The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Why U.N.-led investors have drawn up a guide for firms to rethink threat to companies. The story so far: On May 10, 20 institutional investors from 11 countries convened by the U.N. Environment Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) made public a report that helps investors understand how to calculate the risk …
UNITED NATIONS, GENEVA: A Global Assessment Report (GAR), launched by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) here on Wednesday, has warned of new and much larger threats due to extreme climate changes to economies, in particular the Asia Pacific which accounts for 40% of the global economic …
BHUBANESWAR: The death toll in Cyclone Fani rose to 29 on Sunday, two days after the "extremely severe" storm barrelled through coastal Odisha, causing widespread destruction and leaving hundreds grappling with water shortage and power cuts, an official said. Announcing a relief package for those affected by the calamity, chief …
Climate extremes, such as droughts or heat waves, can lead to harvest failures and threaten the livelihoods of agricultural producers and the food security of communities worldwide. Improving our understanding of their impacts on crop yields is crucial to enhance the resilience of the global food system. This study analyses, …
Joseph Irungu, a dairy farmer in Kiambu County, planted brachiaria grass as soon as the rains started in Kenya two weeks ago after a lengthy delay. The farmer, as many others across the east African nation, planted urgently, having been warned by the Meteorological Department that the rains may not …
South-East Asia is regularly hit by droughts. Though starting slowly, droughts can have devastating cumulative impacts – striking hardest at the poor and heightening inequality, as well as degrading land and increasing the prospects of violent conflict. There will be many more dry years ahead, and the area affected by …
A senior official in the PMO Tuesday described the 2018 Kerala floods as "rarest of the rare" events and said India has been experiencing weather and climate related loss and damage. Speaking at a workshop organised by the environment ministry on National Consultation on Loss and Damage, P K Mishra, …
Climate change is the need of the hour, but most parties’ manifestos haven’t gone beyond lip service Extreme weather events, triggered by long-term climate change, have the potential to hit India where it really hurts: Agriculture and farm incomes. According to the finance ministry's economic survey 2017-18, annual farm incomes …
Northern Kenya’s arid and semiarid lands (ASALs) are food- and water-insecure regions dependent on limited and highly variable rainfall. Rising temperatures, heat waves, changes in seasonal rainfall and extreme rainfall events intensify risks to livestock and crop production, and to human health through heat and water stress, disease, damage to …
Food crises will affect tens of millions of people across the world this year, researchers warned on Tuesday, after war, extreme weather and economic woes in 2018 left more than 113 million in dire need of help. Conflict and insecurity were responsible for the desperate situation faced by 74 million …
On Dec. 17, 2010, a 26-year-old Tunisian fruit vendor named Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the confiscation of his produce. This act kicked off protests in Tunisia that eventually swept the Arab world, toppling leaders and giving rise to conflicts that persist today. That upheaval, …
This paper sets out a new political agenda for resilience to be adopted by the new European Commissioners in 2019. As the 2019 European Parliament elections loom and a new European Commission takes office, climate action can become a key driver of a reformed European project for more solidarity, protection …
This report provides an overview of natural hazards in India and delves into the changing face of disaster risks, as climate change, rainfall variability, increased water use, population growth, the built environment and urbanization drive higher levels of risk. It emphasizes the need to look at ‘disasters’ from a broader …
This synthesis report summarizes findings from a participatory assessment of socio-economic drivers, conditions, and climatic and environmental stresses leading to different levels of vulnerabilities in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. The study sites included high mountain, mid-hill, and downstream regions of the Indus, Upper Ganga, Gandaki, and Teesta– a …
Ethiopia has made consistent progress in improving development indicators, but vulnerability to extreme weather events is a continuing concern, especially for people reliant on agriculture for their livelihoods. The 2015/16 El Niño event caused both a severe drought and flooding, which highlighted the remarkable improvements in the country’s resilience and …
The United Nations' weather agency says extreme weather last year hit 62 million people worldwide and forced 2 million people to relocate, as man-made climate change worsened. The World Meteorological Organization's annual state of global climate report says Earth is nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) warmer than when …
The destruction wrought by Cyclone Idai in southern Africa this month shows weather warnings must spur action and infrastructure has to be built with climate risks in mind if people are to be kept safe on a warming planet, researchers and officials said. The death toll from the powerful storm …
This publication marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the WMO Statement on the State of the Global Climate, which was first issued in 1994. The 2019 edition treating data for 2018 marks sustained international efforts dedicated to reporting on, analysing and understanding the year-to-year variations and long-term trends of a changing …
Cyclone Idai's deadly hit has left some 1.85 million people in need of assistance in Mozambique in a catastrophe that United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday rang "yet another alarm bell" about climate change. Guterres described Idai, which flattened homes and caused massive flooding after slamming into Mozambique …
The shade of a single tree can provide welcome relief from the hot summer sun. But when that single tree is part of a small forest, it creates a profound cooling effect. According to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, trees play a …
