth warmest on record despite the cooling influence of a La Nina episode early in the year. The WMO's Statement on the Status of the Global Climate said that the global land and ocean surface temperature in …
The Peruvian night monkey has never before been studied in the wild. But new research shows that protecting forests – even small fragments – is vital to the species' survival The Peruvian night monkey (Aotus miconax) is one of the world's least known primates, having never been studied in the …
This study investigates uncertainties in impact assessments when using climate projections. The uncertainties in health-related metrics combining temperature and humidity are much smaller than if the uncertainties in the two variables were independent. The finding reveals the potential for joint assessment of projection uncertainties in other variables used in impact …
Few studies have considered the effects of changes in climatic variability on disease incidence. Now research based on laboratory experiments and field data from Latin America shows that frog susceptibility to the pathogenic chytrid fungus is influenced by temperature variation and predictability through effects on host and parasite acclimation.
Climate change has shrunk Andean glaciers between 30 and 50 percent since the 1970s and could melt many of them away altogether in coming years, according to a study published on Tuesday in the journal The Cryosphere. Andean glaciers, a vital source of fresh water for tens of millions of …
Climate change has shrunk Andean glaciers between 30 and 50 percent since the 1970s and could melt many of them away altogether in coming years, according to a study published on Tuesday in the journal Cryosphere. Andean glaciers, a vital source of fresh water for tens of millions of South …
The ‘Economics of forest and forest carbon projects - Translating lessons learned into national REDD+ implementation’ report draws lessons on finance options and barriers related to project activities from the forest sector. It investigates the economics of implementing forest and REDD+ projects through a number of case studies from Africa, …