climate

Global temperatures over the past three years have, on average, exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for the first time, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed, underscoring a rapid escalation in warming and its risks. The service reported 2025 as the third warmest year on record and said the last 11 years have been the 11 warmest in modern records. The new analysis, produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), places 2025’s average global surface air temperature…

The European Union will press ahead with global climate cooperation despite the United States moving to withdraw from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, the EU’s climate chief said, a day after President Donald Trump announced plans to exit dozens of international bodies. “The decision by the world’s largest economy and second-largest emitter to retreat from it is regrettable and unfortunate,” Wopke Hoekstra said in a post on LinkedIn, referring to the UNFCCC, widely described as the bedrock treaty underpinning…

On Sunday, January 4, a tragic incident unfolded in the Jarama Wetland, where heavy rainfall forced local cultivators to seek refuge in a nearby house at Mbuye Harbour. The downpour, which began around 5:30 PM, unexpectedly escalated, leading to life-threatening conditions for the victims, as stated by Prudence Rubingisa, the Governor of Eastern Province. As the rain intensified, the group of cultivators, who were engaged in farming activities at the time, found themselves in a precarious situation. They quickly sought…

Climate change fueled a punishing year of extreme weather in 2025 that fell hardest on poorer communities, even as a cooling La Niña pattern took hold, according to a new assessment by World Weather Attribution, an international group of climate scientists. The annual report found that 2025 ranked among the three hottest years ever recorded, a sign of how far human-caused warming has pushed baseline temperatures. That backdrop turbocharged heatwaves, droughts, storms and wildfires across continents, widening a stark…

Few countries in the world are more vulnerable to the impact of climate change than Bangladesh in south Asia. Intensified monsoon floods, riverbank erosion and rising sea levels displace 700,000 Bangladeshis each year. In the final of our special reports from Bangladesh, reporter Kate Varley and cameraman Bram Verbeke visited Dhaka to hear how the climate migration crisis is shaping the country's capital. The first time Bizly Begum’s home was swept away by the river, her husband Khairul rebuilt it higher up the…

At least 37 people were killed after flash floods struck Morocco’s coastal Safi region following hours of torrential rain that swept cars and debris through the port city, local authorities said Monday. Dozens of people were treated in hospitals, and emergency services reported at least 70 homes flooded in the old city centre. Some roads into and out of Safi were blocked by water, mud and wreckage, hampering relief efforts and isolating neighbourhoods. “It is a dark day for the city,” residents told local media, urging the…

Climate finance training for Somali banks signals shift toward private-sector climate action in Mogadishu MOGADISHU — Somalia’s banking sector took its first coordinated step into climate finance on Sunday, as the National Climate Fund (NCF) and the Somali Bankers Association (SBA) convened the country’s inaugural training on how lenders can access, structure, and deploy climate capital. Held in Mogadishu, the workshop introduced senior banking professionals to the global climate finance architecture — the funds, rules and…

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s push to unlock climate finance moved a step forward Sunday as the National Climate Fund (NCF), in partnership with the Somali Bankers Association (SBA), held the country’s first climate finance training for Somali banks in Mogadishu. The session introduced bank executives and risk, credit, and product teams to the global climate finance architecture — how major international climate funds operate and where opportunities exist for Somalia’s private sector. It also served as a peer forum for…

Global temperatures are on track to deliver the planet’s second hottest year on record in 2025—tied with 2023—after a historic high in 2024, according to Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The new assessment places the world perilously close to the 1.5C threshold enshrined as a safer limit in the 2015 Paris Agreement and underscores how quickly the climate system is changing. From January through November, average temperatures rose 1.48C above pre-industrial levels, Copernicus said in its latest monthly update,…

Latest situation Conditions in Gauteng are expected to improve after a period of severe weather that disrupted services and response efforts. The latest forecast now calls for only scattered showers across the province. Weather models show a reduction in storm intensity, moving from widespread severe conditions to isolated showers. Authorities report that the earlier severe weather slowed emergency and repair responses in affected areas. Power restoration work is underway in some neighbourhoods where outages occurred…