Prevalence of undernourishment (left axis) Number of undernourished (right axis), 2005-2023. After rising sharply from 2019 to 2021, the proportion of the world population facing hunger persisted at virtually the same level for three consecutive years, with the latest estimates indicating a global PoU of 9.1 percent in 2023. In terms of population, between about 713 and 757 million people (8.9 and 9.4 percent of the global population, respectively) were estimated to be undernourished in 2023. Considering the mid-range estimate (733 million), about 152 million more people may have faced hunger in 2023 compared to 2019. Graphic: FAO

Hunger numbers stubbornly high for three consecutive years as global crises deepen: UN report – The world has been set back 15 years, with levels of undernourishment comparable to those in 2008-2009 – 1 in 11 people worldwide faced hunger in 2023, 1 in 5 in Africa

30 September 2024 (World Bank) – Domestic food price inflation remains high in many low- and middle-income countries. Inflation higher than 5 percent is experienced in 77.3 percent of low-income countries (18.2 percentage points higher since the last Update on June 27, 2024), 54.3 percent of lower-middle-income countries (8.7 percentage points lower), 44% of upper-middle-income […]

The global Living Planet Index, 1970-2020. The LPI is based on 34,836 monitored populations of 5,495 vertebrate species. The white line represents the index value, and the shaded areas represent the statistical uncertainty surrounding the value. Graphic: WWF / ZSL

Global biodiversity report shows “catastrophic decline” in wildlife populations – “In just my lifetime, 50 years, we’ve seen a decline of 73 percent in the average size of these wildlife populations”

By Molly McCrea 18 October 2024 (CBS News) – A shocking new report on global biodiversity is detailing what it calls “a catastrophic decline” in wildlife populations ahead of a major international conference on biodiversity. On Monday, 21 October 2024, the United Nations will convene a two-week conference in Cali, Colombia called COP16. On the agenda […]

A drone view shows the flooded plantations, houses and streets of the Integracao Gaucha settlement in Eldorado do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, 17 May 2024. Photo: Amanda Perobelli / REUTERS

Flooded Brazil “ghost town” a climate warning to world, UN advisor says – “It was underwater for almost 40 days. There wasn’t even any rats running around. Everything had died.”

By Jake Spring 26 June 2024 SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Record floods that killed over 170 people and displaced half a million in southern Brazil are a warning sign of more disasters to come throughout the Americas because of climate change, an official at the United Nations’ refugee agency said on Tuesday. Roughly 389,000 people, opens […]

A vendor selling used remote controls for various home appliances takes a nap in Nhat Tao market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Sunday, 28 January 2024. Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP Photo

E-waste is overflowing landfills, rising five times faster than formal recycling – At one sprawling Vietnam market, workers recycle some of it – “We are currently generating e-waste at an unprecedented rate”

By Aniruddha Ghosal and Jae C. Hong 2 May 2024 HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) – Dam Chan Nguyen saves dead and dying computers. When he first started working two decades ago in Nhat Tao market, Ho Chi Minh City’s biggest informal recycling market, he usually salvaged computers with bulky monitors and heavy processors. […]

Global mean surface temperature difference compared with 1850-1900 average, 1850-2023. Six different data sets are shown. The 2023 annual average global temperature was 1.45 ± 0.12 °C above pre-industrial levels. Graphic: WMO

WMO confirms that 2023 smashed global temperature record – “Humanity’s actions are scorching the earth. 2023 was a mere preview of the catastrophic future that awaits if we don’t act now.”

12 January 2024 (WMO) – The annual average global temperature approached 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels – symbolic because the Paris Agreement on climate change aims to limit the long-term temperature increase (averaged over decades rather than an individual year like 2023) to no more than 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Six leading international datasets used for […]

Azerbaijan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mukhtar Babayev speaks during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 11 December 2023. Photo: Thomas Mukoya / REUTERS

Azerbaijan names former oil exec to lead COP29 climate talks – “With another petrostate hosting the climate conference, our concerns multiply”

By Sibi Arasu 5 January 2024 (AP) – Azerbaijan’s ecology minister has been named to lead the United Nations’ annual climate talks later this year, prompting concern from some climate activists over his former ties to the state oil company in a major oil-producing nation. Mukhtar Babayev’s appointment was announced on X by the United […]

Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2021 and trend since 2000, including inventory-based Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) CO2 in GtCO2e (top) and Per capita GHG emissions in 2021 and trend since 2000, including inventory-based LULUCF CO2 in tCO2e/capita (bottom). Graphic: UNEP

Petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report – “These plans throw humanity’s future into question. Governments must stop saying one thing and doing another.”

By Damian Carrington 8 November 2023 (The Guardian) – The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Experts called the plans “insanity” which “throw humanity’s future into question”. The energy plans of the petrostates contradicted their climate policies and pledges, the report said. […]

Screenshot of the Human Climate Horizons platform, showing projected sea level rise (cm) in the 2040-2059 time horizon under the intermediate carbon emissions scenario (SSP2-4.5). Australis, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and and the Pacific islands of Oceania are shown. The global average sea level rise is projected to be more than 18 cm. Graphic: UNDP

Climate change’s impact on coastal flooding to increase by five times over this century – “The effects of rising sea levels will put at risk decades of human development progress in densely populated coastal zones which are home to one in seven people in the world”

28 November 2023 (UNDP) – According to new data on the Human Climate Horizons platform, a collaboration between the Climate Impact Lab and UNDP, increased coastal flooding this century will put over 70 million people in the path of expanding floodplains. Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, and Small Island Developing […]

COP28 president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, center, hailed the adoption of the key text, calling it the “UAE consensus”. Photo: Amr Alfiky / Reuters

COP28: A deal at last – “This outcome reflects the very lowest possible ambition that we could accept rather than what we know, according to the best available science, is necessary to urgently address the climate crisis”

By Simon Mundy 13 December 2023 (Financial Times) – Hello from Dubai. After two consecutive nights of intense negotiations that ran into the small hours, COP28 has ended in a deal. The “global stocktake” agreed here has broken with the shameful inability of previous UN climate conferences to state openly the need to move away […]

Haitham Al-Ghais, the secretary general of OPEC, warned member countries of “undue and disproportionate pressure against fossil fuels” at the COP28 summit In a letter dated 6 December 2023. Photo: Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters

OPEC leader tells members to block any COP28 climate summit deal to curb fossil fuels – “Reject any text or formula that targets energy i.e. fossil fuels rather than emissions”

By Lisa Friedman 8 December 2023 (The New York Times) – The head of the OPEC oil cartel, alarmed that nations gathered at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai are considering an agreement to phase out fossil fuels, has directed the group’s members to scuttle any deal that would affect the continued production and […]

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