All publications and documents

The world is spending at least $1.8tn (£1.3tn) every year on subsidies driving the annihilation of wildlife and a rise in global heating, according to a new study, prompting warnings that humanity is financing its own extinction. From tax breaks for beef production in the Amazon to financial support for unsustainable groundwater pumping in the Middle East, billions of pounds of…

Over the course of human history, scientists believe that humans have cultivated more than 6,000 different plant species. But over time, farmers gravitated toward planting those with the largest yields. Today, just three crops – rice, wheat and corn – provide nearly half of the world’s calories. That reliance on a small number of crops has made agriculture vulnerable to pests, plant…

As senior government officials and non-state actors prepare for 2022 Africa Climate Week in Libreville, Gabon (29 August – 2 September) a reflection on Africa’s untapped potential to provide solutions to the global climate crisis, by Ibrahim Thiaw, Acting Executive Secretary of UN Climate change. Africa has long been tagged as a continent of problems, including problems related to…

Major rivers across Europe are at their lowest levels in years, and climate change will only make things worse for aquatic ecosystems. But allowing nature to take back control can help fix some of the damage. urope's intense summer heat waves have brought rivers across the continent to their lowest levels in years. Major waterways like the Rhine, Danube and Po are warming and at…

China has issued its first national drought alert of the year as authorities battle forest fires and mobilise specialist teams to protect crops from scorching temperatures across the Yangtze river basin. The national 'yellow alert', issued late on Thursday, comes after regions from Sichuan in the southwest to Shanghai in the Yangtze delta have experienced weeks of extreme heat, with…

With only two percent of the world’s renewable water resources, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is one of the driest regions in the world and home to 12 of the world’s most water-scarce countries. Increasing temperatures and evapotranspiration rates, in addition to decreases in precipitation across the region, are making water resources even more scarce and exacerbating challenges to…