Susana Muhamad is Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia and President of the 2024 UN Biodiversity Conference, and Kaveh Zahedi is Director of FAO Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment

The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 2024 Adaptation Gap Report has warned that adaptation actions are not keeping pace with the surging demands of a warming planet. Released ahead of the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, the report—titled Come Hell and High Water—projected a bleak future where vulnerable communities bear the brunt of climate-induced hardships.  […]

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday named Elon Musk to a role aimed at creating a more efficient government, handing even more influence to the world’s richest man who donated millions of dollars to helping Trump get elected. Pete Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and veteran has been picked for the post of secretary of state. […]

“Cyprus has gone from zero to over 330 licensed investment entities managing €9 billion in assets in just a decade,” according to Maria Panayiotou, president of the Cyprus Investment Fund Association (CIFA). Speaking at the 5th Fund and Asset Management Conference in Athens, Panayiotou attributed this growth to “relentless effort and strategic vision.” She added […]

Remarks by Masatsugu Asakawa, President, Asian Development Bank, at the 21st Annual Meeting of the Independent Accountability Mechanisms of Multilateral Banks and International Financial Institutions, 1 October 2024, ADB headquarters, Manila, Philippines

Building intellectual capacity and fostering learning partnerships enhance long-term capabilities in organizations and communities. Localized solutions rooted in indigenous knowledge and governance reforms empower societies to achieve resilient, sustainable development.

Extreme heat is an invisible but increasingly tangible climate risk. It varies by time and place and has wide-reaching but unequal impacts, particularly to women and vulnerable people. As global temperatures rise, extreme heat events (heat waves) are becoming more frequent and severe.

Colorado Democrats looked set to maintain their supermajority in the state House as of Wednesday afternoon, though they fell short of reaching the same threshold in the Senate.

Nations have begun setting carbon-cutting targets for the decade ahead, and how ambitious these pledges are could make or break global efforts to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.

Nearly 200 countries are supposed to publish updated climate plans by early February, but so far only three have done so.

On Wednesday, the UK became the latest, announcing during the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan that it would raise its target to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

All eyes will be on other big polluters like China, India, and the United States, though future US climate action is unclear following Donald Trump’s election.

Why do they matter?

The world has agreed to try and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but is nowhere near on track.

Above this threshold, scientists say humanity risks disastrous consequences from volatile weather to major ecological “tipping points” at land and sea.

Last month, the United Nations warned that even if all existing plans are implemented in full, temperatures would rise 2.6°C by the century’s end, a catastrophic outcome.

The UN says the next round of climate plans must show a “quantum leap” in ambition to avert the worst.

The G20 — which accounts for 77 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions — is under particular pressure to step up.

Early movers

Just before COP29 opened in Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates announced a 47pc reduction in emissions by 2035 compared with 2019 in its updated climate plan.

Observers said the roadmap failed to account for exported emissions —including those from its sales of crude oil abroad.

Next year’s UN climate host, Brazil, has partly unveiled its plan, increasing its emissions reduction target from a 59pc cut by 2035, from 2005 levels, to a 67pc reduction.

It is expected to unveil a more complete plan during COP29.

Plans from other major emitters, like the European Union and China, are not expected until next year.

And the current US government could soon outline Washington’s new pledge, despite questions over Trump following through once in office.

David Waskow, of the World Resources Institute, said it would help guide American cities, states and businesses wishing to continue climate action under Trump.

“It also sends an important signal internationally, a set of benchmarks for what the US ought to do,” he added.

What do countries need to do?

By signing the Paris accord, nearly 200 nations agreed to halt rising temperatures “well below 2°C” and strive for the safer goal of 1.5°C.

But it did not prescribe how to get there.

The deal left it up to countries to voluntarily chart their own plans and targets, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

These include emission reduction targets and measures to achieve them, such as rolling out renewable energy, electrifying transport, and ending deforestation.

There is no set template for countries to follow but richer countries —historically the largest emitters — have a responsibility to pledge the deepest emission cuts.

The plans must be reviewed every five years, with each update supposed to be more ambitious than the last. This time around countries are expected to improve their 2030 targets and outline economy-wide action they will take to 2035.

What’s the aim?

An agreement at last year’s COP28 climate summit “encouraged” countries to come forward with plans aligned with halting warming to 1.5°C.

To have a hope of meeting that goal, emissions must be slashed 42pc by 2030 and 57pc by 2035, the UN’s Environment Programme said last month.

Currently, however, emissions are continuing to rise.

Keeping 1.5°C on track would require a collective effort “only ever seen following a global conflict”, it added.

Without pulling together “on a scale and pace never seen before… the 1.5°C goal will soon be dead,” said UNEP executive director Inger Andersen.

The big moment for assessing progress towards the 1.5°C goal comes at a crunch COP30 climate summit in Brazil next year.

What about fossil fuels?

Scientists and the International Energy Agency have said that developing new fossil fuel projects is incompatible with halting warming to 1.5°C.

But many fossil fuel-producing countries argue that new oil and gas projects will be needed as the world transitions to net zero emissions.

Countries are under pressure to outline in their updated plans how they intend to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, something all nations agreed on at last year’s COP.

Header image: This picture taken on November 12 shows a wind turbine at the lignite-fired power station operated by German energy giant RWE near Neurath, western Germany. — AFP

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This brochure outlines how nature is being rapidly degraded and shows how ADB-designed nature-based solutions (NBS) can help protect vulnerable communities and ecosystems to make countries in Asia and the Pacific more climate resilient.

The U-Tapao International Airport is the core infrastructure of the EEC and its expansion project is to be implemented via Public-Private Partnership modality. Land transport network connecting the U-Tapao International Airport in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) to the rest of the Pattaya City and country cannot adapt to changing needs as a result of the expansion plan of the airport due to the limitations of the existing land transport network to cope with traffic increase.

Lush and vibrant cinematography plus a "cast" of real animals make Heart of an Oak an enthralling celebration of the natural world

Is it worth including activated charcoal in your terrarium’s potting mix? James Wong isn’t convinced by this pricey product

High-speed camera recordings show that springtails spin at up to 368 rotations per second when they jump away from danger

Musing on John Lewis-Stempel's latest book, England: A natural history, James McConnachie marks the flowering of other, more diverse voices in nature writing

Animals that hibernate need a way to keep their blood flowing as their body temperature drops, and it seems that the mechanical properties of red blood cells may be key

Shortlisted for the Close-up Photographer of the Year contest, these images zoom in on animals in all their glory

From artificial retinas to ageing mice, here are five of the most promising results from research performed on the ISS – and what they might mean for humans on Earth and in space

Simple words like "force" and "particle" can mislead us as to what reality is actually like. Physicist Matt Strassler unpacks how to see things more clearly

New research is revealing that common sense is a lot more idiosyncratic than we thought, with important implications for tackling political polarisation and the future of AI

Claudia de Rham has spent much of her life dedicated to unravelling the true nature of gravity, thinking deeply about gravitons, the hypothetical carrier of this enigmatic force

A single ytterbium atom, cooled down to extreme temperatures and manipulated with laser beams, could reveal how gravity affects quantum objects

Simple words like "force" and "particle" can mislead us as to what reality is actually like. Physicist Matt Strassler unpacks how to see things more clearly

A well in Nebraska is the first in the world to have been drilled in search of naturally occurring geologic hydrogen, but tests to determine how much of the gas it might supply are on hold because of a broken pump

Chris Packham's new BBC series, Earth, looks at significant moments in Earth's history, including anthropogenic climate change and biodiversity loss, "It's not a sixth mass extinction event that we're precipitating," he says, "it's a mass extermination event"

Companies are searching all over the world for deposits of geologic hydrogen that could be used as clean fuel, and a mine in Albania could give them clues about where to look

The focus is on finance at the UN climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, this month, but countries are a long way from any kind of consensus

Although the COP16 summit in Colombia ended with some important agreements, countries still aren’t moving fast enough to stem biodiversity loss

Fibres in wet wipes and clothes often make their way into soil - and natural versions could be more damaging than synthetic ones

The British Heart Foundation’s Reflections of Research competition showcases beautiful images captured by researchers studying heart and circulatory disease

Shortlisted for the Close-up Photographer of the Year contest, these images zoom in on animals in all their glory

New research is revealing that common sense is a lot more idiosyncratic than we thought, with important implications for tackling political polarisation and the future of AI

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