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As the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) came to a close, news agencies and bloggers ploughed through the Glasgow Climate Pact to make sense of the commitments made to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

It was, in the end, an agreement of compromise.

As over 190 world leaders and tens of thousands of government representatives, businesses and citizens gather at the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow this week and next, we unpack what to expect and delve into the latest climate science from the United Nations Environment Pr

Despite being responsible for only around 3 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, experts say that Africa will be the region hardest hit by climate change.

For generations, people have combed the sponge-like cloud forests around the city of Xalapa, Mexico for edible mushrooms. But a combination of deforestation and climate-change-related drought have devastated mushroom crops, an important source of income in a region beset by poverty.

Every year on 19 August, World Humanitarian Day offers the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations an opportunity to celebrate the daily work of humanitarian responders worldwide and recognize their dedication to helping others.

Nemonte Nenquimo has spent years fending off miners, loggers and oil companies intent on developing the Amazon rainforest.

The leader of Ecuador's indigenous Waorani people, she famously fronted a 2019 lawsuit that banned resource extraction on 500,000 acres of her ancestral lands — a court win that gave hope to indigenous communities around the world.

For many locals and tourists, Praslin Island in Seychelles is synonymous with paradise. From the white sands of Anse Lazio, frequently voted as one of the top beaches in the world, to the endemic species of the jungle, to the colorful coral reefs in Curieuse Marine Park, Praslin is filled with both beauty and biodiversity.

But, as events at one site on the northwest side of the island demonstrate, this paradise is precarious.

The past decade was the hottest in human history. Apocalyptic fires and floods, cyclones and hurricanes are increasingly the new normal, and emissions are 62 per cent higher now than when international climate negotiations began in 1990.

The evidence is clear. We are in a race against time to adapt to a rapidly changing climate – one of the three planetary crises we face along with biodiversity loss, pollution and waste.

Responding to the profusion of challenges at our doorstep, world leaders have been stepping up – and making ambitious commitments.

World Environment Day, which falls on 5 June, marks the official launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global push to revive natural spaces lost to development.

Near Omar Gona’s house in Djibouti’s Tadjourah city stands a wall three metres high and five metres thick. What might be an eyesore for some is a godsend for the city because the wall holds back the monsoon rains that have decimated people’s lives here for decades.

Food, water, medicine, energy: the planet’s ecosystems provide the essentials of life, so long as they’re taken care of.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t been happening. During the last several decades, human development has pushed many of the world’s forests, savannahs and other natural systems to the brink of collapse.

Did you know nature is one of humanity’s best defences for adapting to climate change? A new funding opportunity is scaling up ecosystem-based adaptation across the world. The call for proposals is now open.

During the online session of the fifth UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) which took place 22-23 February 2021, a short online poll was conducted.

• What does it take to be a United Nations worker in some of the world’s most difficult and dangerous locations?
• How are health workers, humanitarians and peacekeepers racing to protect the most vulnerable populations from the threat of the COVID-19 virus?
• Stationed in remote locations and far from family, how are they coping themselves?

These are some of the questions that the

Planning for adaptation is progressing, although nature-based solutions are lagging. As temperatures rise and climate change impacts intensify, nations must urgently step up action to adapt to the new climate reality or face serious costs, damages and losses, the 2020 edition of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report finds. 

Finance for nature-based solutions should be strengthened and diversified. As temperatures rise and climate change impacts intensify, nations must urgently step up action to adapt to the new climate reality or face serious costs, damages and losses, the 2020 edition of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report finds.   

Implementation of nature-based solutions has been growing.

State of the Planet is a podcast produced and developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

UNEP is the leading environmental authority in the United Nations system. Our work focuses on climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, sustainable development and other issues affecting the planet.

2020 was not only the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also the year of intensifying climate change: high temperatures, floods, droughts, storms, wildfires and even locust plagues. Even more worryingly, the world is heading for at least a 3°C temperature rise this century.

With many people around the world in COVID-19 lockdowns, International Mountain Day on 11 December might be the perfect moment to escape on a journey of discovery to the mountains. Mountains are a hugely important refuge for biodiversity – the theme for this year’s Day.

When it comes to the environment, the United Nations and its affiliates are walking the talk, according to a new report.

Sonia Gómez has spent her entire life around agriculture. She grew up on her parents’ plantation in the fertile mountains of Costa Rica before opening her own organic farm several years ago. But that experience did little to prepare her for what has become a dire threat to her business: climate change.

At the start of the 20th century, German chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch developed a method for taking nitrogen from the air and melding it with hydrogen. It would prove to be one of the great scientific advances of the century.

Combined, the two elements made liquid ammonia, a key ingredient in synthetic fertilizers, which would drive an unprecedented agricultural expansion and help feed a fast-growing world.