La veille

People around the world suffered an average of 41 extra days of dangerous heat this year because of human-caused climate change. The figure comes from analysis done by researchers at World Weather Attribution and Climate Central. In 2024 climate records were shattered as heat across the globe made it likely to be the hottest year ever measured, with few countries spared fatal weather events.

Every December, people ask us how severe the year’s extreme weather events were. To answer this question, we’ve partnered with Climate Central to produce a report that reviews some of the most significant events and highlights findings from our attribution studies. It also includes new analysis looking at the number of dangerous heat days added by climate change in 2024 and global resolutions for 2025 to work toward a safer, more sustainable world.

To date, the ocean has largely been treated as an afterthought in global climate strategies, sidelined in favor of more visible priorities like renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions. But ocean-based solutions are indispensable to the green transition and must be funded accordingly.

Over 2.5 billion people depend on aquifers for fresh water, but rising seas and climate change are pushing saltwater into these crucial reserves.

Added complexity allows an economy to grow, even as resource limits are reached. But at some point, the complexity itself becomes a problem.

A Trump presidency can delay, but not stop, the global transition to renewable energy, but it may more effectively stymie progress than during his first term.

A new declaration aims to make the southernmost continent an autonomous legal entity, akin to a nation-state, with inherent rights to participate in decision making that affects it.

World Energy Outlook 2024 - Analysis and key findings. A report by the International Energy Agency.

If modern societies are breaking down, is there a political movement ready to soften the collapse and begin anew? Or do we need new ideas and organisations for collective action? Might a local focus be the only meaningful approach as industrial consumer systems decline? Or is this a period that calls for greater international solidarity with those suffering the most? I think the conversations and initiatives in the Francophone world will provide us many insights on these questions, for a number of reasons, which I’ll come to in a moment.

High-level policy discussions have built momentum for “food system transformation” that would help farmers address the climate crisis.