European natural gas futures climbed for a second day as countries began drawing on stockpiles already at exceptionally low seasonal levels.
Brussels is now left hoping that Greta Thunberg's global warming narrative is real to ease pressure on the re... [1906 chars]

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

ZeroHedge

EU Better Hope Global Warming Is Real As NatGas Withdrawals Begin With Dangerously Low Reserves

Faced with rising temperatures and declining snow in winter, the Alpine nation has seen one of its two glaciers melt away, and the remaining one shrinking irreversibly.
Slovenians know that they are no exception to the global trend of warming that sc... [3726 chars]

Faced with rising temperatures and declining snow in winter, the Alpine nation has seen one of its two glaciers melt away, and the remaining one shrinking

EUROPE SAYS

Global warming and record heat in Europe force Alpine nation to last glacier

India sees a drop in GHG emissions in 2025
NEW DELHI: Rise in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may continue to pose a serious threat of global warming but India reported a decrease in its level of emission in 2025 over the previous year and its ... [4825 chars]

NEW DELHI: Rise in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may continue to pose a serious threat of global warming but India reported a decrease in its

Times of India

India sees a drop in GHG emissions in 2025, even as UNEP flags huge gap in global reduction efforts

Global warming is making the El Niño weather pattern stronger, and that’s prolonging a devastating drought across a region of Central America known as the Dry Corridor.
NUEVA CONCEPCION, Honduras (AP) — Victor Torres is on the hunt for clouds as he f... [6121 chars]

Global warming is making the El Niño weather pattern stronger, and that’s prolonging a devastating drought across a region of Central America

Breitbart News Network

In Honduras, hard hit by drought, authorities hope to make it rain using contentious tactic

The world has lost the opportunity to avoid exceeding 1.5°C of warming by more than 0.1°C but urgent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions could limit how far temperatures rise and bring global warming back to that level by the end of the century, a new U... [6154 chars]

A new UN report warns that exceeding 1.5°C of global warming is now unavoidable, but aggressive emissions cuts could curb peak temperatures and reverse…

Mail & Guardian

UN warns world will exceed 1.5°C global warming target

NUEVA CONCEPCION – Victor Torres is on the hunt for clouds as he flies over parched corn fields ravaged by months of drought in the rugged Honduran mountains.
“We’re seeing strong cloud cover over here,” the pilot says, pointing to a map on the dashb... [5937 chars]

Global warming is making the El Niño weather pattern stronger, and that’s prolonging a devastating drought across a region of Central America known as the Dry Corridor.

WDIV ClickOnDetroit

NUEVA CONCEPCION, Honduras (AP) — Victor Torres is on the hunt for clouds as he flies over parched corn fields ravaged by months of drought in the rugged Honduran mountains.
“We’re seeing strong cloud cover over here,” the pilot says, pointing to a m... [6320 chars]

Global warming is making the El Niño weather pattern stronger, and that’s prolonging a devastating drought across a region of Central America known as the Dry Corridor. Now so many crops have died...

SFGATE

The world must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 18 per cent by 2030 and 45 per cent by 2035 to limit the damage caused by global warming, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned, saying the chance of keeping temperature rises wit... [2883 chars]

The world must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 18 per cent by 2030 and 45 per cent by 2035 to limit the damage caused by global warming

Firstpost

Climate crisis: UN says emissions must fall 45% by 2035 as countries fall short of targets

The World is on track to drastically blow past the critical threshold for global warming, the UN has warned.
The organisation has stated that serious emissions cuts are needed to limit how far temperatures rise and how long they remain above the thre... [1808 chars]

The World is on track to drastically blow past the critical threshold for global warming, the UN has warned.

Extra.ie

World set to exceed critical global warming threshold

Losing more ground in the fight against climate change, humanity is heading for a hotter world than experts projected last year – and the United States is a big reason for that, a new United Nations report says.
If all the countries do what they prom... [5727 chars]

Earth will likely still warm another 1.2 degrees Celsius above current temperatures, and the United States is a big reason for that

The Globe and Mail

UN sees higher global warming even if countries reduce heat-trapping emissions

The midterm elections are less than a month away, and 35 seats in the U.S. Senate, as well as all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, will be on the ballot. While climate change is not as big an issue for voters this year as the economy or healthcare, it remains very much in the political conversation. According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 41% of registered voters say the environment and climate policy are "very important" to their vote next month.
But like many issues in American politics, views on climate change are highly polarized along partisan lines. The same Pew poll found that only 15% of registered Republicans see climate and the environment as very important, compared to 66% of registered Democrats. While Republicans may be less likely to vote based on environmental considerations, deep red districts are no less susceptible to climate hazards than Democratic districts.
According to a recent study conducted by the non-profit research and advocacy group Climate Central, all 435 U.S. congressional districts are warmer now than they were in 1970, with the average temperature rising by about 2.8°F. Notably, the fossil fuel industry has gained influence on Capital Hill, contributing tens of millions of dollars to sitting members of congress. Many of these same lawmakers represent communities where climate change is driving temperatures up far faster than average.
Using data from Climate Central, Climate Crisis 247 identified the fastest warming congressional districts where elected representatives are receiving the most from the fossil fuel industry. We reviewed data on the 10 members of congress who have received the most in lifetime donations from oil and gas companies, and ranked the districts they represent on average temperature increases between 1970 and 2025. All data on political contributions from the fossil fuel industry are from the Center for American Progress. Data on average temperature change is from Climate Central.
10. Louisiana's 1st Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +2.1°F (84% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +0.3°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Steve Scalise (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $2.7 million
9. Montana's 1st Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +2.4°F (106% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +-0.1°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Ryan Zinke (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $1.0 million
8. Virginia's 9th Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +2.6°F (90% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +0.3°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Morgan Griffith (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $ 625,606
7. Texas' 14th Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +2.7°F (77% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +0.6°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Randy K. Weber, Sr. (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $ 591,103
6. Missouri's 8th Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +2.8°F (83% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +0.5°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Jason Smith (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $ 583,077
5. Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +2.8°F (90% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +0.3°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Kevin Hern (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $ 638,737
4. Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +3.1°F (86% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +0.4°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Mike Kelly (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $ 714,888
3. Louisiana's 4th Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +3.2°F (73% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +0.9°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Mike Johnson (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $ 812,622
2. Texas' 21st Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +3.4°F (68% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.1°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Chip Roy (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $ 671,905
1. Texas' 19th Congressional District
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +3.5°F (74% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +0.9°F
Congressional representative: Rep. Jodey Arrington (R)
Political contributions received from the fossil fuel industry: $ 734,820

The midterm elections are less than a month away, and 35 seats in the U.S. Senate, as well as...

Fastest Warming Congressional Districts Where Politician Is Funded By Fossil Fuel Industry

Climate change is profoundly affecting species worldwide and poses a major threat to their long-term persistence. Although trees may have the potential for rapid adaptation to changing climates, empirical evidence remains limited, and whether these long-lived organisms can adapt quickly enough to keep pace with ongoing climate change is still an open question. To investigate real-time responses to contemporary climate change, we combined genomic data from 82 range-wide populations of the widespread tree Pinus pinaster Ait. with intensive sampling of two successive cohorts from two natural populations. Using an original genotype-environment association (GEA) approach to quantify climate (mal)adaptation, we found that most individuals from both target populations showed evidence of an adaptive lag to current climatic conditions, and are predicted to face substantial risk of maladaptation under future climates. Importantly, changes in genomic composition at climate-associated loci between cohorts were consistent with rapid evolutionary responses to ongoing climate change and could not be explained by neutral demographic processes alone, as supported by forward-time genetic simulations. We also observed a lower realised genetic load in the younger cohort, suggesting that the dynamics of deleterious mutations may change with climatic pressure. Our work provides evidence suggesting genetic responses to contemporary climate change within a single generation, including signals of rapid evolutionary changes in genomic composition at climate-associated loci and signatures of purifying selection, despite widespread adaptive lag to current climates. These findings challenge the view that trees only respond slowly to environmental change and highlight the need to integrate evolutionary dynamics into predictive models of species persistence under future climates.

Climate change is profoundly affecting species worldwide and poses a major threat to their long-term persistence. Although trees may have the potential for rapid adaptation to changing climates,…

Rapid evolutionary responses to climate change in maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.) despite widespread adaptive lag

Credit: CC0 Public Domain
As human activity has increased temperatures globally, determining the costs directly incurred by climate change is challenging. The effects of climate change on extreme weather events—such as hurricanes and heat waves—can be locally specific and variable, and observations and climate modeling might not accurately capture those effects.
One way researchers attempt to estimate the costs of climate change is by comparing an actual extreme weather event to a hypothetical scenario in which climate change wasn't a factor. Extreme event impact attribution (EEIA) uses these comparisons to estimate the damage and costs associated with climate change. But multiple versions of EEIA exist: A frequency-change approach asks how much more likely an event was made by climate change, whereas an intensity-change approach asks how much more damaging an event was made by climate change.
These approaches can produce vastly different estimates of the costs of climate change. For example, 2017's Hurricane Harvey caused an estimated $90 billion in damage. A frequency-change approach estimated that 75% of these costs could be associated with climate change, but an intensity-change approach put the estimate at only 15%. If the two estimates were expected to agree, then this large discrepancy would seem to imply that at least one of the methods has technical limitations or is not theoretically valid.
To determine whether a method is theoretically valid, A. L. Match and colleagues introduce the framework of consistency in their article published in AGU Advances . A method is consistent if, when applied to a group of events over time, the total costs attributed to climate change by EEIA match the actual excess costs incurred. The researchers report that both frequency- and intensity-based approaches can be consistent. The consistency framework clarifies some of the specific conditions needed to capture excess costs coherently and accurately.
Because both methods can be consistent, and therefore valid, the costs of climate change from an individual event are inherently ambiguous, the authors say. They add that no technical breakthrough—or even perfect knowledge of climate and society—can eliminate this ambiguity, which could limit the ability of EEIA to inform adaptation, recovery or litigation.
A. L. Match et al., On the Inherent Ambiguity of Extreme Event Costs Attributed to Climate Change, AGU Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1029/2026av002546
Journal information: AGU Advances
effects of climate change Extreme Weather
BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021. Full profile →
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This story is republished courtesy of Eos, hosted by the American Geophysical Union. Read the original story here .

As human activity has increased temperatures globally, determining the costs directly incurred by climate change is challenging. The effects of climate change on extreme weather events—such as hurricanes and heat waves—can be locally specific and variable, and observations and climate modeling might not accurately capture those effects.

The ambiguous costs of climate change

As human activity has increased temperatures globally, determining the costs directly incurred by climate change is challenging. The effects of climate change on extreme weather events—such as hurricanes and heat waves—can be locally specific and variable, and observations and climate modeling might not accurately capture those effects.
One way researchers attempt to estimate the costs of climate change is by comparing an actual extreme weather event to a hypothetical scenario in which climate change wasn't a factor. Extreme event impact attribution (EEIA) uses these comparisons to estimate the damages and costs associated with climate change. But multiple versions of EEIA exist: A frequency-change approach asks how much more likely an event was made by climate change, whereas an intensity-change approach asks how much more damaging an event was made by climate change.
These approaches can produce vastly different estimates of the costs of climate change. For example, 2017's Hurricane Harvey caused an estimated $90 billion in damages. A frequency-change approach estimated that 75% of these costs could be associated with climate change, but an intensity-change approach put the estimate at only 15%. If the two estimates were expected to agree, then this large discrepancy would seem to imply that at least one of the methods has technical limitations or is not theoretically valid.
To determine whether a method is theoretically valid, Match et al. introduce the framework of consistency. A method is consistent if, when applied to a group of events over time, the total costs attributed to climate change by EEIA match the actual excess costs incurred. The researchers report that both frequency- and intensity-based approaches can be consistent. The consistency framework clarifies some of the specific conditions needed to capture excess costs coherently and accurately.
Because both methods can be consistent, and therefore valid, the costs of climate change from an individual event are inherently ambiguous, the authors say. They add that no technical breakthrough—or even perfect knowledge of climate and society—can eliminate this ambiguity, which could limit the ability of EEIA to inform adaptation, recovery, or litigation. (AGU Advances, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026AV002546, 2026)
—Rebecca Owen (@beccapox.bsky.social), Science Writer
Citation: Owen, R. (2026), The ambiguous costs of climate change, Eos, 107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026EO260328. Published on 16 October 2026.
Text © 2026. AGU. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

To put a price tag on climate change, some approaches focus on whether it made an event more likely, whereas others focus on whether it made an event more severe and damaging. A new study examines the validity of both approaches.

The Ambiguous Costs of Climate Change

Popis
Although climate change education is still facing major barriers and challenges for teachers, few studies have investigated their self-efficacy and motivation to teach about climate change. This study investigated the impact of the 'Climate in Need' program on its participants' climate change knowledge, their climate change education self-efficacy, and their motivation to teach about climate change (N = 40). For this, a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, which combined quantitative and qualitative methods, was used: a pre/post survey and focus group interviews. The quantitative analyses showed significant increases in participants' overall climate change knowledge, although some conceptual confusion persisted despite the program's intervention. Further, a significant increase in the participants' self-efficacy was observed, as well as a substantial impact on motivation. These findings indicate that climate-change-focused professional development programs should incorporate activities addressing teachers' climate change misconceptions with a focus on their conceptual refutation. At the same time, programs should adequately cover action and effectiveness knowledge so that teachers are able to distinguish which mitigative actions have a greater impact. The findings also suggest that climate change education implementation should enable teachers to identify with the climate change topic by integrating it into their teacher identity.

Are We Ready to Teach About Climate Change? Increasing Teachers' Content Knowledge, Self-Efficacy and Motivation Through a Program on Climate Change

Are you noticing hotter summers, unusual rainfall, stronger heatwaves, or changing weather patterns? These changes may be connected to climate change, one of the biggest environmental challenges facing our planet. Climate change is mainly caused by human activities that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, especially burning fossil fuels, cutting down forests, and industrial activities. These gases trap heat, gradually warming the Earth and disrupting natural climate patterns. Understanding what causes climate change, how it affects our daily lives, and what we can do to reduce it is essential for protecting the environment and future generations. What Is Climate Change? Climate change refers to long-term changes in Earth's temperatures and weather patterns. These changes can occur naturally, but the rapid global warming observed since the industrial era is primarily driven by human activities. The Earth's climate naturally changes over time because of factors such...

Discover what causes climate change, how global warming affects our planet, and the simple steps you can take to help protect Earth's future.

What Causes Climate Change? Understanding the Main Reasons Behind Global Warming

Climate change is taught as a global phenomenon, but young people around the world are living with its effects in their own regions. So, what should climate education look like now?
As young people (and political leaders) head to the United Nations' climate summit, UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) COP31 in Türkiye, we have been reflecting on what is happening in climate education in schools.
During a passionate address at the Pre-COP31 leaders' event in Fiji, Melelusi Sokotia, a 13-year-old student from Tuvalu's Nauti Primary School, urged global decision-makers to take climate action now.
Children stand along the banks of the Budhi Gandaki river in Nepal in the aftermath of a flashflood. Picture: Getty Images
While felt by youth all over the world, those living in the Global South have an urgency rooted in particular experiences of a changing climate.
Regional climate literacy
In August 2026, our SWISP (Speculative Wanderings in Space and Place) Lab visited schools in India as part of a climate education project with the Future Students team, based in the Melbourne Global Centre - Delhi.
During our creative climate education sessions, conversations kept returning to the same place: the Himalayas.
Heat, water, family, animals, food, trees, air and rhythms of everyday life were spoken about.
As were melting glaciers, changing monsoons and rivers that connect mountains to communities across South Asia.
In Australia, climate education has important foundations in science, geography and sustainability education, but there's an unfulfilled opportunity to think more expansively about what young people need to know, feel, question and imagine.
Students learn about temperature targets, emissions graphs, carbon footprints and future projections.
These are important, but what about climate change experienced through changing seasons, food systems, water availability, migration, community stories and cultural connections to place?
Our research shows that many young people want to explore uncertainties associated with their lived realities, rather than simply memorise scientific and geographical facts in school.
Our team at the SWISP Lab believes students need regional climate literacy. That means understanding climate change as a web of connections between people, places and systems, from their own backyard to the other side of the world.
Regional climate literacy encourages students to see climate change as a network of relationships linking people, places, and systems, near and far. Pictured: Floods in Kiribati / Getty Images
This is especially true when we understand that young people are not all encountering climate change in the same way.
Climate change is an everyday experience
SWISP climate education workshops do not begin with the global phenomenon of climate change.
They start by identifying participants' everyday experiences of climate change before connecting these experiences to local communities, national contexts and regional events.
This process can help to highlight the uneven distribution of the impacts of climate change which is dependent on a community's wealth, infrastructure, geography and politics.
When we start to engage with young people, we ask a different question:
When did you realise you lived in climate collapse, crisis, or catastrophe?
Not when did you first learn about climate change?
Not when did someone explain the science?
But when did you realise that you were already living within it?
In the Indian cities of Jaipur and Delhi, young people shared everyday experiences of heat, water, food, family and place. This opened up conversations about how glaciers, rivers, monsoons, cities and communities are all connected.
These stories may be personal and local, but lead to much larger questions.
Seeing climate connections unfold in the Himalayas
Just weeks after these conversations, catastrophic flooding struck Nepal.
The precise causes and sequence of events need careful scientific investigation.
But the scale of the melting, flooding and destruction has changed the way we talk about climate change because what happens in the mountains doesn't stay in the mountains.
Changes to glaciers, rainfall patterns and watershed systems can affect agriculture, energy production, urban development and livelihoods across national borders.
Student attends a SWISP Lab climate education session. Picture: SWISP Lab SWISP Lab attendees' reflections of climate education session. Picture: SWISP Lab
The Nepal floods raise an urgent educational question: What does climate education owe young people living within rapidly changing regions?
Our research shows that young people want opportunities to engage with exactly this kind of question. They want to explore this complexity.
But making sense of climate change means working with incomplete information and science that is still evolving. It also means grappling with vast amounts of data and complex systems, including political ones.
This involves a shift in how we think about climate literacy.
We need regional climate literacy
Regional climate literacy is the ability to understand how place, ecology, culture, infrastructure and power are connected.
Environment
Putting people at the centre of global climate efforts
It underpins the capacity for regional responses to local climate-related issues.
It involves learning how local experiences connect to regional systems and how environmental change travels across landscapes and communities.
For Australian students, these connections matter too.
Australia is deeply connected to the broader Asia and Southeast Asia Pacific region, and climate challenges increasingly emerge through these connections.
And this interdependence is now showing up not only in our environment and societies, but in our courts.
In 2026, Australia's High Court handed down a landmark judgment concerning the proposed expansion of the Mount Pleasant coal mine in New South Wales.
Australia's High Court ruled that environmental authorities assessing a coal mine expansion must consider emissions from burning its coal, even overseas. Picture: Courtesy of Climate Media Centre
The ruling confirmed that planning authorities cannot separate the local impacts of fossil fuel extraction from the emissions generated when those fossil fuels are burned overseas.
What is extracted in one place, consumed in another and released into a shared atmosphere returns as heat, fire, flood and drought.
Australia's climate future is inseparable from the region of which it is a part.
Teaching climate change through global statistics or local actions alone can obscure these relationships.
How do we prepare young people for a connected climate?
Education is critical in making regional relationships visible.
Politics & Society
What Australia's landmark climate ruling could mean for new fossil fuel projects
Regional climate literacy encourages students to see climate change as a network of relationships linking people, places, and systems, near and far.
The Taku Pakasoa Declaration: Strength in Unity (2026), which came out of a Pacific gathering ahead of the COP31 climate summit, underlines the urgency of recognising climate change as an interconnected ecological, cultural and political crisis.
If climate change does not stop at borders, neither can climate education.
We need a curriculum and ways of teaching and learning that connect scientific knowledge with cultural knowledge, the local with the regional, and imagination with action.
This will look different in communities already facing severe climate disruption than in those just starting to recognise their own part in it.
For Australian teachers, it means making room in every subject for young people to explore how our region is connected, think critically about uncertainty, learn from different ways of understanding the world, and imagine fairer, more liveable futures.

Climate change is taught as a global phenomenon. But young people are already living with its effects in their own regions, including heat, flooding and sea-level rises. University of Melbourne researchers ask, what should climate education look like now?

Climate change doesn't stop at borders. Neither should climate education

Abstract
People living in poverty or who are marginalised are disproportionately impacted by climate change and have complex and intertwined civil law problems. Yet, little is known about how climate change modifies or exacerbates their legal issues, and how it complicates legal service delivery across the access to justice sector. Drawing on the perspectives of Australian lawyers, in this article I report on the findings of my qualitative mixed methods study about the nexus between climate change, civil legal need and access to justice. Data was obtained through a survey (n=49) and interviews with lawyers (n=16) from several Australian states and legal assistance services. Lawyers who participated in the study perceived climate change to be significantly affecting civil legal problems. This was supported by several observations, including: the increasing complexity of legal need; greater entanglement of legal, social and emotional issues; barriers to delivering legal services in disasters and in working with disaster-impacted communities; and laws and legal processes being unfit for purpose in a changing climate. Lawyers identified mould and extreme heat as specific climate impacts that decrease housing habitability and contribute to tenancy, neighbourhood and employment law problems, among others. Adopting a Capabilities Approach framework to evaluate study findings, I conclude that access to justice policy should view climate change as a driver of injustice and legal need.

How Does Climate Change Affect Access to Justice? Perspectives from Australian Lawyers on the Frontline

Parliament has hosted the first East African Community's Children Summit for Climate Change, with legislators calling for children's inclusion in issues pertaining climate change.
The Chairperson of the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Children (UPFC), Hon. Susan Abeja, said the summit aimed at urging East African governments to meaningfully involve children in developing policies and interventions to address climate change.
Abeja who is also the Otuke District Woman MP, said children are among those most affected by climate change, despite contributing the least to the crisis.
'Our position as the Forum is clear, children must not only be protected from the effects of climate change, they must be meaningfully involved in shaping the solutions,' she said adding that'Children are experiencing the consequences of environmental degradation, floods, droughts and other climate-related emergencies, despite having contributed the least to the causes of this crisis.'
Abeja was speaking at the inaugural summit held under the theme:'Children Leading East African Integration: Climate, Peace and Prosperity' held at Parliament on Friday, 16 October 2026.
The event was also attended by MPs under the Forum, MPs from the East Africa Legislative Assembly, the Deputy Secretary General for East African Community, Hon. Andrea Ariik Malueth and development partners.
Nakasongola County MP, Hon. Ivan Kyeyune commended the organisers for involving children in climate-change discussions, saying the initiative should challenge adults who have prioritised businesses at the expense of environmental crises.
'It is us the elders who have prioritized commercialised farming at the expense of wetlands. It is the elders that prefer having factories in wetlands, favoring job creation over environmental protection, yet our children suffer these effects including lack of water and food such that I have seen those who go to school without food,' Kyeyune said.
Kyeyune urged children to begin with practical actions within their communities, including each planting at least five trees.
The Chief of WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene), Environment and Climate Change at UNICEF Uganda, Lalit Patra urged MPs to make commitments on climate change for implementation within their constituencies. Patra also asked MPs to establish climate change-youth groups in their constituencies to sustain their initiatives beyond the summit.
Representing the Ministry of Water and Environment, Dr. Flavia Byekwaso said the government must move to investing in climate-resilient schools and other public facilities while ensuring access to clean water and renewable energy.
She said children must be consulted during the formulation of climate-change policies, because they experience the effects of environmental degradation and will live longest with the consequences of decisions taken today.
The summit concludes with a Climate Champions Weekend on Saturday, 17 October 2026 where participants will plant 5,000 trees at Forest High School in Kasanda District.

Uganda: Members Of Parliament (Mps) Call For Children's Inclusion In Regional Climate Decisions. Parliament has hosted the first East African Community's Children Summit for Climate Change, with…

Uganda: Members Of Parliament (Mps) Call For Children's Inclusion In Regional Climate Decisions

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Stockholm University
image:The Björkliden Valley showing microclimate contrasts between sunlit vs. shaded slopes. Climate change-driven changes in e.g. cloudiness or shrub cover may lead to different rates of warming on these different slopes. Photo:viewmore
The Björkliden Valley showing microclimate contrasts between sunlit vs. shaded slopes. Climate change-driven changes in e.g. cloudiness or shrub cover may lead to different rates of warming on these different slopes. Photo:
Credit: Jonas Lembrechts
Climate change can look very different at the scale of a forest, field or hillside. A new review shows how changes in vegetation and atmospheric conditions can cause local microclimates to warm at very different rates from the regional climate - and why this matters for understanding how biodiversity will respond to climate change.
Climate change is usually described using regional or global averages. But most organisms experience the climate much closer to the ground or within microhabitats, where temperature and other conditions can differ substantially from those measured by weather stations or represented in large-scale climate models.
This local climate, known as themicroclimate, does not necessarily change in the same way as the surrounding regional climate. In a new review published inGlobal Change Biology, researchers from around the world synthesise how climate change can alter microclimates and identify the processes responsible for these differences.
'Climate change is often described as a single number for a region. But organisms live in specific places – in a particular patch of forest or on a particular slope. The climate they experience can change at a very different rate from the regional average,' says Caroline Greiser, researcher at Stockholm University and lead author of the study.
Vegetation can change the local climate
One important driver is vegetation. Climate change can alter forests, shrublands and other vegetation, which in turn changes how much sunlight reaches the ground and how easily the ground loses heat to the atmosphere.
'Vegetation is not simply responding to climate change – it can also modify the climate experienced by organisms living under canopies,' says Greiser. 'When vegetation changes, it changes the local energy balance, and this can lead to very different temperature trends within the same landscape.'
In one of the model simulations presented in the review, the expansion of shrubs and trees into open steppes in Turkey substantially altered near-ground air temperatures. On the hottest days, shrub encroachment resulted in temperatures up to 16 degrees lower than those in open areas. In a regional warming scenario, the open areas would warm up much faster.
Clouds and other atmospheric changes matter too
Microclimate is also influenced directly by changes in atmospheric conditions. For example, cloud cover controls how much solar radiation reaches the Earth's surface. A reduction in cloudiness can substantially increase solar heating in sun-exposed locations, while shaded areas, such as forest interiors or pole-facing slopes, may be less affected.
The review shows how such changes can interact with topography, vegetation, soil moisture and other factors to produce increasingly different microclimatic conditions over relatively short distances.
Until recently, it has been difficult to study these changes over long periods and across large areas. New sensor networks, long-term datasets and mechanistic models are now making it possible to investigate how changes in the atmosphere and vegetation translate into the microclimates experienced by organisms.
'The processes that determine microclimate are complex and involve both atmospheric and biological systems. Understanding them therefore requires collaboration between atmospheric scientists and ecologists,' says Greiser.
Why microclimate matters for biodiversity
Understanding how microclimates change could improve predictions of how species and ecosystems respond to climate change. Regional climate data may suggest that an area is warming, while local conditions can remain relatively buffered - or change even more rapidly – because of vegetation, topography and atmospheric processes.
Accounting for this variation could improve predictions of future species distributions and ecological interactions, and help inform conservation and land management strategies that are adapted to local climate change.
'If we want to understand where species will persist and where they will be most vulnerable, we need to know not only how the regional climate is changing, but also how that change translates into the microclimates organisms actually experience,' says Greiser.
Global Change Biology
10.1111/gcb.71140
Literature review
Not applicable
Climate change experienced by life on Earth – drivers and mechanisms of future trends in microclimates
21-Oct-2026
Disclaimer:AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Climate change can look very different at the scale of a forest, field or hillside. A new review shows how changes in vegetation and atmospheric conditions can cause local microclimates to warm at…

How life on Earth experiences climate change

Earth's atmosphere is warming at an unprecedented rate. Each of the last 11 years now rank as the hottest 11 years on record, and according to researchers at NASA, global temperatures are rising 10 times faster than they would have at similar points in any previous climate cycle within the last 800,000 years. Yet, despite tangible and indisputable facts, millions of Americans deny the global warming phenomenon.
According to a survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, nearly 15% of adults in the U.S. do not think global warming is happening. Additionally, an estimated 53.2% of Americans do not feel they have personally experienced the effects of global warming.
These numbers do not square with the climatological reality borne out by the data. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, July 2026 now stands as the hottest month in U.S. history; and so far, 2026 is on pace to rank as the hottest year on record in the Continental United States. Even in the corners of the country where temperatures are rising fastest, global warming is being met with a widespread lack of recognition, and even outright denial.
Using data from Climate Central, a non-profit research and advocacy group, Climate Crisis 247 identified rates of climate denial in America's fastest warming congressional districts. We ranked all congressional districts with available data from Climate Central on the observed change in average temperatures between 1970 and 2025. For each of the 10 fastest warming congressional districts, we reviewed YPCCC polling data on the share of residents who do not think global warming is happening, and the share who do not think they have personally experienced global warming. The YPCCC bears no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations of the data presented here.
10. Colorado; Congressional District 3
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +4.1°F (76% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.0°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 17.0%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 56.3%
Congressional representative: Rep. Jeff Hurd (R)
9. New Mexico; Congressional District 1
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +4.1°F (72% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.1°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 12.1%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 48.7%
Congressional representative: Rep. Melanie Ann Stansbury (D)
8. Texas; Congressional District 23
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +4.3°F (63% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.6°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 14.4%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 52.1%
Congressional representative: Rep. Vacant
7. Utah; Congressional District 3
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +4.4°F (77% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.0°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 17.4%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 56.9%
Congressional representative: Rep. Mike Kennedy (R)
6. Arizona; Congressional District 2
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +4.6°F (80% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +0.9°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 17.1%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 55.2%
Congressional representative: Rep. Eli Crane (R)
5. Arizona; Congressional District 1
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +4.7°F (78% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.0°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 14.0%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 50.1%
Congressional representative: Rep. David Schweikert (R)
4. Texas; Congressional District 16
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +4.8°F (67% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.6°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 11.4%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 48.4%
Congressional representative: Rep. Veronica Escobar (D)
3. New Mexico; Congressional District 2
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +4.8°F (69% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.5°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 13.7%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 52.6%
Congressional representative: Rep. Gabriel Vasquez (D)
2. Utah; Congressional District 1
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +4.8°F (71% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.4°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 18.4%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 58.5%
Congressional representative: Rep. Blake Moore (R)
1. Arizona; Congressional District 6
Observed warming in district, 1970-2025: +5.1°F (70% due to climate change)
Estimated warming absent human-caused climate change: +1.5°F
Residents who do not think global warming is happening: 15.4%
Residents who somewhat or strongly disagree they have personally experienced global warming: 52.7%
Congressional representative: Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R)

Earth's atmosphere is warming at an unprecedented rate. Each of the last 11 years now rank as the hottest...

Climate Denial In America's Fastest Warming Congressional Districts

Investing more in the military is not a solution to climate change, argues Neta Crawford
Hard edged national security leaders talk about climate change as a 'threat multiplier.' 1 By this they mean climate change may cause instability and potentially provoke armed conflict as regions become dangerously hot, wet, or dry, and as societies and governments are stressed beyond their capacity to cope. 2 3 The US military, the UK Ministry of Defence, NATO, and the UN Security Council have all used the climate change as a threat multiplier frame. 4 5 Following this logic many governments have now added climate change related threats to their rationales for increased defence spending and military capability. 6
Framing and acting as if climate change is a threat multiplier ignores how war is a climate change multiplier. The greenhouse gas emissions from war and preparations for it make climate change worse. And adding climate change to the military's portfolio may be unnecessary and counterproductive.
The consequences of climate change are becoming as deadly as war—in some regions, climate change intensified heatwaves, wildfires, increasingly violent storms, and flooding kill more people annually than armed conflicts. For instance, more than 1100 deaths in England and Wales were attributed to climate change during the May and June heatwaves of 2026. 7
And in the long run, climate change could and will likely kill many more people than war. But that does not mean that climate change will inevitably lead to war.
The 'climate change as threat multiplier' logic is pernicious for several reasons. Most importantly, war and military mobilisation are the climate change multipliers. Military emissions and war are a major source of mostly uncounted greenhouse gas emissions.
The most consistent source of military related greenhouse gas emissions is the military's day-to-day energy use, including powering their bases and operational energy for training and mobility. Furthermore, current US and NATO military doctrine stresses offensive mobility, including long range air strikes, which are generally higher in emissions than more defensively oriented doctrines. 8
These business-as-usual military emissions are not included in national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions and thus have been essentially uncounted. 9 This lacuna was driven by the US Department of Defense, which pushed to have a military emissions exemption in the Kyoto Protocol negotiations because it feared it would be required to reduce emissions since it was the largest petroleum user in the US at the time. And it still is 10 Today, its annual emissions are larger than those of most countries. 10
Arms industries, which are in general more greenhouse gas intensive than civilian industries, are another major source of emissions. BAE Systems—the largest defence company in the UK and the world's third largest military corporation—reports that its global scope 1 and 2 emissions in 2025 were 341 686 tonnes of CO 2 equivalent. 11
Wars themselves also cause large spikes in military, military industrial, and war related emissions. For example, the Initiative on Greenhouse Gas Accounting of War found that during the first four years of war in Ukraine, military operations generated an estimated 114 million metric tons (MMT) of CO 2 e. The destruction of forests and other landscapes in Ukraine led to 70 MMTCO 2 e emissions. And because civil aviation avoids the airspace near the war zone, often leading to longer journeys, an additional nearly 30 MMTCO 2 e have been emitted. Although Ukraine's economic activity has been reduced because of disruption from the war, rebuilding is likely to result in an additional 73 MMTCO 2 e emissions. 12
Wartime emissions are even greater when the targets include oil and natural gas infrastructure. An estimated 465 000 metric tons of methane were released when Russia's natural gas pipelines to Europe, Nord Stream 1 and 2, were sabotaged in September 2022. This is equivalent to about 13.85 MMTCO 2 e—three times Albania's annual emissions in 2024. 13 In September 2026, Ukraine attacked the oil infrastructure in Russia with drones. The US-Israel war with Iran this year has also resulted in targeting of oil and natural gas infrastructure in the Middle East. 14 Although the supply disruptions and price increases resulting from these strikes and the blockades of the Strait of Hormuz have been tracked, the greenhouse gas emissions from strikes on oil and natural gas facilities are essentially uncounted.
When governments accept the logic that climate change is a threat multiplier, they assume that there is little more that can be done to reduce emissions. However, there is actually an enormous source of emissions—from military installations and operations and from war itself—that can be reduced.
Some armed forces portray themselves as lean green fighting machines. In 2016, the US Navy publicised the deployment of a 'great green fleet.' 15 Before any mention of climate change was essentially banned during the Trump administration, the US Army also highlighted its investments in green technologies. 16
Emissions are reduced when bases move from coal to other forms of energy. But even when armed forces use vehicles that have greater fuel economy and use batteries, solar, and microgrids, militaries remain major emitters. 17 When military spending growth leads to increased training, operations, and procurement, emissions from militaries and arms industries grow. 18 Substantial emission reductions will occur only when armed forces reduce their overall size and footprint and transition to lower emitting doctrines, including those that do not require long range aircraft missions.
The climate change as threat multiplier logic assumes an unproved and not inevitable connection between climate change and conflict. 19 The link between climate change and increased risk of war is not strong or necessary. 20
Even as the climate changes, conflict over resources or mass migration is not the inevitable outcome; governments can instead support their populations, and regional governments can negotiate the sharing of resources. These are political choices, not unavoidable consequences of climate change. With enough resources, governments and people can reduce emissions and adapt to climate change without armed conflict. The resources are there if they are directed where they are needed.
Militaries that see climate change as a threat multiplier tend to invest more in combating the potential risks associated with warming. For example, for years militaries have been concerned that as the Arctic ice sheet melts, the Arctic Ocean will become more navigable and a location for conflict over mineral resources. This means that the US, NATO, Russia, and even China have increased their Arctic military operations at a time when the climate in the region has become less stable and operations have become more challenging. 21
Instead of the planned enormous increases in military spending, societies are much better off focusing resources on reducing emissions and adaptation, including cutting military emissions.
Climate change is frightening, and our concerns about it add to the general sense of economic, health, and political instability. Climate change exacerbates these economic, health, and political conditions. Investing more in the military is not a solution to climate change or our other problems. Rather than take money from health, environment, and the energy transition to fund the military, we need to spend more on those things. While some form of defence is required, the focus should shift to how to ensure effective defence at lower emission levels and reduced costs.
Competing interests: None declared.
Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.
AI use: AI was not used in the preparation of this article.

Investing more in the military is not a solution to climate change, argues Neta Crawford
Hard edged

War and military mobilisation are drivers of climate change

The Björkliden Valley showing microclimate contrasts between sunlit vs. shaded slopes. Climate change–driven changes in, for example, cloudiness or shrub cover may lead to different rates of warming on these different slopes. Credit: Jonas Lembrechts
Climate change can look very different at the scale of a forest, field or hillside. A new review shows how changes in vegetation and atmospheric conditions can cause local microclimates to warm at very different rates from the regional climate—and why this matters for understanding how biodiversity will respond to climate change.
Climate change is usually described using regional or global averages. But most organisms experience the climate much closer to the ground or within microhabitats, where temperature and other conditions can differ substantially from those measured by weather stations or represented in large-scale climate models.
This local climate, known as the microclimate, does not necessarily change in the same way as the surrounding regional climate.
In their review published in Global Change Biology , researchers from around the world synthesize how climate change can alter microclimates and identify the processes responsible for these differences.
"Climate change is often described as a single number for a region. But organisms live in specific places—in a particular patch of forest or on a particular slope. The climate they experience can change at a very different rate from the regional average," says Caroline Greiser, a researcher at Stockholm University and lead author of the study.
Future microclimates, in this alpine landscape, will be shaped by topography, the evolution of snow and cloud cover, and the ongoing colonization by trees. Credit: Eva Gril
One important driver is vegetation. Climate change can alter forests, shrublands and other vegetation, which in turn changes how much sunlight reaches the ground and how easily the ground loses heat to the atmosphere.
"Vegetation is not simply responding to climate change—it can also modify the climate experienced by organisms living under canopies," says Greiser. "When vegetation changes, it changes the local energy balance, and this can lead to very different temperature trends within the same landscape."
In one of the model simulations presented in the review, the expansion of shrubs and trees into open steppes in Turkey substantially altered near-ground air temperatures. On the hottest days, shrub encroachment resulted in temperatures up to 16 degrees lower than those in open areas. In a regional warming scenario, the open areas would warm up much faster.
Microclimate is also influenced directly by changes in atmospheric conditions. For example, cloud cover controls how much solar radiation reaches the Earth's surface. A reduction in cloudiness can substantially increase solar heating in sun-exposed locations, while shaded areas, such as forest interiors or pole-facing slopes, may be less affected.
The review shows how such changes can interact with topography, vegetation, soil moisture and other factors to produce increasingly different microclimatic conditions over relatively short distances.
Until recently, it has been difficult to study these changes over long periods and across large areas. New sensor networks, long-term datasets and mechanistic models are now making it possible to investigate how changes in the atmosphere and vegetation translate into the microclimates experienced by organisms.
"The processes that determine microclimate are complex and involve both atmospheric and biological systems. Understanding them therefore requires collaboration between atmospheric scientists and ecologists," says Greiser.
Understanding how microclimates change could improve predictions of how species and ecosystems respond to climate change. Regional climate data may suggest that an area is warming, while local conditions can remain relatively buffered—or change even more rapidly—because of vegetation, topography and atmospheric processes.
Accounting for this variation could improve predictions of future species distributions and ecological interactions and help inform conservation and land management strategies that are adapted to local climate change.
"If we want to understand where species will persist and where they will be most vulnerable, we need to know not only how the regional climate is changing, but also how that change translates into the microclimates organisms actually experience," says Greiser.
Climate change experienced by life on Earth – drivers and mechanisms of future trends in microclimates, Global Change Biology (2026). DOI: 10.1111/gcb.71140
Journal information: Global Change Biology
effects of climate change Forests
Swati Mestri holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering and has worked as a content editor since 2019. She has experience editing research documents across technology, health care, and materials science, and has a particular interest in technology and space. Full profile →
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Provided by Stockholm University

Climate change can look very different at the scale of a forest, field or hillside. A new review shows how changes in vegetation and atmospheric conditions can cause local microclimates to warm at very different rates from the regional climate—and why this matters for understanding how biodiversity will respond to climate change.

FACT:
The Trump Administration has taken concrete steps that deny the impact of climate change that include:
Repeal of the 'endangerment finding' for greenhouse gases (February, 2026). This allows denial that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The endangerment finding of 2009 formed the basis for a great deal of climate regulation.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) eliminated greenhouse gas standards for automobiles.
Administration withdrew support for the 'Arctic Report Card' which has documented changes in a variety of measurements in the Arctic corroborating the impact of climate change.
Recommendation for large budget cuts for oceanic and climate research.
Attempts to eliminate about $20 billion in clean energy and climate grants. This is currently under review.
Numerous attempts to eliminate expansion of wind energy while simultaneously expanding the use of coal and fossil fuels. (Executive Order 14161).
OPINION:
Stupid is as stupid does.
VOTE WHILE YOU STILL CAN

Denying Climate Change: Are They For Real??

Amid wars, inflation, emerging risks from artificial intelligence and threats to democracy, Americans have a lot to be worried about these days. But polls show the majority of voters in 2026 are also concerned about climate change as temperatures and disaster risks rise.
So why are fewer candidates talking openly about climate change in their midterm election campaigns than just a few years ago?
At the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, we study climate communication and are following how Democratic candidates are discussing climate change in their campaigns.
Democratic candidates seem to agree on one strategy: campaign centrally on affordability, emphasizing how ordinary people are struggling to afford to fill up their cars, pay their electric bills and insure their homes against hurricanes and wildfires. It's part of a concerted effort to make the election a referendum on Republicans' support for the Trump administration's contributions to inflation, such as tariffs and the Iran war.
Fossil fuel industry interests have long sought to polarize the public over the phrase "climate change." As one of us, Geoffrey Henderson, discusses in his new book, "Getting to Work on Climate Policy: The Strategy of Labor-Environmental Coalitions," campaigns pitting economic concerns against environmental ones have made it harder to build support for policies meant to slow climate change.
When it comes to talking about climate change today, three distinct camps of Democratic candidates and officeholders reveal three different strategies.
The energy populists
The energy populists talk a lot about lowering energy prices for consumers but very little about either climate change or fossil fuels.
Many have been painting data centers, rather than fossil fuel producers, as villains. Candidates often use messages focused on how utilities and data centers are raising voters' electric rates. They propose measures to lower these costs, like requiring data centers to bring their own energy sources onto the grid.
In North Carolina, former governor Roy Cooper, now running for U.S. Senate, emphasizes lowering energy and utility costs. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, campaigning to return to the Senate, argues that his opponent's votes in favor of data centers have led to "higher electric rates."
Discussing energy affordability, without directly calling out the risks to the climate from burning fossil fuels or advocating for more renewable energy, aligns with the argument that climate change messages can alienate swing voters, who prioritize affordability.
If energy populists are elected, they could become silent backers of climate policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – both Brown and Cooper have a record of supporting renewable energy – or obstacles to climate policies.
The climate champions
Not all Democrats, even in battleground states, think climate change should fade into the background this election. However, few are as outspoken today as they were in the past.
In Massachusetts, Sen. Ed Markey's website pledges that he will champion "bold action to invest in clean energy" if reelected in November. In Maine, Senate candidate Troy Jackson asserts that politicians should not pit working-class people against renewable energy, casting the climate-versus-affordability debate as a false choice.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island talks about candidates talking about climate change. Climate One.
Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse, one of the Senate's most outspoken supporters of pro-climate policies, contends that candidates should link higher costs to climate change, such as increased home insurance costs due to hurricane risk. He also points to President Donald Trump's blockade of the cheapest energy sources – namely, solar and wind power – which he attributes to fossil fuel industry influence.
If elected, these candidates' messages suggest they will pursue policies that help reduce U.S. contributions to climate change. However, they may need to convince independent voters that their focus on climate change will not overshadow their attention to other challenges.
The all-of-the-above proponents
Another group of candidates wants to have it both ways. They call for actions that can respond to climate change and rapidly build out renewable energy, while also promising cheaper gasoline and more fossil fuel jobs. Scientists warn that more fossil fuel use cuts against global climate goals.
Unlike the other camps, this group does not identify villains in their narrative. These candidates are following the script from the Obama administration, whose "all of the above" energy strategy espoused continued fossil fuel use alongside policies to reduce planet-warming emissions.
Josh Turek, running for U.S. Senate from Iowa, talks with voters about high fuel costs. WHO13.
In Iowa, U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek hosted a roundtable in April 2026 on how climate-fueled extreme weather is raising insurance costs. But he has also focused on lowering the cost of gasoline and diesel. James Talarico, campaigning for the Senate in Texas, has similarly promised to fight climate change by boosting renewable energy while lowering costs by promoting all energy sources.
These candidates may be trying to signal their potential to support climate policies while respecting their states' cultural connections to fossil fuels. Turek and Talarico are both running in states with abundant wind power.
Where are the voters on this issue?
Studies from the U.S. and Germany find that politicians usually underestimate public support for efforts to address climate change.
So how well do candidates' platforms represent today's voters?
Yale's spring 2026 survey found that 49% of voters believe global warming should be a high priority for Congress and the president. But 70% of moderate or conservative Democrats share this view, alongside 84% of liberal Democrats. Even 1 in 3 liberal-to-moderate Republicans considers the climate a high priority.
Yet polling also suggests that other issues, such as the increasing cost of living, are even more important to many voters. This data suggests that pro-climate messages could appeal to swing voters most strongly if climate policies are seen as complementary to affordability.
Still, a recent survey shows that voters open to Democratic candidates are more likely to support a candidate who prioritizes climate change. Climate messaging may especially resonate with young voters. Over a third of those ages 18 to 29 in a recent Harvard Youth Poll considered climate change an urgent national crisis. Young Republicans are more supportive of addressing climate change than their older counterparts.
While many shifts in the way candidates talk about climate policy have little impact on people's willingness to participate in collective efforts to address it, messages emphasizing cost savings durably increase support for renewable energy across party lines. Voters' current concerns about inflation could make climate messages involving affordability especially effective in 2026, though the impact of these messages may vary from state to state.
Retail politics and the way forward
These different approaches reflect the Democratic Party's efforts to build a "big tent" that can attract voters with a wide range of views and priorities. Yet Democrats are generally coalescing around a message designed to appeal to working-class voters: that Trump and the Republicans are raising your cost of living.
November's midterm elections will offer some insight into whether Democrats' energy affordability message will resonate in the 2028 presidential election.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Geoffrey Henderson, University of Michigan and Nathaniel Geiger, University of Michigan
Read more:
Geoffrey Henderson has worked on a project that received funding from the National Science Foundation.
Nathaniel Geiger has received funding from the National Science Foundation.

Voters have a lot of weighty issues on their minds, but that doesn't mean they aren't worried about climate change.

How candidates are (quietly) talking about climate change – 3 election strategies you'll see across the US

Paleoclimatology is the study of how and why Earth's climate has changed in the past. Paleoclimatologists study ice ages, past abrupt changes, and what the Earth was like during past climate warm periods. The knowledge gained from paleoclimate studies provides us with the information needed to refine climate models, so that we understand how the Earth's climate works, and better predict how human activity will impact climate in the future. Describes the tools used by paleoclimatologists to reconstruct past climate change and evaluate the hypothesis put forth to explain those changes. Prerequisite: REM 100 or EVSC 100; GEOG 111 or EASC 101 or EASC 106; and 45 units. Recommended: EASC 210, GEOG 214 or GEOG 215. Students with credit for EVSC 334 may not take this course for further credit. Students who have taken REM 463-3 "Special Topics" in Spring 2019 may not enroll in this course for further credit.

Paleoclimatology is the study of how and why Earth's climate has changed in the past. Paleoclimatologists study ice ages, past abrupt changes, and what the Earth was like during past climate warm…

REM 334 - Spring Calendar

Most Australian workers believe the nation's biggest companies have a responsibility to address climate change, according to a new survey.
However, even if businesses do take meaningful strides on climate commitments, scepticism remains among their employees.
The revelations come from new West Australian research surveying 2048 workers across the nation, which the authors said showed most workers were not questioning whether businesses should be acting on climate change, but were not convinced meaningful progress was being made.
The report, from the Curtin Centre for Applied Ethics, is the first of a series of studies examining several issues business leaders face against a backdrop of a 'polycrisis' unfolding via several channels across the world.
Professor Anthony Langlois, Stan Perron Dean of Applied Ethics and CCAE director, said climate change was already a workplace health, safety and productivity issue.
'From our respondents, it's quite clear that exposure [to effects of climate change] concentrates in frontline roles,' he said.
'So, if we're thinking about technicians, trades workers, machinery operators and so on, 59 per cent of them have worked in temperature extremes, and 45 per cent in places with smoke fumes and dust.
'Whereas if you're talking about managers and professionals, those figures drop down to 25 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.
'One of the things I found really interesting about this class of workers, the ones that we think of as the most exposed workers, they're also the most disillusioned about what is happening in the broader social and political response to climate change.'
Of that cohort, 58 per cent surveyed were dissatisfied with the federal government's response to climate change, while 58 per cent felt they had no meaningful say in the political system.
According to the report, the latter figure rose to 60 per cent among workers exposed to smoke, fumes or dust.
And workers expect climate change to impact their cost of living most, with 41 per cent listing it as an area of 'major impact'.
'Employees encounter climate change first as an affordability and security question, not an abstract environmental one,' the report reads.
Langlois said the research highlighted the importance of transparency, with employees willing to support corporate climate action, but 'unwilling to take it on trust'.
'People want change, and they're entirely happy to be persuaded that companies are doing things and that the government is doing things, they just want to see the evidence,' he said.
'And that's really important for our situation here in Western Australia, when you think about the mix of industries that we have here, particularly those dealing with energy and mining.
Langlois pointed to recently introduced mandatory climate reporting requirements as an opportunity for businesses to show meaningful action on climate change-related goals.
'Talk to the whole of your workforce about what you're doing, not just the boards and the investors, but talk to the people all the way down the hierarchy, and have conversations with workers about transition planning,' he said.
'Don't rely on a PR campaign, use the evidence and that will persuade people.'
Co-author Professor Astghik Mavisakalyan said most employees assumed 'greenwashing' was common – 79 per cent of those surveyed – and few accepted sustainability claims at face value.
'Employees are far more likely to trust climate claims that are independently audited or backed by mandatory disclosure requirements than claims that rely solely on self-reporting,' she said.
The report also shed some light on the growing political divide on the topic, with the gap between left and right-leaning Australians widening from 32 to 48 percentage points between 2010 and 2025.
The perceived threat of global warming shifted 'sharply' among left and centre-leaning Australians, while barely budging on the right.
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A new West Australian survey asks workers if they believe their employer has a responsibility to address climate change – and whether companies are making meaningful progress.

Workers want company climate action — but don't believe the hype

ST. JOHN'S, NL, Oct. 15, 2026 /CNW/ -- Media representatives are advised that the Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature; and the Honourable Joanne Thompson, Minister of Fisheries, will announce funding to lower home heating costs in Newfoundland and Labrador. They will be joined by Jennifer Williams, President and Chief Executive Officer of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro; and Gary Murray, President and Chief Executive Officer of Newfoundland Power.
Event:
Announcement and media availability
Date:
Friday, October 16, 2026
Time:
10:30 a.m. (NDT)
Location:
Heat Pump Solutions Ltd.
285 Thorburn Road
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
To be made aware of any changes, media representatives are encouraged to register for this in-person event by contacting Environment and Climate Change Canada's Media Relations at [email protected].
Follow Environment and Climate Change Canada on social media.
SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada
Contacts: Amy Falkner, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature, 873-355-9725, [email protected]; Media Relations, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free), [email protected]

/CNW/ -- Media representatives are advised that the Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature; and the Honourable...

/R E P E A T -- Media advisory - Ministers Dabrusin and Thompson to announce funding to lower home heating costs in Newfoundland and Labrador/

OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 16, 2026 /CNW/ -- In a more uncertain and increasingly unstable world, Canada is stepping up to build a safer and more resilient future. Addressing climate change and biodiversity loss requires ambitious action at home and around the world. By advancing progress on both, Canada will protect nature, build resilient communities, and create lasting prosperity for future generations. International cooperation is key to achieving these goals.
That is why the Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature, will lead Canada's efforts as Head of Delegation at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) and the 31st meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31).
At COP17, Minister Dabrusin and the Honourable Nathalie Provost, Secretary of State (Nature), will work with international partners to accelerate implementation of the Kunming–Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework. From October 19 to 30, 2026, in Yerevan, Armenia, Canada will champion the critical role of Indigenous peoples in conservation and advocate for practical solutions to mobilize global resources for biodiversity finance. Canada will showcase its leadership through two Canadian-led official side events focused on innovative nature finance and the essential role of Indigenous leadership in advancing conservation efforts at home and around the world. The delegation will also take part in strategic bilateral meetings, high-level roundtables, and civil society events to strengthen cooperation, advance solutions, and drive action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
From November 9 to 20, 2026, in Antalya, Türkiye, Canada will participate in the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31). Building on multilateral engagements, including the 10th Ministerial on Climate Action, Canada will continue working with international partners, Indigenous representatives, civil society, youth, and other stakeholders to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities; reduce methane emissions; accelerate electrification; and mobilize finance and investments from public and private sources. For the fifth consecutive year, Canada will host a national pavilion at COP31, showcasing Canadian climate leadership and innovation. The Canada Pavilion will serve as a hub for connection and collaboration.
Canada's international leadership is backed by action at home. To accelerate electrification, Canada is building major clean energy projects across the country, including with the largest clean energy investment in North American history in Churchill Falls. Through A Force of Nature: Canada's Strategy to Protect Nature and $3.8 billion in investments and funding, Canada is advancing its commitment to conserve 30% of lands and waters by 2030 through strong partnerships and innovative approaches to conservation. Canada recently reinforced this commitment by joining the 30x30 for Nature and People Ministerial Declaration at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. Prime Minister, Mark Carney, recently announced a historic investment of $1.2 billion to better protect Canada's oceans and the life they sustain. This will increase monitoring, strengthen ocean science and ecosystem protections, and improve marine incident prevention and preparedness. These priorities will be a key focus at both upcoming conferences.
Canada's delegations to COP17 and COP31 will bring together the diverse perspectives from across Canadian society, including Indigenous representatives, civil society, the private sector, youth, and provincial and territorial government representatives. Working with international partners, these delegations help advance practical solutions to protect nature, strengthen resilience, and support sustainable economic prosperity.
Quotes
"Climate change and biodiversity loss are global challenges that no country can solve alone. At COP17 and COP31, Canada will work with partners from around the world to strengthen implementation of the Kunming–Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement and collective efforts to address nature protection and climate change. Through international cooperation, Indigenous leadership, innovative solutions, and a collective commitment to conservation and climate action, we will build a sustainable future for people and nature alike."– The Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature
"Nature loss is a global challenge that requires countries to work together and turn shared commitments into action. At COP17, Canada will share its experiences in advancing nature finance, including innovative approaches to valuing natural capital and mobilizing private investment for conservation. By exchanging ideas, lessons learned, and practical solutions with international partners, we can accelerate progress toward our global biodiversity goals and recognize nature as a foundation of long-term economic prosperity and resilience."– The Honourable Nathalie Provost, Secretary of State (Nature)
Quick facts
Associated links
Environment and Climate Change Canada's X pageEnvironment and Climate Change Canada's Facebook pageEnvironment and Natural Resources in Canada's Facebook pageEnvironment and Climate Change Canada's LinkedIn pageEnvironment and Climate Change Canada's Instagram page
SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada
Contacts: Amy Falkner, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature, [email protected]; Marie-France Proulx, Director of Communications, Office of the Secretary of State (Nature), [email protected]; Media Relations, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 819-938-3338 or 1-844-836-7799 (toll-free), [email protected]

/CNW/ -- In a more uncertain and increasingly unstable world, Canada is stepping up to build a safer and more resilient future. Addressing climate change and...

Canada to advance global nature conservation and climate action at upcoming United Nations conferences

Rivers play central role in material exchange between terrestrial and lacustrine and marine aquatic environments through weathering, erosion, carbon and nutrient cycling, and contaminant transport as well as being important in global biogeochemical cycles and the provision of ecosystem services. Global climate change affecting both temperature and precipitation have a host of interrelated consequences that affect the diverse processes that determine river geochemistry. These include shifts in water temperature, changes in flow volumes, the thawing of permafrost and melting of glaciers, and modification of vegetative land cover/land use and wildfire patterns and intensity that consequently alter geochemical reactions that govern stream chemistry to accelerate rock weathering, modify water quality and stream sediment dynamics, alter riverine biodiversity, and shift carbon and nutrient cycles on local, regional, and global scales. As such, global climate change may drive riverine aquatic systems critical for ecosystem function to change, inducing both positive and negative feedback that influence the chemical composition of river waters in both natural as well as agricultural, suburban, and urban environments. As river flow volumes a diminish in a warmer climate, higher solute concentrations will deteriorate dissolved oxygen levels and water quality even without human perturbation. However, the direction and magnitude of these responses vary considerable amongst terrains and catchments because of differences in lithology, soil development, ecosystem structure, hydrology, and human disturbance. Uncertainties remain concerning the relative contributions of climate-forcing and non-climatic pressures, the effects of extreme events, the persistence of geochemical responses, and the implications for downstream and coastal environments. The connection between short-term observations and long-term trends is not well understood and requires integration of chemical, isotopic, and modelling approaches across spatial scales.We invite of papers to this special issue of Frontiers in Geochemistry that will help deepen our understanding of river geochemistry in the face of changing global climate. Contributors to the special issue will be expected to review papers of other contributors. This research topic aims to present current cross-disciplinary knowledge and in so doing advance understanding of how global climate change influences the production, mobilization, transformation, and export of geochemical constituents to and from river systems. Submissions may address observations, experiments, modelling, palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, or integrated approaches that distinguish climate-related effects from those associated with land use, pollution, dams, and other anthropogenic pressures. It will examine the mechanisms controlling riverine compositional responses, identify the factors that regulate spatial and temporal variability, and assess consequences for watershed functioning, carbon and nutrient budgets, water quality, and downstream ecosystem services. To gather further insights into climate-sensitive geochemical processes in rivers and their connected watersheds, the scope includes studies of surface-water from headwaters to river deltas, while also recognising the importance of groundwater, soils, floodplains, lakes, and coastal receiving environments. Thus, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:- Climate-driven changes in chemical weathering and erosion- Long-term records of riverine geochemical change- Transport and transformation of dissolved organic matter- Nutrient mobilization, retention, and export- Trace metals, metalloids, and emerging contaminants- Isotopic and elemental tracers of sources and processes- Riverine carbon cycling, carbon dioxide emissions, and carbon export- Geochemical responses to floods, droughts, wildfires, and heatwaves- Glacier retreat, permafrost thaw, and high-latitude river geochemistry- Hydrological change, residence times, groundwater-surface water interactions, and watershed connectivity- Sediment-associated geochemistry and floodplain processes- Interactions among climate change, land use, and pollution- Remote sensing, reactive-transport modelling, and data-driven approaches- Implications for water quality on human and ecosystem health, and downstream environments- Catchment management, adaptation, restoration, and nature-based solutions
- Long term impact of either urbanization or agricultural activities on river geochemistry

Rivers play central role in material exchange between terrestrial and lacustrine and marine aquatic environments through weathering, erosion, carbon and nutr...

Riverine Geochemical Response to Global Climate Change

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain
Ecological grief is growing—and our current approach to climate change education isn't keeping pace.
There has been a surge in climate emotion research globally, documenting widespread experiences of fear, grief, anxiety and hopelessness.
New findings suggest the way we approach climate change education may be harming young people rather than helping them to face this grief head-on.
In this article, we share insights from 39 young people about how they experience climate education in a rapidly changing world and how we can change it for the better.
International research has shown that youth want educational spaces that support discussions around the emotional impacts of climate change.
Our research with young people aged 16 to 34 backs this up while also revealing their desire for community-based climate conversations and approaches that focus on how they experience ecological crises.
In 2025, we held seven online discussion groups inspired by a " climate café " model designed to offer space for people to share their climate emotions.
Groups of up to nine young people from various places in Ontario were invited to tell us about everyday climate emotions and how they typically learn about climate change. We recruited participants via the University of Guelph's research web page and through social media channels and community networks.
Participating youth self-represented using diverse identities and social locations.
Thirty-four of 39 participants identified as racialized. Three people among this group identified as both racialized and Indigenous from another country. The remaining five participants identified as white.
Some participants described learning about climate change by volunteering with community groups. Participants described learning about climate change in school as a one-off "unit" or "topic," often given "surface-level treatment."
This reflects significant fragmentation between Canadian climate policy and provincial education curricula . Even in provinces and territories playing leadership roles in climate policy, education policy minimally addresses climate change.
Although the Ontario Ministry of Education has committed to embedding learning about the environment, many participants described an educational focus on individual habits alone, such as recycling. Many reported that classroom climate lessons were reduced to "carbon footprints."
Popularized by British Petroleum, carbon footprint approaches reframe climate responsibility as a matter of personal lifestyle management and consumer choice rather than systemic transformation.
The carbon footprint encourages guilt and personal self-regulation, and for this reason has been critiqued as "petro pedagogy" —climate education either directly sponsored by or shaped by fossil fuel company interests that normalizes fossil fuel dependence.
Such approaches put the responsibility for change on individuals rather than on the broader drivers of climate injustice, such as fossil fuel extraction and capitalism.
One participant emphasized that carbon-footprint education creates "a disconnect between the practice and the theory" that "doesn't really do justice to the climate."
Climate education shaped by fossil fuel companies operates most effectively under the guise of neutrality—characteristically avoiding emotion and making climate lessons seem unbiased.
It considers the climate as a problem for later, not now. Such forecasting distances young people from present-day ecological realities. For example, recent wildfires in Canada have brought disproportionate emotional distress and cultural disconnection to First Nations, Métis and Inuit people .
As the United Nations notes, ecological grief is unevenly felt across communities. Yet, current educational approaches tend to ignore Indigenous worldviews, putting humans—rather than our relationships with and the well-being of land, plants and nonhuman animals—at the center of the learning.
Research has found that while "neutral" educational approaches aim to motivate action, they may inadvertently generate guilt, disengagement or emotional withdrawal when young people are asked to confront crises beyond their control.
Young people in our study described feeling helpless, guilty, exhausted, overwhelmed and morally accountable for climate disasters.
As a result of their own ecological grief and depleted emotional capacity, many youth described coping with the climate crisis through avoidance. Some tried "blocking it out" or "cocooning" by, for example, avoiding watching the news or ignoring current events.
In our study, we bring young people's suggestions to a focal point: climate education must move away from individual blame and include emotions.
When asked how they would like to learn about climate change differently, participants described a politicized form of climate education rooted in emotion and relationality.
They also want conversations to happen outside of the classroom, in their immediate communities. As one participant put it, this simply means being "on the same wavelength" as others experiencing nearby climate-related events.
Climate education that meets these criteria must be grief-facing. Beginning with grief means recognizing the disenfranchisement of climate emotions as part of the disproportionate impact young people feel when it comes to climate change.
Often climate emotions are seen as mental health issues to be managed, rather than as reasonable responses to social and political failures. Yet, one participant in our study questioned this logic, asking:
"How can we 'mental health' somebody out of climate change? I don't think that makes sense."
Following the tenets of critical grief educational work, climate-based grief approaches begin by creating structured opportunities for students to share their experiences without demanding a "cure" for their difficult emotions.
Climate emotions can be recognized as expected and appropriate responses to the crises young people face.
A grief-facing approach situates current climate events within broader histories of colonialism and injustice that lead to their disproportionate impact. It also involves deep rest , which means making space for young people to withdraw—or "cocoon"—as necessary care when it comes to emotion overload.
Perhaps most importantly, we have learned from young people that future climate learning can be scientific, but it must also be attentive to emotion and approached as a shared social, ethical and emotional challenge. This can happen in schools and the broader community.
Opening conversations with youth about the anxiety, grief, anger and other emotions may lead to broader research about climate change's uneven impact.
Climate emotions emerge not only from anticipating human futures, but also from witnessing the loss of ecosystems, species and life—something young people are experiencing right now.
New forms of climate education, including grief-facing approaches, should involve those directly affected by these issues, including youth.
Carbon Footprint Climate Anxiety Climate Change
BA art history, MA material culture. Former museum editor, paramedic, and transplant coordinator. Editing for Science X since 2021. Full profile →
Master's in physics with research experience. Long-time science news enthusiast. Plays key role in Science X's editorial success. Full profile →
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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

Ecological grief is growing—and our current approach to climate change education isn't keeping pace.

How 39 young people experience climate education in a rapidly changing world

HIGHLIGHTS:
IITM Pune; 17.10.2026: The Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), organised the First Stakeholder Consultation Meeting of the Climate Science into Services for India Forum (CSSIF) on 17 October 2026 at its campus in Pune. This meet brought together more than 150 participants from over 80 institutions across various states of the country which comprises of stakeholders from government ministries and departments, operational agencies, research and academic institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society and the private sector.
The consultation focused on the role of climate science in developing relevant climate services and strengthening the application of weather and climate information across different sectors.
The programme commenced with the welcoming and felicitation of dignitaries, followed by the welcome address by Dr. A. Suryachandra Rao, Director, IITM, Prof. V. K. Dadhwal, Former Director, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), addressed the gathering as the Chief Guest. Dr. Suvarna Fadnavis, Project Director, Centre for Climate Change Research (CCCR), IITM, presented an overview of the stakeholder consultation meeting.
The technical session featured an introductory talk by Dr. Rupa Kumar Kolli, Former Chief of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Climate Applications and Services Division, on the need for a Climate Services Information System for the nation. Shri Amardeep Raju, Scientist, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), delivered an invited talk on the need for policy-relevant climate change information. The session also covered weather and climate products at IITM-MoES and climate models, data and products, presented by Dr. Swapna Panickal, Senior Scientist at CCCR, IITM.
The sectoral consultation featured thematic breakout groups to encourage brainstorming and interactive discussions on the application of climate science to sector-specific challenges. Sectional groups on water resources and hydrology, on agriculture and food security, and on disaster management and risk reduction.With a special focus on climate extremes such as precipitation, heat and wildfires; energy and finance, including renewable energy transition, insurance and economic risk assessment; and climate projections and services, covering marine heatwaves, marine productivity, coastal vulnerability and frameworks for translating observations into services.
Through sector-wise thematic consultations, stakeholders highlighted their climate information requirements, operational challenges and expectations, while gaining greater insight into IITM's climate research, datasets and products and their potential translation into useful and actionable climate services. The key recommendations emerging from the consultation will help strengthen the interface between climate science, services, policy and societal needs.
The meeting marks the beginning of sustained engagement under CSSIF towards developing scientifically robust, user-oriented and sector-relevant climate information and services for India.
Participants represented a wide range of major national and state-level organisations, including the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), India Meteorological Department (IMD), Naval Headquarters, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), National Water Academy, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), National Institute of Virology (NIV), National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), and ICAR institutes.
Strong participation was also received from state-level organisations, including State Disaster Management Authorities, state Environment, Forest and Climate Change Departments, Pune Municipal Corporation, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, Goa State Pollution Control Board, Madhya Pradesh Climate Change Centre, Goa State Climate Change Cell, Assam Climate Change Management Society, Bihar Mausam Seva Kendra, and other state agencies from across the country.
The consultation also included representatives from leading NGOs and civil-society organisations such as The Nature Conservancy India, Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), BAIF Development Research Foundation, TERRE Policy Centre, Swayam Shikshan Prayog, Development Support Centre, Naam Foundation, EarthSight Foundation, GRAAM and the Ecological Society, along with universities and research institutions including Savitribai Phule Pune University, Christian Medical College Vellore, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Krea University, and scientists from IITM.
The program is available on IITM YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/live/kOTL91NGmFg?feature=share
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NKR/JKP/SG

HIGHLIGHTS: The First Stakeholder Consultation Meeting of the Climate Science into Services fo

IITM Hosts First Stakeholder Consultation Meeting on Climate Science into Services for India Forum (CSSIF)

First our spotlight stories:
Climate progress is real
Bill Gates offers a useful reminder that climate change is serious but thatprogress is happening. Solar and wind power, electric vehicles, and batteries have advanced more quickly than many anticipated, and future emission projections have decreased significantly compared to those made a decade ago. His climate investment initiative, Breakthrough Energy, has supported over 150 companies that are developing cleaner technologies. The challenge now is to build on this progress by making clean energy affordable for everyone, determining which solutions deliver the greatest benefits, and investing in climate-resilient agriculture, health, and adaptation, especially for vulnerable communities.
Did you know they grow tea in Scotland?
As climate change alters growing conditions, researchers are investigating whethertea and other alternative crops could flourish in Scotland. Diversifying crops could help farmers adapt to changing weather patterns, generate new income opportunities, and strengthen the resilience of the food and agriculture sectors. While it's still in the early stages and not guaranteed to succeed, it's a promising example of farmers looking at new possibilities rather than simply trying to preserve the status quo.
ClimateBash is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
🤖🌍AI AND CLIMATE CHANGE
The energy consumption of AI is increasing rapidly. However, power consumption per AI task is decreasing. So, efficiency is increasing while our demand for AI is also growing. As for climate change, AI could be a powerful tool for the IPCC to better fulfill its mission. If used well, a public AI model could reduce biases. It could do more than forecast. It could suggest actions, describe risks, cover adaptation and mitigation, and reach government departments, city councils, farmers, and households. A paper by the think tank Vision suggests thatAI's energy consumption could be smaller than feared and its potential larger. Whether AI warms or cools the planet may depend less on its technology than on the institutions we build around it and how we use it.
📰🔍DEBUNKED: CLIMATE DISINFORMATION
A new investigation by Fundación Maldita.es and Science Feedback examined how YouTube and TikTok enforce their policies against climate misinformation. Researchers reported 82 videos to YouTube, but fewer than 5% appeared to have been demonetized. TikTok only restricted 20% of the 87 videos reported and did not change its decision on any of the 147 appeals. The reportcalls for platforms to apply their existing rules consistently, improve transparency, and clarify their policies to cover newer forms of climate denial. It also calls for platforms to ensure meaningful human review.
Climate disinformation doesn't always deny climate change outright. Instead, it can downplay the threat, delay action, deflect responsibility, divide people, or spread doomism: the idea that it's already too late to make a difference. Thesefive tactics can all undermine actionby creating complacency, fueling conflict, or convincing people that trying is pointless. However, we can learn to spot these tactics. Be wary of posts designed to provoke outrage or fear, pressure you to share immediately, or make claims without credible sources. Take a moment to check the evidence and verify who's behind the message before sharing. Critical thinking is one of our best defenses.
New research examining industry documents from 1986 to 1996 reveals how the U.S. cattle lobby worked todownplay the contribution of beef production to climate change. The National Cattlemen's Association commissioned studies that downplayed cattle methane emissions, disseminated misleading statistics through the media, and cast doubt on the science linking livestock to global warming. The association's campaign even helped prevent the reprinting of a children's environmental book that encouraged eating less meat. The research suggests that this was not simply a debate over scientific evidence but rather a coordinated effort to shape public opinion and keep beef off the climate agenda.
🌱BIODIVERSITY
The WWF's latest Living Planet Report offers a sobering warning: monitored wildlife populations have declined by an average of 73% since 1970. But there is alsoencouraging news. Thanks to decades of conservation, habitat protection, and coordinated action, green sea turtles, tigers, and bluefin tuna are recovering. These successes demonstrate that the decline of nature is not inevitable. The next step is to address the primary causes of biodiversity loss by transforming food production, energy, and finance systems. This requires more nature-friendly farming, healthier and more sustainable diets, reduced food waste, and investments that protect rather than destroy nature.
Alice Cerutti, an Italian rice farmer, has restored about a third of her 110-hectare farm to its natural state. She has created wetlands and woodlands that now shelter rare birds, butterflies, and other wildlife. She has planted more than 10,000 native plants, and biodiversity has rebounded remarkably quickly. Cerutti is also demonstrating that farming with nature can help mitigate the effects of climate extremes. Traditional rice varieties tolerate heat and drought better. Meanwhile, legume crops, green manure, and sheep grazing maintain soil fertility without the use of chemical fertilizers. Although yields may be lower, the farm offers a compelling example of howproviding space for nature can build resilience for both wildlife and agriculture.
🌾AGRICULTURE, LIVESTOCK, AND FOOD SYSTEMS
Researchers from Imperial College London reported producing theanimal muscle protein myoglobin in lettuce and tobacco. They inserted a pig myoglobin gene into chloroplast genomes, resulting in lettuce and tobacco that contain about one-tenth the myoglobin of beef tenderloin. This technique could be more resource-efficient than livestock and improve the color, taste, and nutritional value of plant-based meat.
Raise your hands: who considers this Frankenfood?
⚖️CLIMATE JUSTICE
A Swedish study found that about80% of people support wealthy countries helping poorer nations tackle climate change. Additionally, 63% believe they have a personal moral responsibility to reduce emissions. Only about 15% thought that economic development was a valid reason for countries to avoid reducing emissions. People recognize climate action involves fairness and shared responsibility. The researchers suggest clarifying the principles behind climate policies, such as the idea that those who cause more pollution should contribute more and that those with greater resources can afford to help. Talking about fairness could help build broader support for climate action.
Young people are transforming climate activism into legal action by challenging governments and fossil fuel companies to take responsibility. A major milestone was the seven-year campaign by Pacific Island law students that helped secure the 2025 International Court of Justice opinion, which clarified states' obligations to protect the climate. Climate litigation is also holding companies accountable for emissions linked to the fossil fuels they sell. Thisarticleemphasizes the effectiveness of digital networks, compelling narratives, and youth leadership in countering disinformation and building public pressure.
♻️LIFESTYLE AND CONSUMPTION SHIFTS
By 2032, Paris will have invested €200 million to make cycling safer and more accessible. The plan includes 140 kilometers of new bike lanes, upgrades to 420 intersections, and 220 kilometers of streets where cyclists can ride against one-way traffic. Since 2020, cycling has already increased by 47%, andaround one in ten Parisians now cycles to work. The goal is to meet the growing demand while reducing the number of dangerous encounters between cyclists and motor vehicles.
📚CLIMATE EDUCATION
Although more than 80 percent of U.S. teens say they are worried about climate change, only about half of them know that it is primarily caused by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels. But teens who learn more about climate change from their teachers are more likely to understand its causes and the scientific consensus. On the bright side, this presents asignificant opportunity for climate education. Schools, teachers, and parents can help transform concern into understanding by incorporating climate science into everyday learning and conversation.
The newEarth Systems Institute at New York Universitybrings together climate scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and AI researchers to improve our ability to predict environmental changes and prepare for their consequences. The institute's work focuses on four areas: 1) AI-powered Earth system models, 2) more resilient food and land systems, 3) climate-proof infrastructure such as power grids and water networks, and 4) open-source climate tools that make useful data more accessible. At the institute's launch during Climate Week NYC, researchers presented projects ranging from ocean simulations to food security in the Sahel and energy infrastructure planning.
Nearly nine in ten Australian children aged 12–13 are worried about climate change. In response, the University of Melbourne has launched a second season ofClimate Kids, a free video series designed to answer primary school students' questions about climate changewithout making them feel helpless. The new episodes explore topics such as the impact of climate change on alpine wildlife, carbon credits, transport emissions, climate displacement, and climate laws. The series uses a time-traveling scientist who reports back from a future where the worst effects have been overcome to help children move beyond fear towards understanding, critical thinking, and action. Both seasons are available for free onYouTubeand are intended for classroom use.
Thanks for reading!
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Paris Pedals Ahead, Free Climate Education From Australia

Related news: Indonesia pushes climate resilience to protect village livelihoods
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection is pushing to strengthen rural women's role and leadership in tackling climate change by boosting food security, managing natural resources, and driving gender-responsive climate action."Rural women are key pillars in maintaining food security, managing natural resources, and building community resilience against climate change," the ministry's Deputy for Gender Equality, Amurwani Dwi Lestariningsih, said in Jakarta on Friday.Her statement came in response to the commemoration of the International Day of Rural Women.Amurwani emphasized the need to ensure rural women have equal access and opportunities to actively participate in building sustainable and equitable development.However, women continue to face a disproportionate burden from climate change - ranging from droughts, floods, and crop failures to limited access to land, technology, climate information, financing, and productive resources.She noted that these challenges highlight the importance of integrating a gender perspective into all climate action policies and programs.Limited access to productive resources can affect rural women's ability to sustain their livelihoods, support household food security, and adapt to climate change.Therefore, women's needs, experiences, and vulnerabilities must be taken into account when designing and implementing policies to ensure the benefits of these programs are shared fairly and inclusively."A gender perspective must be an integral part of every policy and climate action program so that the needs, experiences, and vulnerabilities of women are addressed fairly and inclusively," Amurwani remarked.She added that rural women are not only among those most affected by climate change, but are also agents of change with immense potential to drive sustainable solutions.Through gender mainstreaming and a Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) approach, women must be given equal opportunities to participate in decision-making, access climate finance, develop climate-smart agriculture, and lead innovation and green economic development at the community level."Let us work jointly to strengthen the capacity, leadership, and independence of rural women, because equitable climate resilience cannot be achieved without gender equality and women's empowerment," she said.

The Indonesian Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection is pushing to strengthen rural women's role and leadership in tackling climate ...

Ministry champions rural women's leadership in climate action

I have followed Col. Larry Wilkerson since I saw him speak in a video by the Massachusetts Peace Action on climate change in 2017. Wilkerson is one of the only people in the US military that regularly talks about this issue and the links to national security, geopolitical issues and the effects of the changing climate on the military.
This morning I plan on discussing the Arctic and the Middle East in light of the changing climate. The geopolitical and military issues are not discussed enough in my opinion.
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Col. Larry Wilkerson: Climate Change & Geopolitics

In Western Australia, the climate transition is not an abstract debate. It runs straight through the resources and energy industries the state's prosperity is built on.
Next month Australia presides over the COP31 climate negotiations. Most of the talk will be about governments and boards. Far less will be about the people working inside the companies being asked to cut emissions, shift towards cleaner energy and change how they do business.
Ask those workers whether business should act on climate change and the answer is almost unanimously 'yes'. Ask whether their own employer is delivering, and the mood changes.
Our new report, The Climate-Exposed Workforce, the first in the Curtin Centre for Applied Ethics' Polycrisis Report Series, surveyed 2,048 working Australians. Almost all of them, 97 per cent, said large companies have at least some responsibility to act on climate change.
More than half said their own employer has made a public climate commitment. Yet only one in seven believe it is making good progress.
That is a trust gap employers cannot afford to ignore.
Workers are clear about who should carry the load. Asked which industries have a major responsibility to cut emissions, 59 per cent named energy and utilities companies and 53 per cent named mining and fossil fuel companies. Just 19 per cent said the same of banks and financial institutions.
In other words, the national workforce is looking squarely at the industries at the heart of WA's economy.
But this is not a workforce demanding the shutters come down. On the future of mining and fossil fuels, 60 per cent favoured a gradual transition with strong support for affected workers and communities. Only one in 20 thought concerns about these industries are overstated.
That is a pragmatic position. Change is expected, but it should be orderly and fair.
The problem is that few workers believe what companies tell them about that change.
Almost four in five think greenwashing is at least somewhat common among Australian businesses. Fewer than one in ten take a company's sustainability claims at face value.
What changes that is proof. When climate disclosure is required by law, with penalties for misleading claims, 85 per cent of employees would trust their employer's climate claims. When claims are independently audited, 79 per cent would.
When companies simply report on themselves, trust falls to around 44 per cent.
There is a second problem: even genuine progress often goes unseen. Just 9 per cent of entry and mid-level staff believe their employer is making good progress on its climate commitments, compared with 31 per cent of senior managers and executives.
The people expected to carry out a transition are the least likely to see it happening.
And companies should not mistake quiet for agreement. If they learned their employer was performing poorly on climate, 71 per cent of workers would discuss it with colleagues, but only 49 per cent would raise it with management. Almost a quarter would do nothing at all.
The good news is how much goodwill is on offer. If their employer could show strong commitments and verified progress, 84 per cent of employees say they would accept changes at work to reduce emissions, 78 per cent would change their own habits and 68 per cent would contribute financially.
Workers are willing partners. But the partnership is conditional on proof.
There is a talent dividend, too. Nearly four in 10 employees say they would take a job paying $10,000 less at a company with strong, verified climate performance, as would 45 per cent of managers and above. For employers competing for skilled staff, credible climate action is part of the offer.
So what should businesses in WA and across the country do?
First, treat Australia's new mandatory climate reporting as an opportunity, not a compliance exercise. The rules line up closely with the conditions under which workers say they would believe corporate climate claims.
Second, report progress to the whole workforce, not just the board and investors. Set concrete milestones, check them independently and tell staff in plain language how the company is tracking.
Third, bring workers into transition planning. Giving them a genuine say can help companies deliver the orderly, fair transition most want, and to hear concerns before they harden.
Finally, stop relying on messaging. On our evidence, communicating more without verifying anything is likely to deepen distrust, not reduce it.
We live in what we describe as a 'polycrisis', where the cost of living, technological change, geopolitical tension and a changing climate press on one another.
In that environment, trust is scarce and easily lost.
Australian workers are not asking companies to promise more. They are asking them to prove it.
In WA, where so much of the transition will play out on mine sites, in power stations and across the businesses that supply them, that test matters more than most.
The businesses that pass it will keep their people with them. Those that don't may find their workforce has quietly stopped believing them.
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Australia's workforce is looking at companies at the heart of WA's economy to act on climate change

Days of heavy rain broke levees in the Seattle area, engulfing this neighborhood in floodwater on Dec. 16, 2025. More Americans are experiencing extreme weather firsthand and connecting it to climate change.Amid wars, inflation, emerging risks from artificial intelligence and threats to democracy, Americans have a lot to be worried about these days. But polls show the majority of voters in 2026 are also concerned about climate change as temperatures and disaster risks rise.
So why are fewer candidates talking openly about climate change in their midterm election campaigns than just a few years ago?
At the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, we study climate communication and are following how Democratic candidates are discussing climate change in their campaigns.
Democratic candidates seem to agree on one strategy: campaign centrally on affordability, emphasizing how ordinary people are struggling to afford to fill up their cars, pay their electric bills and insure their homes against hurricanes and wildfires. It's part of a concerted effort to make the election a referendum on Republicans' support for the Trump administration's contributions to inflation, such as tariffs and the Iran war.
Days of heavy rain broke levees in the Seattle area, engulfing this neighborhood in floodwater on Dec. 16, 2025. More Americans are experiencing extreme weather firsthand and connecting it to climate change.Fossil fuel industry interests have long sought to polarize the public over the phrase 'climate change.' As one of us, Geoffrey Henderson, discusses in his new book, 'Getting to Work on Climate Policy: The Strategy of Labor-Environmental Coalitions,' campaigns pitting economic concerns against environmental ones have made it harder to build support for policies meant to slow climate change.
When it comes to talking about climate change today, three distinct camps of Democratic candidates and officeholders reveal three different strategies.
The energy populists
The energy populists talk a lot about lowering energy prices for consumers but very little about either climate change or fossil fuels.
Many have been painting data centers, rather than fossil fuel producers, as villains. Candidates often use messages focused on how utilities and data centers are raising voters' electric rates. They propose measures to lower these costs, like requiring data centers to bring their own energy sources onto the grid.
In North Carolina, former governor Roy Cooper, now running for U.S. Senate, emphasizes lowering energy and utility costs. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, campaigning to return to the Senate, argues that his opponent's votes in favor of data centers have led to 'higher electric rates.'
Roy Cooper, center, saw firsthand how disasters can ravage a state, including Hurricane Helene's flooding that tore through mountain communities of North Carolina in 2024, killing more than 100 people. North Carolina Department of Public Service
Discussing energy affordability, without directly calling out the risks to the climate from burning fossil fuels or advocating for more renewable energy, aligns with the argument that climate change messages can alienate swing voters, who prioritize affordability.
If energy populists are elected, they could become silent backers of climate policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – both Brown and Cooper have a record of supporting renewable energy – or obstacles to climate policies.
The climate champions
Not all Democrats, even in battleground states, think climate change should fade into the background this election. However, few are as outspoken today as they were in the past.
In Massachusetts, Sen. Ed Markey's website pledges that he will champion 'bold action to invest in clean energy' if reelected in November. In Maine, Senate candidate Troy Jackson asserts that politicians should not pit working-class people against renewable energy, casting the climate-versus-affordability debate as a false choice.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island talks about candidates talking about climate change. Climate One.
Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse, one of the Senate's most outspoken supporters of pro-climate policies, contends that candidates should link higher costs to climate change, such as increased home insurance costs due to hurricane risk. He also points to President Donald Trump's blockade of the cheapest energy sources – namely, solar and wind power – which he attributes to fossil fuel industry influence.
If elected, these candidates' messages suggest they will pursue policies that help reduce U.S. contributions to climate change. However, they may need to convince independent voters that their focus on climate change will not overshadow their attention to other challenges.
The all-of-the-above proponents
Another group of candidates wants to have it both ways. They call for actions that can respond to climate change and rapidly build out renewable energy, while also promising cheaper gasoline and more fossil fuel jobs. Scientists warn that more fossil fuel use cuts against global climate goals.
Unlike the other camps, this group does not identify villains in their narrative. These candidates are following the script from the Obama administration, whose 'all of the above' energy strategy espoused continued fossil fuel use alongside policies to reduce planet-warming emissions.
Josh Turek, running for U.S. Senate from Iowa, talks with voters about high fuel costs. WHO13.
In Iowa, U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek hosted a roundtable in April 2026 on how climate-fueled extreme weather is raising insurance costs. But he has also focused on lowering the cost of gasoline and diesel. James Talarico, campaigning for the Senate in Texas, has similarly promised to fight climate change by boosting renewable energy while lowering costs by promoting all energy sources.
These candidates may be trying to signal their potential to support climate policies while respecting their states' cultural connections to fossil fuels. Turek and Talarico are both running in states with abundant wind power.
Where are the voters on this issue?
Studies from the U.S. and Germany find that politicians usually underestimate public support for efforts to address climate change.
So how well do candidates' platforms represent today's voters?
Yale's spring 2026 survey found that 49% of voters believe global warming should be a high priority for Congress and the president. But 70% of moderate or conservative Democrats share this view, alongside 84% of liberal Democrats. Even 1 in 3 liberal-to-moderate Republicans considers the climate a high priority.
Yet polling also suggests that other issues, such as the increasing cost of living, are even more important to many voters. This data suggests that pro-climate messages could appeal to swing voters most strongly if climate policies are seen as complementary to affordability.
Still, a recent survey shows that voters open to Democratic candidates are more likely to support a candidate who prioritizes climate change. Climate messaging may especially resonate with young voters. Over a third of those ages 18 to 29 in a recent Harvard Youth Poll considered climate change an urgent national crisis. Young Republicans are more supportive of addressing climate change than their older counterparts.
While many shifts in the way candidates talk about climate policy have little impact on people's willingness to participate in collective efforts to address it, messages emphasizing cost savings durably increase support for renewable energy across party lines. Voters' current concerns about inflation could make climate messages involving affordability especially effective in 2026, though the impact of these messages may vary from state to state.
Retail politics and the way forward
These different approaches reflect the Democratic Party's efforts to build a 'big tent' that can attract voters with a wide range of views and priorities. Yet Democrats are generally coalescing around a message designed to appeal to working-class voters: that Trump and the Republicans are raising your cost of living.
November's midterm elections will offer some insight into whether Democrats' energy affordability message will resonate in the 2028 presidential election.
Geoffrey Henderson, Assistant Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan and Nathaniel Geiger, Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

When it comes to talking about climate change today, three distinct camps of Democratic candidates and officeholders reveal three different strategies, according to SEAS Assistant Professors Geoffrey Henderson and Nathaniel Geiger in The Conversation.

October 19, 2026
Dozens of reports detail the growing threats of extreme heat, wildfires, drought, and rising seas – and provide communities with the science needed to prepare
Media Contact: LCI.press@lci.ca.gov
SACRAMENTO (10/19/2026) — As California faces unprecedented warming and increasingly severe climate impacts, the state is releasing new research from California's Fifth Climate Change Assessment, which details how climate conditions are changing across the state and what communities can expect.
The Fifth Assessment brings together the latest climate science, data, research, tribal knowledge and community perspectives to help state and local leaders better understand the risks posed by climate change and take action to protect their communities. The research will inform efforts to strengthen climate resilience, guide local planning, and prepare for worsening climate impacts.
As the Trump administration turns its back on science, California is doubling down on climate action, on protecting our communities, and on building a safer future. We are putting the latest science to work so communities across the state have the tools to confront the climate crisis head-on. California Governor Gavin Newsom
Since 2006, California's Climate Change Assessments have provided the scientific foundation informing state and localized plans, policies, investments and decisions about climate change. The Fifth Assessment builds on that work, bringing together the latest climate science, tribal knowledge, and community perspectives to help state and local leaders understand climate risks, strengthen resilience, and prepare for worsening impacts.
Funded by the California Legislature, the research underwent review by scientific experts, Tribal Advisory Group members, and an external editorial board. Along with a statewide summary, the compilation of original climate research includes nine Regional Reports, 18 Tribal Research projects, 15 Core Climate Research Program reports, Statewide Topical Reports and more to help California communities prepare for climate change and build resilience.
The reports in the compilation reflect the individual authors' and researchers' conclusions, and they do not necessarily represent the state's views; they are intended to inform future decisions rather than prescribe specific policies or actions. The peer-reviewed research translates global climate models into locally relevant reports to fill information gaps and support decisions at the local, regional and state levels.
The Climate Assessment includes three scenarios in its projections: SSP2–4.5 is an intermediate scenario where global CO2e emissions initially plateau at current levels, then start to fall after 2050; SSP3–7.0 is a less optimistic high emissions scenario that shows CO2e emissions doubling by 2100; and SSP5–8.5 is a more aggressive emissions scenario, which describes a very high and unlikely emissions pathway that shows CO2e emissions tripling by 2075.
The Fifth Assessment comprises years of research involving government, academic, tribal and community partners to shed light on the ways climate change could impact California's diverse communities and help them take action. The assessment's climate science and community-informed research can serve as the cornerstone for guiding smart policy and sound investment at the state, regional, and local levels to improve community resilience for years to come. Samuel Assefa, Director of the California Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, which led the Fifth Assessment process along with the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Strategic Growth Council and the California Energy Commission
For decades, the State of California has been investing in cutting-edge science to answer some of the most pressing questions about climate change. California has completed four prior Climate Change Assessments – each building upon the last to expand our understanding about climate change triggers, impacts, risks and possible adaptation pathways, and inspiring some of California's most significant climate policies, laws and programs. Since the release of California's Fourth Climate Change Assessment in 2018, the state has experienced several of the most extreme events in its recorded history, including record-breaking wildfires, catastrophic atmospheric river storms, prolonged droughts, and increasingly frequent and severe extreme heat events.
Since 2006, California's Climate Change Assessments have helped inform the plans, policies and investments that shape how we prepare for and respond to climate change. The Fifth Assessment brings together reports that provide the science we need to better understand how climate risks are changing, how those risks affect our communities, and what we can do to prepare. The future is not predetermined. Abby Edwards, Senior Deputy Director of Planning and Policy at LCI
The Fifth Assessment provides further insight into how these events will continue to impact California in the decades ahead. Among the key findings: California will experience rising temperatures throughout this century. Average temperatures in California are increasing at an unprecedented rate, projected to rise by 3.5–4.3°F (1.9–2.4°C) by 2050 relative to the 1981–2010 baseline. By 2100, projected temperature increases range between 5.7°F (3.2°C) under an intermediate emission scenario to 8°F (4.4°C) under a high emission scenario.
California's snowpack will decline substantially, affecting downstream water systems, local economies, and ecosystems. Early April snowpack is projected to decrease by approximately 40% by mid-century (2041–2070) and approximately 60% by the end of the century (2071–2100) compared to the 1981–2010 average. Snowpack decline is due to rising temperatures and a greater amount of precipitation falling as rain.
Wildfire smoke exposure and associated health risks are increasing. Models project that California will experience the highest increase in annual excess deaths from wildfire smoke of any U.S. state by 2050, reaching over 5,000 excess deaths per year compared to 2011–2020. Farmworkers alone are projected to experience a 190% increase in smoke exposure days considered 'unhealthy for sensitive groups' by mid-century.
Extreme heat events are growing longer and more frequent, resulting in prolonged heat waves and more days above critical temperature thresholds. By end-of-century, the average longest heat wave of the year is projected to lengthen across all regions of the state, with durations ranging from six days in the Bay Area to as long as 19 days across the Sierra Nevada under a high emissions scenario.
Marine and coastal ecosystems are being reshaped by marine heat waves, ocean acidification, and hypoxia. Ocean acidification along the California coast is occurring at twice the global rate due to upwelling. Combined with severe marine heat waves and low oxygen levels in California coastal waters, marine ecosystems and wildlife are facing devastating threats.
With 3.3 feet of sea level rise, $78 billion worth of property and 201,000 people could be exposed to coastal flooding by 2100. This means five times the exposure expected in 2050. A 100-year storm could raise these estimates to 310,000 people and $122 billion in property exposed by 2100.
California Native American tribes face disproportionate impacts from climate change yet are leading effective climate adaptation solutions. Historical land dispossession and criminalization of traditional practices have heightened tribal vulnerability to shifting seasons and climate-related hazards. Nonetheless, California Native American tribes are implementing strategies such as ecocultural restoration and cultural burning which can reduce the likelihood of catastrophic wildfires by up to 92% for a decade post-treatment. These practices strengthen ecosystems, communities, and California's overall adaptive capacity.
Climate hazards are increasingly interconnected, creating cascading and compounding risks. Major climate hazards in California are most destructive when they occur sequentially or simultaneously. For example, an exceptionally hot summer and fall in 2024 exacerbated fire conditions leading into the 2025 Los Angeles Fires, one of the most expensive natural disasters in U.S. history. Multi-benefit solutions can help address the complex and intersecting nature of climate hazards.
The latest reports also detail the unique and disproportionate climate threats to vulnerable communities and tribal communities, with a focus on working collaboratively with these communities on research and solutions for resilience.
We're proud that this Fifth Assessment is the first to feature a Tribal Research Program. The program includes a Tribal Advisory Group, Tribal Research Grant Program, and a Statewide Report written by and for tribal communities. The program uplifts tribal expertise and examples of tribally led practices that are strengthening California's climate resilience. Elea Becker Lowe, LCI Manager of the California Climate Change Assessment
To access Fifth Assessment technical reports, regional reports, summary reports, online tools, climate projects and data, and other resources and information, please visit the website.
California is a global leader in climate action, including investing in and using research to advance proactive climate change policy. Its climate change assessments provide the scientific foundation for understanding climate-related vulnerability and how Californians may respond. The Climate Change Assessments directly inform state policies, plans, programs, and guidance to promote effective and integrated action to safeguard California from climate change.
California is playing a world-leading role in building strong coalitions of partners committed to curbing carbon pollution and building climate resilience in California, the United States and around the globe. From last month's Climate Week NYC to the upcoming Resilient California Summit and U.N. Conference of the Parties (COP) and in our everyday work, California is joining local, state and international partners to take urgent climate action and make the case that even more must be done – led by science.
About LCI
The Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI) oversees and administers programs, policies, and initiatives that chart California's future through bold ideas, proven implementation, and scale. LCI's leadership is provided by the Director, who is the principal advisor to the Governor on all matters relating to the programs and investments under LCI's umbrella. LCI also provides ongoing operational support for the California Strategic Growth Council and the California Racial Equity Commission, with its Director acting as Chair of the Council.

October 19, 2026 Dozens of reports detail the growing threats of extreme heat, wildfires, drought, and rising seas – and provide communities with the science needed to prepare Media Contact:…

Press Release California Releases New Climate Science, Projections to Prepare for Climate Change Impacts

Ecological grief is growing — and our current approach to climate change education isn't keeping pace.
There has been a surge in climate emotion research globally, documenting widespread experiences of fear, grief, anxiety and hopelessness.
New findings suggest the way we approach climate change education may be harming young people rather than helping them to face this grief head on.
In this articles, we share insights from 39 young people about how they experience climate education in a rapidly changing world and how we can change it for the better.
Young people aged 16 to 34
International research has shown that youth want educational spaces that support discussions around the emotional impacts of climate change.
Our research with young people aged 16 to 34 backs this up while also revealing their desire for community-based climate conversations and approaches that focus on how they experience ecological crises.
In 2025, we held seven online discussion groups inspired by a "climate café" model designed to offer space for people to share their climate emotions.
Groups of up to nine young people from various places in Ontario were invited to tell us about everyday climate emotions and how they typically learn about climate change. We recruited participants via the University of Guelph's research web page and through social media channels and community networks.
Participating youth self-represented using diverse identities and social locations.
Thirty-four of 39 participants identified as racialized. Three people among this group identified as both racialized and Indigenous from another country. The remaining five participants identified as white.
Some participants described learning about climate change by volunteering with community groups. Participants described learning about climate change in school as a one-off "unit" or "topic," often given "surface-level treatment."
Going beyond the 'carbon footprint'
This reflects significant fragmentation between Canadian climate policy and provincial education curricula. Even in provinces and territories playing leadership roles in climate policy, education policy minimally addresses climate change.
Although the Ontario Ministry of Education has committed to embedding learning about the environment, many participants described an educational focus on individual habits alone, such as recycling. Many reported that classroom climate lessons were reduced to "carbon footprints."
Popularized by British Petroleum, carbon footprint approaches reframe climate responsibility as a matter of personal lifestyle management and consumer choice rather than systemic transformation.
The carbon footprint encourages guilt and personal self-regulation, and for this reason has been critiqued as "petro pedagogy" — climate education either directly sponsored by or shaped by fossil fuel company interests that normalizes fossil fuel dependence.
Such approaches put the responsibility for change on individuals rather than on the broader drivers of climate injustice, such as fossil fuel extraction and capitalism.
One participant emphasized that carbon-footprint education levies "a disconnect between the practice and the theory" that "doesn't really do justice to the climate."
What happens when emotion is left out?
Climate education shaped by fossil fuel companies operates most effectively under the guise of neutrality — characteristically avoiding emotion and making climate lessons seem unbiased.It considers the climate as a problem for later, not now. Such forecasting distances young people from present-day ecological realities. For example, recent wildfires in Canada have brought disproportionate emotional distress and cultural disconnection to First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.
As the United Nations notes, ecological grief is unevenly felt across communities. Yet, current educational approaches tend to ignore Indigenous worldviews, putting humans — rather than our relationships with and the well-being of land, plants and non-human animals — at the centre of the learning.
Research has found that while "neutral" educational approaches aim to motivate action, they may inadvertently generate guilt, disengagement or emotional withdrawal when young people are asked to confront crises beyond their control.
Young people in our study described feeling helpless, guilty, exhausted, overwhelmed and morally accountable for climate disasters.
As a result of their own ecological grief and depleted emotional capacity, many youth described coping with the climate crisis through avoidance. Some tried "blocking it out" or "cocooning" by, for example, avoiding watching the news or ignoring current events.
Beginning with grief
In our study, we bring young people's suggestions to a focal point: climate education must move away from individual blame and include emotions.
When asked how they would like to learn about climate change differently, participants described a politicized form of climate education rooted in emotion and relationality.
They also want conversations to happen outside of the classroom, in their immediate communities. As one participant put it, this simply means being "on the same wavelength" as others experiencing nearby climate-related events.
Climate education that meets these criteria must be grief-facing. Beginning with grief means recognizing the disenfranchisement of climate emotions as part of the disproportionate impact young people feel when it comes to climate change.
Often climate emotions are seen as mental-health issues to be managed, rather than as reasonable responses to social and political failures. Yet, one participant in our study questioned this logic, asking:
"How can we 'mental health' somebody out of climate change? I don't think that makes sense."
Following the tenets of critical grief educational work, climate-based grief approaches begin by creating structured opportunities for students to share their experiences without demanding a "cure" for their difficult emotions.
Climate emotions can be recognized as expected and appropriate responses to the crises young people face.
A grief-facing approach situates current climate events within broader histories of colonialism and injustice that lead to its disproportionate impact. It also involves deep rest, which means making space for young people to withdraw — or "cocoon" — as necessary care when it comes to emotion overload.
Leading climate education with emotion
Perhaps most importantly, we have learned from young people that future climate learning can be scientific, but it must also be attentive to emotion and approached as a shared social, ethical and emotional challenge. This can happen in schools and the broader community.
Opening conversations with youth about the anxiety, grief, anger and other emotions may lead to broader research about climate change's uneven impact.
Climate emotions emerge not only from anticipating human futures, but also from witnessing the loss of ecosystems, species and life — something young people are experiencing right now.
New forms of climate education, including grief-facing approaches, should involve those directly affected by these issues, including youth.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organisation bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by:
Read more:
Kimberlee Collins receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Carla Rice receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Chelsea Jones receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Youth described wanting a politicized form of climate education rooted in emotion and relationality. They also want conversations in their immediate communities.

OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 16, 2026 /CNW/ — In a more uncertain and increasingly unstable world, Canada is stepping up to build a safer and more resilient future. Addressing climate change and biodiversity loss requires ambitious action at home and around the world. By advancing progress on both, Canada will protect nature, build resilient communities, and create lasting prosperity for future generations. International cooperation is key to achieving these goals.
That is why the Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature, will lead Canada's efforts as Head of Delegation at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) and the 31st meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31).
At COP17, Minister Dabrusin and the Honourable Nathalie Provost, Secretary of State (Nature), will work with international partners to accelerate implementation of the Kunming–Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework. From October 19 to 30, 2026, in Yerevan, Armenia, Canada will champion the critical role of Indigenous peoples in conservation and advocate for practical solutions to mobilize global resources for biodiversity finance. Canada will showcase its leadership through two Canadian-led official side events focused on innovative nature finance and the essential role of Indigenous leadership in advancing conservation efforts at home and around the world. The delegation will also take part in strategic bilateral meetings, high-level roundtables, and civil society events to strengthen cooperation, advance solutions, and drive action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
From November 9 to 20, 2026, in Antalya, Türkiye, Canada will participate in the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31). Building on multilateral engagements, including the 10th Ministerial on Climate Action, Canada will continue working with international partners, Indigenous representatives, civil society, youth, and other stakeholders to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities; reduce methane emissions; accelerate electrification; and mobilize finance and investments from public and private sources. For the fifth consecutive year, Canada will host a national pavilion at COP31, showcasing Canadian climate leadership and innovation. The Canada Pavilion will serve as a hub for connection and collaboration.
Canada's international leadership is backed by action at home. To accelerate electrification, Canada is building major clean energy projects across the country, including with the largest clean energy investment in North American history in Churchill Falls. Through A Force of Nature: Canada's Strategy to Protect Nature and $3.8 billion in investments and funding, Canada is advancing its commitment to conserve 30% of lands and waters by 2030 through strong partnerships and innovative approaches to conservation. Canada recently reinforced this commitment by joining the 30×30 for Nature and People Ministerial Declaration at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. Prime Minister, Mark Carney, recently announced a historic investment of $1.2 billion to better protect Canada's oceans and the life they sustain. This will increase monitoring, strengthen ocean science and ecosystem protections, and improve marine incident prevention and preparedness. These priorities will be a key focus at both upcoming conferences.
Canada's delegations to COP17 and COP31 will bring together the diverse perspectives from across Canadian society, including Indigenous representatives, civil society, the private sector, youth, and provincial and territorial government representatives. Working with international partners, these delegations help advance practical solutions to protect nature, strengthen resilience, and support sustainable economic prosperity.
Quotes
'Climate change and biodiversity loss are global challenges that no country can solve alone. At COP17 and COP31, Canada will work with partners from around the world to strengthen implementation of the Kunming–Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement and collective efforts to address nature protection and climate change. Through international cooperation, Indigenous leadership, innovative solutions, and a collective commitment to conservation and climate action, we will build a sustainable future for people and nature alike.'– The Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature
'Nature loss is a global challenge that requires countries to work together and turn shared commitments into action. At COP17, Canada will share its experiences in advancing nature finance, including innovative approaches to valuing natural capital and mobilizing private investment for conservation. By exchanging ideas, lessons learned, and practical solutions with international partners, we can accelerate progress toward our global biodiversity goals and recognize nature as a foundation of long-term economic prosperity and resilience.'– The Honourable Nathalie Provost, Secretary of State (Nature)
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The Natal long-fingered bat (Miniopterus natalensis). Credit: Derek Keats from Johannesburg, South Africa / Animalia , CC BY 2.0
Climate change and changes in the way land is used are the two biggest threats to wildlife because they change the environment in which animals survive and thrive. Knowing how species respond to these pressures is central to planning conservation actions .
A number of studies have modeled how climate change will affect vertebrate distributions. But little is known about bats from tropical and subtropical regions , especially in Africa.
Bats are particularly sensitive to changes to their environment because of their slow reproductive rates, dependence on stable roosts and sensitivity to climatic extremes that shape insect availability—their main source of food.
They therefore need both suitable foraging landscapes and the availability of caves for roosting. Research has been done on how bats will be affected by the effects of climate change such as rising temperatures. What has been overlooked is the fact that cave-dependent bats can't survive in climatically suitable areas without access to suitable roosts.
So even if a future landscape has the right temperature and rainfall, it may be of little use to a bat if there is nowhere suitable to roost. That led us to a simple question: What happens when the places with the right climate aren't the places with caves?
Having studied bats since 2017, I have spent much of my research career investigating their ecology and dependence on particular habitats. This experience led me to question where climate change might push wildlife. I wanted to understand whether Africa's cave-dwelling bats would actually be able to find somewhere to live as the climate changes.
My co-author Mark Keith and I set out to answer this by building a model that brought together future climate conditions and the availability of caves and rocky roosting habitat across sub-Saharan Africa. We used cave-dwelling long-fingered bats called Miniopteridae as our study group to explore how these two essential pieces of the puzzle might overlap in the future. The study is published in the journal Austral Ecology .
Long-fingered bats are found widely across Africa and depend heavily on caves for shelter. They also commonly occur alongside other cave-dwelling bat species, making them a useful group for understanding how climate change could affect bats that rely on caves.
Our findings suggest that Africa's cave-dwelling bats face a double challenge. Climate change could shrink the areas where they can live, but even where future conditions remain suitable, there might not be caves.
Places need to be found where three things come together: the climate remains suitable; there is somewhere for the bats to live; and they can move between the places they need.
These could become critical safe havens for bats as the climate changes.
We used an existing database of 551 reliable records showing where these bats have been found across sub-Saharan Africa. We then used these records to ask where conditions could remain suitable for them as the climate changes. Using a computer model, we matched each of these places with its local climate, such as how hot, cold or wet it gets, to work out what conditions the bats need. We then asked the model where those conditions would still exist around 2070, if the world carries on warming at a moderate rate.
We found that, depending on how the climate changes in the coming decades, the area with suitable conditions for these bats could shrink by 36% to 64% by 2061–2080. The areas that remained suitable were concentrated mainly in southern Africa, the eastern highlands and Madagascar.
We then went on to answer the next question. Were there caves in those places?
When we compared the areas with a suitable future climate with the locations of suitable caves and rocky landscapes, the picture became much more worrying. Only around 5% of the areas with suitable caves also had a climate expected to remain suitable for the bats. And when we considered how vulnerable the surrounding landscape was to future change, that fell to around 2%.
In other words, the places where bats might find the right climate and the places where they might find a home barely overlapped.
In addition, for some cave-dwelling bats, survival is not simply about finding one suitable cave. They may depend on a network of caves spread across the landscape, moving between them at different times of the year. That means the landscape between caves matters too.
A cave might provide an ideal shelter, but if the surrounding landscape has become heavily fragmented by roads, cities, agriculture or other changes, reaching another suitable cave may become much more difficult.
And flying takes energy. If bats have to travel farther between places where they can feed, rest and reproduce, they may have to spend more of their limited energy simply getting around. For animals already dealing with a changing climate, that could add another layer of pressure.
Our findings are important for a range of animals. A frog may need a particular wetland. A bird may depend on a particular type of forest. A plant may only grow in a certain kind of soil. As the climate changes, the conditions these species need may shift, but their homes may not.
This creates a challenge for conservation: it is not enough to ask where the climate will be suitable for wildlife in the future. We also need to ask whether wildlife will actually have somewhere to live when it gets there.
Mariëtte Pretorius et al., Cave Dependency Limits Climate‐Driven Range Shifts in African Cave‐Roosting Bats, Austral Ecology (2026). DOI: 10.1111/aec.70224
habitat fragmentation effects of climate change Caves
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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

Climate change and changes in the way land is used are the two biggest threats to wildlife because they change the environment in which animals survive and thrive. Knowing how species respond to these pressures is central to planning conservation actions.

Africa's bats could survive climate change—if they can find somewhere to live

Senior representatives from more than 20 countries gathered in Paris on Monday and Tuesday for the 8th Friends of the Paris Agreement High-Level Dialogue, calling for stronger multilateral cooperation, faster climate action and greater financial support to address the growing challenges of global climate change.
The two-day meeting, held on Monday and Tuesday, brought together senior policymakers, former heads of state, climate negotiators and international organization leaders to discuss multilateral climate governance, the green transition, climate financing and the future implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The dialogue was co-chaired by Xie Zhenhua, China's former special envoy for climate change, and Laurence Tubiana, France's former climate change ambassador and CEO of the European Climate Foundation.
In his opening remarks, Xie highlighted the progress made in global climate governance and the transition toward green and low-carbon development since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015.
He stressed the importance of upholding multilateralism and fairness, encouraging healthy competition and practical cooperation, and striking a balance between economic development and people's livelihoods.
Xie also emphasized the need to maintain open and candid dialogue amid growing geopolitical and economic uncertainties.
Despite the multiple challenges facing the international community, China's determination to tackle climate change and its commitment to achieving its carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals will remain unchanged, he said.
The meeting took place against a backdrop of mounting pressure on multilateral climate cooperation and growing concerns over the credibility and implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Participants agreed that, as 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the agreement's signing and entry into force, its goals, principles and institutional framework must be upheld.
They noted that the main challenge facing global climate governance is not the lack of international consensus, but insufficient action, inadequate implementation and a shortage of support.
The participants urged countries to accelerate the delivery of existing climate commitments, strengthen international cooperation and prepare for the second global stocktaking, a process designed to assess collective progress toward achieving the Paris Agreement's long-term goals.
According to figures presented at the meeting, 133 countries have submitted a new round of nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, outlining their climate commitments through 2035, while more than 130 countries and regions have announced carbon neutrality or net-zero emissions targets.
Participants said these developments demonstrate that, despite profound changes in the international political and economic landscape, tackling climate change and advancing the low-carbon transition remain widely shared priorities.
However, they also warned that climate-related risks are becoming increasingly severe, with rising ocean temperatures, retreating glaciers and the combined effects of El Nino and extreme weather events posing growing threats to communities and economies worldwide.
They called for greater attention to climate adaptation and resilience alongside efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, emphasizing the need to strengthen disaster preparedness and countries' ability to respond to climate-related risks.
Launched in 2019, the Friends of the Paris Agreement initiative brings together senior figures who have played important roles in negotiating and implementing the landmark climate accord.
The annual dialogue is jointly organized by the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development at Tsinghua University and the European Climate Foundation, which take turns hosting the event.

Senior representatives from more than 20 countries gathered in Paris on Monday and Tuesday for the 8th Friends of the Paris Agreement High-Level Dialogue, calling for stronger multilateral…

Paris forum urges stronger multilateral collaboration

In Western Australia, the climate transition is not an abstract debate. It runs straight through the resources and energy industries the state's prosperity is built on.

In Western Australia, the climate transition is not an abstract debate. It runs straight through the resources and energy industries the state's prosperity is built on.
Next month Australia presides over the COP31 climate negotiations. Most of the talk will be about governments and boards. Far less will be about the people working inside the companies being asked to cut emissions, shift towards cleaner energy and change how they do business.
Ask those workers whether business should act on climate change and the answer is almost unanimously 'yes'. Ask whether their own employer is delivering, and the mood changes.
Our new report, The Climate-Exposed Workforce, the first in the Curtin Centre for Applied Ethics' Polycrisis Report Series, surveyed 2,048 working Australians. Almost all of them, 97 per cent, said large companies have at least some responsibility to act on climate change.

Climate group representatives at the Town Hall CLIMATE change action groups met with councillors to discuss urgent measures to prepare for challenges posed by the climate emergency. Representatives from eight Islington-based climate groups approached the Town Hall to encourage a 'cross-party, non-partisan'

Climate group representatives at the Town Hall CLIMATE change action groups met with councillors to discuss urgent measures to prepare for challenges posed by the climate emergency. Representatives…

Climate crisis: ‘Let's get on and make changes…'

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Different forms of government may exhibit different levels of environmental commitment. Previous studies indicate that democracies are often more likely than autocracies to adopt environmental protection policies. In this paper, we examine whether regime type is also associated with differences in media coverage of climate change. As political institutions can be associated with press freedom and the media environment, we aim to investigate whether democratic and non-democratic countries differ in the volume of climate change reporting. Through a quantitative econometric analysis, we explore the relationship between political institutions and climate-related newspaper articles published by a selection of monitored media outlets. The analysis, based on media and institutional data for 16 countries over the period 2004–2023, examines whether democracies exhibit higher levels of climate change media coverage compared to their autocratic counterparts, while accounting for selected economic and environmental factors. In particular, we also consider whether autocracies display substantial climate-related coverage, potentially consistent with more centralized communication strategies, or whether climate change receives comparatively limited media attention. The results indicate a positive association between democratic status and the normalized volume of climate change media coverage across the specifications considered. However, the limited variation in political regime type over time and the relatively small number of countries prevent causal conclusions. Furthermore, the available data capture the volume of climate-related coverage but do not allow us to identify the content or political orientation of individual articles, or whether communication strategies are coordinated by political authorities.
Keywords
Climate change communication, Form of government, Media coverage, political system, public sector communication
Copyright
© 2026 Gola and Federici. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Elisabetta Gola; Gaia Federici
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Different forms of government may exhibit different levels of environmental commitment. Previous studies indicate that democracies are often more likely than...

Climate Narratives and Media Coverage in Different Regimes

Temperatures amplified by climate change are linked to more gun violence incidents across 100 U.S. cities.
October 19, 2026 KEY FINDINGS Hotter temperatures increase the risks of violence and aggression, including incidents of gun violence.
Climate Central analysis shows how temperatures boosted by human-caused climate change contributed to the number of gun violence incidents from 2021–2025 in 100 U.S. cities.
More than 1,900 incidents of gun violence were attributed to heat driven by climate change, out of the nearly 116,300 shootings that occurred during this time period.
➤ Download the data for gun violence incidents attributable to temperatures boosted by climate change for 100 U.S. cities. INTRODUCTION
Gun violence in the United States claims tens of thousands lives per year, prompting many organizations to declare it as a major public health issue.
Researchers have consistently found that the risks of aggression and violence — including firearms incidents — increase with temperature. The exact causal links between high temperatures and aggressive or violent behavior aren't fully understood; however, both theory and observations have found that heat can trigger aggression by activating the regions of the brain responsible for emotional regulation and by increasing adrenaline. Researchers also hypothesize that warmer weather could increase the number of interactions between people and, as a result, increase the number of opportunities for conflict and violence.
Rising temperatures driven by human-caused climate change have the potential to amplify the risk of aggressive and violent behavior and, in turn, increase the number of shootings.
Gun violence is a complex phenomenon influenced by many factors, including environmental and socioeconomic stressors, mental health, and firearms policy. For this analysis, Climate Central isolated one underlying contributor — high temperatures —and quantified how much climate change is contributing to U.S. gun violence incidents attributable to temperature.
Using gun violence data from the Gun Violence Archive and applying a previously published model relating temperature and gun violence incidents, Climate Central assessed how temperatures boosted by human-caused climate change contributed to the number of temperature-driven gun violence incidents from 2021-2025 in 100 U.S. cities. RESULTS Over the 2021–2025 period, climate change increased the number of gun violence incidents attributable to high temperatures in 97 out of the 100 cities analyzed (Figure 1). On average, these 97 cities experienced an additional 20 gun violence incidents as a result of climate change during this five-year period. Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York City each experienced more than 100 gun violence incidents attributable to climate-induced high temperatures.
Across all 100 analyzed cities, more than 1,900 gun violence incidents during 2021-2025 were attributable to temperatures boosted by climate change. This is out of the nearly 116,300 shootings that occurred during this time period. The influence of climate change on gun violence incidents overall is small (less than 2% of total incidents during the period of analysis), but it's measurable and of concern given that continued warming is expected and every additional incident of gun violence represents a person who faces harm.
Figure 1. Gun violence incidents attributable to high temperatures influenced by climate change, across
100 U.S. cities during 2021-2025. METHODOLOGY
This analysis utilizes a Distributed Lag Nonlinear Model originally published by Lyons et al. (2022). This model, which benefitted from code developed by Antonio Gasparrini, quantifies city-specific relationships between temperature and reported firearm incidents while accounting for seasonal patterns and day of the week. Since the cities are compared to themselves across time, this method automatically accounts for bias caused by differences between places, being sensitive only to things that vary over time within cities. We refit the Lyons et al. model using ERA5 reanalysis daily maximum temperature data and gun violence data for each city from
the Gun Violence Archive over the five-year period (2021-2025).
After establishing each city's relationship between daily maximum temperature and the number of reported gun violence incidents, we applied the same model to each city's counterfactual temperature data derived from Climate Central's Climate Shift Index (CSI) system. Climate Central typically expresses this influence as a change in the likelihood of the observed temperature due to climate change. However, it is also possible to use the CSI system to estimate what daily temperatures would have been without climate change. By comparing the model output using observed daily temperatures vs. daily counterfactual temperatures, we then calculate the number of gun violence incidents that can be attributed to climate change's influence on daily
temperatures.
This method only evaluates the linkages between climate change, temperature, and gun violence incidents. Implicitly, this assumes that all other drivers of gun violence — including stress, mental health, financial insecurity, and local firearms policies—would have been the same in a counterfactual world without climate
change. While this assumption lets us isolate and evaluate the effect of climate change on gun violence incidents associated with high temperatures, it cannot address the full and complex range of drivers that could have also influenced the number of gun violence incidents in a counterfactual world without climate change. Additionally, acclimatization to higher temperatures could, over time, change the relationship between temperature and gun violence in any given location. REPORT CONTRIBUTIONS
Analyst: Brandon BourassaWriter: Kristina DahlEditor: Raina DeFonzaSubject matter review: Emma Gause (Boston University School of Public Health)
Designer: Megan Martin

Temperatures amplified by climate change are linked to more gun violence incidents across 100 U.S. cities.

Climate Change Increases Gun Violence Incidents in the United States

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Building climate resilience in India: The policy and financing imperative
Climate change now drives India's economic and development priorities. Translating national plans into outcomes requires robust state monitoring, green budgeting, and targeted finance distribution.
Dr Heera Lal
&
Shivansh Gupta
ETGovernment
Published On Oct 18, 2026 at 07:13 PM IST
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Climate change is no longer solely an environmental concern; it is increasingly shaping India's economic priorities, development pathways, and institutional choices.
While India has established an important policy foundation, the next phase will depend on how effectively national commitments translate into measurable outcomes across states and communities. The challenge ahead is to align policy ambition with institutional capacity, public accountability, and the financial resources needed to deliver a climate-resilient future.
Monitoring
climate policy
: Building on progress through better measurement
India's climate-policy architecture includes the
National Action Plan on Climate Change
(NAPCC),
State Action Plans on Climate Change
(SAPCCs) and sector-specific missions. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, all 36 states and Union Territories have prepared an initial SAPCC, while 35 have prepared revised plans.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's NAPCC Dashboard provides a common platform for tracking national climate missions and State Action Plans. Independent tools such as the Climate Action Tracker can provide an external benchmark for assessing India's climate targets and policies against the Paris Agreement.
In parallel, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) can strengthen financial and performance audits of climate-related programmes, examining whether public funds are used as intended and whether interventions deliver their stated objectives.
The policy priority now is to strengthen the connection between these plans, public expenditure and measurable outcomes. A common monitoring framework could track emissions intensity, climate-resilient infrastructure, adaptation outcomes and progress against state-specific targets. It should also distinguish between funds allocated, funds spent and outcomes achieved.
Better monitoring would enable governments to identify successful interventions, redirect resources where necessary and compare progress across states without overlooking their different development needs and climate vulnerabilities.
Institutional coordination,
climate budgeting
and public participation
India's federal structure provides an important foundation for climate action: national institutions can establish strategic priorities, states can adapt them to regional conditions, and local governments can implement interventions suited to community needs. The challenge is to align these roles with adequate resources, technical capacity and clear accountability.
Climate budgeting is one promising instrument. Odisha's Climate Budget for 2024–25 provides a formal mechanism for identifying climate-related expenditure, while Assam has also developed a Green Budget framework. These initiatives can help integrate climate considerations into conventional fiscal planning rather than treating them as a separate environmental concern.
The next step is to strengthen state-level reporting by linking climate allocations to actual expenditure, implementation milestones and outcomes. Grassroots participation also plays an integral role where Panchayats, urban local bodies, farmers' groups and women's self-help groups can contribute to identifying local risks and monitoring adaptation projects.
Their involvement can help ensure that investments in water conservation, heat preparedness and climate-resilient agriculture reflect local priorities. Stronger coordination between government departments and local institutions would also help integrate climate considerations into existing rural development and infrastructure programmes.
Climate finance
: Matching investment with India's development needs
Climate finance encompasses funding for both mitigation such as renewable energy and low-carbon transport and adaptation, including flood protection, drought resilience, climate-smart agriculture and heat-resistant infrastructure. For India, the challenge is to mobilise sufficient capital while ensuring that it reaches sectors and communities where climate risks are most acute.
Climate finance requires strengthening domestic public investment and diversifying sources of finance. Multilateral development banks (MDBs), including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, can support this effort through long-term lending, concessional finance, guarantees and technical assistance. India therefore needs a more granular, sector-specific assessment of its climate-finance requirements, distinguishing the investment needs of energy, agriculture, water, transport and urban infrastructure across states.
A coordinated approach involving governments, financial institutions, businesses and development partners can help bridge existing financing gaps and ensure that climate action remains both economically viable and socially inclusive
The focus should therefore be on the quality and distribution of climate finance, not simply its aggregate volume. Better project preparation, transparent expenditure tracking and coordination between national and state financing priorities can help convert financial commitments into durable development outcomes.
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Building climate resilience in India: The policy and financing imperative

Climate change is increasingly recognised as one of the defining global health challenges of the 21st century, with profound implications for health systems, population health, equity, and sustainable development.
PLOS Global Public Health invites submissions for a new collection welcoming original research, implementation studies, policy analyses, and interdisciplinary perspectives that examine how health systems can prepare for, adapt to, and respond to climate-related threats.
Topics of interest include: climate-resilient health systems climate-sensitive infectious diseases health financing for climate adaptation
We particularly encourage submissions that generate actionable evidence for policymakers, health system leaders, and practitioners working to build resilient and sustainable health systems in diverse global settings.
Could your research help health systems prepare for the impacts of climate change and protect population health? Submit your paper and help advance the evidence needed to build climate-resilient health systems and support planetary health.
Simply click on the button below, follow our step-by-step submission guide and enter 'Climate-Resilient Health Systems and Planetary Health' in the free-text field.
Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2026
We look forward to your contributions.
For any questions about the collection, please contact PLOS Global Public Health Executive Editor, Julia Robinson
From infectious disease and climate change to mental health and nutrition, today's public health challenges are increasingly interconnected. The decisions made in one community can have implications far beyond it.
PLOS Global Public Health makes interdisciplinary open access research of the highest ethical and methodological rigor visible and accessible to health professionals, policy-makers, and local communities in all regions of the world.

Climate change is increasingly recognised as one of the defining global health challenges of the 21st century, with profound implications for health…

Call for Submissions: Climate-Resilient Health Systems and Planetary Health

OTTAWA, ON, Oct. 16, 2026 /CNW/ — In a more uncertain and increasingly unstable world, Canada is stepping up to build a safer and more resilient future. Addressing climate change and biodiversity loss requires ambitious action at home and around the world. By advancing progress on both, Canada will protect nature, build resilient communities, and create lasting prosperity for future generations. International cooperation is key to achieving these goals.
That is why the Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature, will lead Canada's efforts as Head of Delegation at the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) and the 31st meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31).
At COP17, Minister Dabrusin and the Honourable Nathalie Provost, Secretary of State (Nature), will work with international partners to accelerate implementation of the Kunming–Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework. From October 19 to 30, 2026, in Yerevan, Armenia, Canada will champion the critical role of Indigenous peoples in conservation and advocate for practical solutions to mobilize global resources for biodiversity finance. Canada will showcase its leadership through two Canadian-led official side events focused on innovative nature finance and the essential role of Indigenous leadership in advancing conservation efforts at home and around the world. The delegation will also take part in strategic bilateral meetings, high-level roundtables, and civil society events to strengthen cooperation, advance solutions, and drive action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
From November 9 to 20, 2026, in Antalya, Türkiye, Canada will participate in the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP31). Building on multilateral engagements, including the 10th Ministerial on Climate Action, Canada will continue working with international partners, Indigenous representatives, civil society, youth, and other stakeholders to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities; reduce methane emissions; accelerate electrification; and mobilize finance and investments from public and private sources. For the fifth consecutive year, Canada will host a national pavilion at COP31, showcasing Canadian climate leadership and innovation. The Canada Pavilion will serve as a hub for connection and collaboration.
Canada's international leadership is backed by action at home. To accelerate electrification, Canada is building major clean energy projects across the country, including with the largest clean energy investment in North American history in Churchill Falls. Through A Force of Nature: Canada's Strategy to Protect Nature and $3.8 billion in investments and funding, Canada is advancing its commitment to conserve 30% of lands and waters by 2030 through strong partnerships and innovative approaches to conservation. Canada recently reinforced this commitment by joining the 30×30 for Nature and People Ministerial Declaration at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. Prime Minister, Mark Carney, recently announced a historic investment of $1.2 billion to better protect Canada's oceans and the life they sustain. This will increase monitoring, strengthen ocean science and ecosystem protections, and improve marine incident prevention and preparedness. These priorities will be a key focus at both upcoming conferences.
Canada's delegations to COP17 and COP31 will bring together the diverse perspectives from across Canadian society, including Indigenous representatives, civil society, the private sector, youth, and provincial and territorial government representatives. Working with international partners, these delegations help advance practical solutions to protect nature, strengthen resilience, and support sustainable economic prosperity.
Quotes
'Climate change and biodiversity loss are global challenges that no country can solve alone. At COP17 and COP31, Canada will work with partners from around the world to strengthen implementation of the Kunming–Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework and the Paris Agreement and collective efforts to address nature protection and climate change. Through international cooperation, Indigenous leadership, innovative solutions, and a collective commitment to conservation and climate action, we will build a sustainable future for people and nature alike.'– The Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature
'Nature loss is a global challenge that requires countries to work together and turn shared commitments into action. At COP17, Canada will share its experiences in advancing nature finance, including innovative approaches to valuing natural capital and mobilizing private investment for conservation. By exchanging ideas, lessons learned, and practical solutions with international partners, we can accelerate progress toward our global biodiversity goals and recognize nature as a foundation of long-term economic prosperity and resilience.'– The Honourable Nathalie Provost, Secretary of State (Nature)
Quick facts
Associated links
Environment and Climate Change Canada's X pageEnvironment and Climate Change Canada's Facebook pageEnvironment and Natural Resources in Canada's Facebook pageEnvironment and Climate Change Canada's LinkedIn pageEnvironment and Climate Change Canada's Instagram page
SOURCE Environment and Climate Change CanadaView original content:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2026/16/c7004.html

This was reflected in a press release published by the press
service of the Turkmen government citing President Serdar
Berdimuhamedov's speech at the 7th Summit of the Conference on
Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in
Baku.
'Turkmenistan is putting forward an initiative to establish the
Ashgabat Climate Dialogue - a multilateral platform for exchanging
experience and coordinating approaches to climate change
adaptation, combating desertification and drought, the rational use
of water resources and the promotion of green solutions,'
Berdimuhamedov said.
The president stressed the importance of strengthening
international cooperation on climate change and environmental
security, including through the rational use of water resources,
the introduction of modern environmental technologies and efforts
to improve the resilience of national economies to global climate
change.
He also said that CICA had significant potential to support
joint projects and promote effective solutions for sustainable
environmental development.
Meanwhile, Turkmenistan has been seeking to expand international
cooperation on climate change, water security and combating
desertification. In July 2026, the government announced plans to
establish the Ashgabat Climate Dialogue, alongside regional centres
for climate technologies and combating desertification in Central
Asia. The proposed interdepartmental commission would coordinate
these initiatives with foreign partners and financial
institutions.
Water management is a key element of the country's climate
agenda. In June 2026, the government, the United Nations and
international development partners held a dialogue on long-term
water availability scenarios for Turkmenistan through 2050,
examining potential implications for agriculture, food security,
employment and ecosystems.
Turkmenistan is also participating in regional climate
adaptation initiatives supported by UN agencies. These include
efforts to strengthen scientific monitoring and cooperation on the
impacts of climate change on Central Asia's cryosphere and
transboundary water resources.

Turkmenistan Urges Support For Ashgabat Climate Dialogue Initiative. BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 17. Turkmenistan has called on interested countries and international partners to support its initiative…

Turkmenistan Urges Support For Ashgabat Climate Dialogue Initiative

After a wave of record breaking heatwaves in Europe and across the world this summer, there has been a renewed sense of urgency about levels of preparedness for the inevitable rise in global temperatures. 1 But important questions have also resurfaced about the role the world's media are playing—or not playing—in covering the 'biggest story on earth.' 2 3
Firstly, some trends: in 2025—a year when average global temperatures were the highest in nearly 150 years of records, and when carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere were the highest for several million years—global media (print and online) coverage of climate change dropped by 14% compared with 2024. 4
Since its peak in 2021, print and online coverage of the climate emergency has declined by 38%. The decrease is universal, true for the media in Africa, the Middle East, North America, and Europe, although less pronounced in Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. In the first eight months of 2026, the trend continued with a 25% drop in media coverage compared to 2025. 5
This matters. Despite the revolution in the way the public consumes news information, including about climate change, with the arrival of news influencers, 6 GenAI, 7 and other technopolitical changes, 8 traditional media such as broadcast outlets and legacy newspaper sites remain the most popular and trusted sources of climate information in most countries. 9 10
Such outlets still have an agenda setting role, creating a perception of what is important, and helping to shape the dominant narratives about the climate emergency. Most people don't read journal papers or know climate scientists, so they rely more on the media to make sense of the complexity and the science. 11
The possible reasons for the decline in coverage are multiple: cuts in editorial resources for climate coverage in some news outlets (particularly in the USA), the shrinking of the 'news hole' caused by other pressing stories such as conflicts in Gaza, Iran and Ukraine, and general climate weariness from the public when faced with a long running crisis with no easy solutions. 2
To these I would add that journalists often follow prompts from politicians in their coverage. 11 Most governments have been increasing their spending on defence in recent years 12 and in the process limiting contributions to climate finance and the energy transition. This political de-prioritisation of the climate challenge, and in some cases the conscious or unconscious 'climate hushing' by politicians, have a substantial role in reducing climate coverage. 13 In general, when the media or politicians do not mention an issue (or deny it is a problem), there is evidence that this can lead the general public to also downplay it in their hierarchy of concerns. 10 14 15
There may be other, subtler factors at play. In the UK for example, climate scientists and media analysts have noted the 'decoupling' of climate change from Net Zero in parts of the press opposed to Net Zero policies. 16 17 Whether this is a deliberate editorial policy or not, climate gets demoted or sidelined.
When heatwaves occur, the link to climate change is often not made explicitly enough or with enough emphasis. 16 18 Or illustrations can suggest 'fun in the sun,' instead of stressing the harmful impacts on the vulnerable. 19
A note of caution: coverage is often cyclical, and climate change in general is an underreported issue. Recent research from the USA 20 for example, suggests that from 1984 to 2025, it comprised just 0.55% of all news coverage, a tiny proportion compared to the attention devoted to sports and entertainment, with only minor variations in that period.
So, what to do? Quality is just as important as quantity. How to make the story more engaging, more frequent, and more relevant to people's lives has long been a challenge for journalists, but there are ways forward. 21 22 For example, discussions of climate change are heavily concentrated in dedicated environmental reporting, yet health and social justice issues where the public experiences climate impacts in daily life do not get enough attention. 23
Regular, clear, and forceful explanations of the (scientific) connections between climate change, the need for Net Zero and extreme weather events would certainly help.
However, in the UK, some newspapers opposed to Net Zero policies have been found to be regularly publishing inaccurate or misleading information. Research suggests that four right-wing outlets each had more than 70% of their editorials or opinion pieces discussing Net Zero containing at least one misleading statement. 24 Contending points of view are not being fairly debated, which can prevent readers from forming a well supported understanding of Net Zero arguments.
Not all is doom and gloom. Despite the drop in coverage since 2021, according to Ipsos, 74% of those surveyed in 2025 are concerned about the impacts of climate change in their country, an increase in concern in most countries since 2022. 25 Even in the USA, there is no evidence that people have become less worried about climate change since April 2022. 26
As Angus Foster, climate editorial chief at the BBC, has said, 'The audience is still with us, but we have to find ways into the climate story that are fresh and provide information that they really want.' 27
Competing interests: none declared.
AI declaration: None used.
Provenance and peer review: Commissioned, externally peer reviewed.

After a wave of record breaking heatwaves in Europe and across the world this summer, there has been

Joining the dots: why more and accurate media coverage of climate change matters

Climate change can look very different at the scale of a forest, field or hillside. A new review shows how changes in vegetation and atmospheric conditions can cause local microclimates to warm at very different rates from the regional climate - and why this matters for understanding how biodiversity will respond to climate change.
Climate change is usually described using regional or global averages. But most organisms experience the climate much closer to the ground or within microhabitats, where temperature and other conditions can differ substantially from those measured by weather stations or represented in large-scale climate models.
This local climate, known as the microclimate, does not necessarily change in the same way as the surrounding regional climate. In a new review published in Global Change Biology, researchers from around the world synthesise how climate change can alter microclimates and identify the processes responsible for these differences.
"Climate change is often described as a single number for a region. But organisms live in specific places – in a particular patch of forest or on a particular slope. The climate they experience can change at a very different rate from the regional average," says Caroline Greiser, researcher at Stockholm University and lead author of the study.
Vegetation can change the local climate
One important driver is vegetation. Climate change can alter forests, shrublands and other vegetation, which in turn changes how much sunlight reaches the ground and how easily the ground loses heat to the atmosphere.
"Vegetation is not simply responding to climate change – it can also modify the climate experienced by organisms living under canopies," says Greiser. "When vegetation changes, it changes the local energy balance, and this can lead to very different temperature trends within the same landscape."
In one of the model simulations presented in the review, the expansion of shrubs and trees into open steppes in Turkey substantially altered near-ground air temperatures. On the hottest days, shrub encroachment resulted in temperatures up to 16 degrees lower than those in open areas. In a regional warming scenario, the open areas would warm up much faster.
Clouds and other atmospheric changes matter too
Microclimate is also influenced directly by changes in atmospheric conditions. For example, cloud cover controls how much solar radiation reaches the Earth's surface. A reduction in cloudiness can substantially increase solar heating in sun-exposed locations, while shaded areas, such as forest interiors or pole-facing slopes, may be less affected.
The review shows how such changes can interact with topography, vegetation, soil moisture and other factors to produce increasingly different microclimatic conditions over relatively short distances.
Until recently, it has been difficult to study these changes over long periods and across large areas. New sensor networks, long-term datasets and mechanistic models are now making it possible to investigate how changes in the atmosphere and vegetation translate into the microclimates experienced by organisms.
"The processes that determine microclimate are complex and involve both atmospheric and biological systems. Understanding them therefore requires collaboration between atmospheric scientists and ecologists," says Greiser.
Why microclimate matters for biodiversity
Understanding how microclimates change could improve predictions of how species and ecosystems respond to climate change. Regional climate data may suggest that an area is warming, while local conditions can remain relatively buffered - or change even more rapidly – because of vegetation, topography and atmospheric processes.
Accounting for this variation could improve predictions of future species distributions and ecological interactions, and help inform conservation and land management strategies that are adapted to local climate change.
"If we want to understand where species will persist and where they will be most vulnerable, we need to know not only how the regional climate is changing, but also how that change translates into the microclimates organisms actually experience," says Greiser.

Climate change can look very different at the scale of a forest, field or hillside. A new review shows how changes in vegetation and atmospheric

How Earth's Life Experiences Climate Change

For people forced to leave their homes, families whose livelihoods are threatened and communities facing growing environmental risks, climate change is not a distant concern. It is already affecting their lives. But who is responsible for protecting their rights, and what can the law do?
These questions were at the heart of a seminar entitled 'The Impacts of Climate Change on States, Companies and Individuals', organised by the Council of Europe Programme Office in Ankara in co-operation with Ankara Medipol University Faculty of Law.
The seminar brought together academics to explore how international law can respond to the human consequences of climate change. Discussions focused on the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion dated 23 July 2025, on climate change and the legal obligations of states to protect the environment and uphold human rights.
For people affected by the climate crisis, legal responsibility is more than a matter of principle. Environmental damage can threaten access to housing, livelihoods and basic services, while climate-induced displacement can leave already vulnerable communities facing even greater uncertainty.
The discussions also examined the responsibilities of businesses, particularly the importance of human rights and environmental due diligence in global supply chains and compliance with evolving European regulatory standards.
The seminar delivered a central message: responding to climate change requires not only environmental action, but also legal accountability and responsible business practices that protect people and their rights.
Protecting people from the consequences of climate change cannot wait for the future. It matters today.
The joint programme 'Fostering Civil Society Participation and Capacity Building in Access to Justice in Türkiye: Enhancing Human Rights in the Context of Migration and Environmental Justice' is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.

For people forced to leave their homes, families whose livelihoods are
threatened and communities facing growing environmental risks, climate
change is not a distant concern. It is already...

The Climate Crisis Is Already Changing Lives. How Can the Law Respond?

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 16, 2026--
On Tuesday, a life-size statue of Ron DeSantis began melting shortly after it was unveiled in front of supporters and onlookers in Tallahassee, an intentionally dramatic installation designed to make the consequences of climate change impossible to ignore.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261016737511/en/
A life-size statue of Ron DeSantis began melting shortly after it was unveiled in front of supporters and onlookers in Tallahassee, an intentionally dramatic installation designed to make the consequences of climate change impossible to ignore.
The installation arrives ahead of the midterm elections and shortly after Climate Week NYC. Through the work, 'DENIAL' is urging Americans to deny climate change deniers and sign a pledge to vote for climate conscious candidates. Sculpted entirely from gallium, a metal that melts at 85.6°F (29.8°C), 'DENIAL' exposes the fragile illusion of performative politicians against the unyielding reality of the natural world. That melting point sits below Tallahassee's average summer high, a threshold Florida will cross more often and for longer under 2°C of global heating.
The statue references DeSantis's 2024 signing of HB 1645, which erased the phrase "climate change" from Florida state law – even as the state spent more than $1 billion responding to floods, storms, and heat. DeSantis is scheduled to leave office in January 2027 after serving eight years as governor and reaching his term limit.
"The climate crisis is one of the top issues facing our planet today. And yet, some candidates running for office still deny it's happening, and deny the bold climate action that the people want," said Candice Fortin, 350 Action Campaign Manager.
'That's why it's more important than ever to deny them back at the ballot box. If everyone who cares about people and our planet makes their voices heard on Election Day, we'll be too loud to deny,' continued Fortin.
The statue was produced using 3D scanning and printing to achieve photorealistic detail, then cast in solid gallium, a metal that melts under the very conditions its subject legislated against acknowledging. As the record heat that has defined much of his tenure continues, DENIAL will not.
350 Action supports the bold, people-powered movements fighting to keep our planet livable. Learn more and get involved at 350action.org/denial.
About 350 Action: 350 Action is an organization that empowers voters to make a direct impact in the nation's most important climate races. From local elections that decide energy policies to House races that could take Congress back from climate deniers, we support climate-progressive candidates and initiatives. Learn more at www.350action.org.
View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261016737511/en/
CONTACT: Media Contact:
Débora Gastal
350Action Communications
E:denial@350action.org
KEYWORD: FLORIDA NEW YORK UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: ENVIRONMENT CLIMATE CHANGE ARTS/MUSEUMS ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ENTERTAINMENT ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES ELECTIONS/CAMPAIGNS PUBLIC POLICY/GOVERNMENT STATE/LOCAL PUBLIC POLICY
SOURCE: 350 Action
Copyright Business Wire 2026.
PUB: 10/16/2026 07:10 AM/DISC: 10/16/2026 07:10 AM
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 16, 2026--On Tuesday, a life-size statue of Ron DeSantis began melting shortly after it was unveiled in front of supporters and onlookers in Tallahassee, an…

Ron DeSantis Statue Melts in Rising Temperatures He Spent 8 Years Denying; Climate Change Non-Profit 350 Action, Art Collective Uncommon Creative Studio, and M ss ng P eces Staged a Striking Midterm-Season Installation

Researchers at the University of Helsinki wanted to understand which is the dominant factor for species occurrence and abundance: the climate or habitat-related variables, such as their natural state and the share of land shaped by human activity. Solutions to mitigate biodiversity loss depend on the answer to this question.
Contrary to the researchers' expectations, habitat composition offers a better explanation than the climate for the occurrence and abundance of most animal groups. This conclusion highlights the importance of land-use planning in safeguarding biodiversity.
'The habitat proved to be of special importance to butterflies, birds, and small mammals. As for large mammals and moths, the relative importance of the habitat and climate were equal,' explains Emy Guilbault, the article's lead author.
The study examined 503 terrestrial animal species, including changes in their occurrence, over a period of 20 years. The data covered the whole of Finland with all its climatic zones. Analysing more than three million observations required the use of advanced statistical methods. Climate accounts for differences between north and south, while habitats explain local variation
The climate is the best explanation for the observed variation in species communities from year to year as well as between more extensive geographical areas, such as Southern and Northern Finland. Tackling climate change is essential in order to retain the distinctive characteristics of northern and southern fauna.
In contrast, the importance of habitats increases when variation in biodiversity is examined locally and regionally. Forested areas accommodate different species communities than agricultural environments or wetlands, and species are lost if their habitats are altered. Consequently, land-use decisions greatly impact the occurrence and location of species communities. Species-specific characteristics determine the dominant factor
The study also investigated the impact of what are known as functional traits of species on the results. For example, body size, reproductive cycle rate, and degree of specialisation affect the extent to which the climate and habitat determine species occurrence and abundance.
In almost all taxonomic groups, species with slow reproductive cycles were more sensitive to climatic conditions than species with faster ones. Similarly, small mammals preferring a specific habitat or food were dependent on the climate, while the importance of the habitat was more prominent in larger, less specialised mammalian species.
For birds, butterflies and moths, body size or degree of specialisation had no effect on which – the climate or habitat quality – was more dominant. Biodiversity decline cannot be explained by climate change only
The researchers believe that biodiversity loss in Finland cannot be attributed to climate change alone.
'In many cases, land use can have an even more decisive impact on species, especially locally and regionally. At the same time, climate change and habitats cannot be completely separated from each other, because it is together that they will determine the state of our species communities in the coming decades,' says Guilbault.
The climate and habitats have significant combined effects on biodiversity, as species are forced to simultaneously adapt to the changing climate and habitat degradation.
'To preserve biodiversity, we should put greater effort into the protection and restoration of the remaining habitats. Maintaining habitat diversity is an action that also helps species cope with climate change. Moreover, conservation efforts should take species characteristics, regional differences and temporal variation into account', says Professor .
The researchers take comfort in knowing that their results show that land use and habitat protection can be addressed more effectively locally than tackling climate change globally. We have means to protect Finland's species, and the most effective of these are in our own hands. Original article
Guilbault, E., Antão, L.H., Santangeli, A. et al. Shifting balance between habitat and climate in boreal biodiversity patterns across space, time and taxa. Nature Communications, published 14 October 2026 DOI: Additional information
Emy Guilbault, Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow
+614 1404 3190
Jarno Vanhatalo, professor
+358 50 3175 494

According to a study published by researchers at the University of Helsinki, habitat degradation threatens Finnish biodiversity more than the public discourse focused on climate change might suggest.

Habitat quality accounts for shifts in Finnish species more than the climate

Nepal's devastating floods should be a turning point for global climate action, with the international community helping the Himalayan nation recover, a top UN official told AFP on Saturday.
The country suffered one of the worst disasters in its history on August 26, when a mountain collapse near the China border triggered catastrophic floods that killed more than 1,400 people and left over 5,000 missing.
Scientists said climate change played a significant role in that disaster.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), which implements humanitarian and development projects, said he had witnessed "massive devastation" during a visit to affected communities.
Nepal, a largely rural country of 30 million people that contributes little to global greenhouse gas emissions, estimates reconstruction will cost $4.78 billion.
"This is a defining moment not only for Nepal, this is a defining moment for the international community," Moreira da Silva told AFP in Kathmandu.
"It's not fair to ask a country that emits almost nothing of CO2 to suddenly pay alone the consequence of something that was not generated by the country," he added.
"That's why it's fundamental that global solidarity is brought to this equation."
- 'Climate justice' -
Moreira da Silva said reconstruction and resettlement must account for future climate risks, while the international community must "renew its commitment to climate".
"It's also about climate justice and climate responsibility," he said, warning that low-emitting countries would continue to bear the brunt of climate change.
"This is going to happen unless those countries that emit the most... change their pathway," he said.
Moreira da Silva said Nepal was rebuilding as global disruptions threatened food security. He also leads the UN task force for the Strait of Hormuz.
"The simultaneous disruption of the three maritime shock points... the Strait of Hormuz, in the Black Sea and in the Red Sea, poses a significant challenge, particularly on food security," he said.
The UN and its humanitarian partners launched a $49.6 million appeal last month to provide emergency assistance to flood victims.
Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah told the United Nations last month that the flooding "was a warning to the world" about the growing dangers of climate change.
pm/pjm/ceg

Nepal's devastating floods should be a turning point for global climate action, with the international community helping the Himalayan nation recover, a top UN official told AFP on Saturday.Nepal's…

Nepal floods 'defining moment' for climate action: UN

Here's what caught my eye this month.
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International network, the Neuro Climate Working Group, has published a report bringing together science and policy around climate change and brain health. There's a nice web version too.
It covers some areas which may be familiar: that excess heat impacts neurological function, mental health and sleep; that extreme weather events can have long-term psychological consequences; that air pollution contributes to dementia deaths. It also raises issues that are perhaps less often mentioned in the climate and health context, like the impact of food insecurity on brain health, particularly in children.
There's a welcome acknowledgement of health inequity in this area and the authors introduce a 'neuro climate framework'. It sets out three pathways through which climate change impacts brain health: biological, psychological and social-structural, which is a useful way of approaching interventions.
Lots to explore, including a research agenda and a policy roadmap. Fellow SubstackUnthinkablehas pulled out highlights from the report in a very readable post.
Our brains on a changing planet (web version)
Our brains on a changing planet (PDF version)
Highlights from Unthinkable
I'm really interested in how we bring climate and sustainability into healthcare conversations and how information resources can support those conversations. I was pleased to see a project at Dartmouth Health in the US, developing and testing a climate-informed paediatric care toolkit, to support paediatricians to bring climate change counselling into their consulting rooms.
The project provided the toolkit and a short education session to seven practices and monitored results. It had a positive impact, with clinicians reporting improved confidence in having these conversations. The information for caregivers included things like preventing tick and insect bites, preparing for play in extreme heat, and air quality.
Another paper that caught my eye reported on a quality improvement (QI) study in Canada. A previous study showed that people with schizophrenia had a threefold higher mortality risk during an extreme heat event in 2021. This QI study delivered short education sessions to frontline mental health professionals and provided practical resources. Participants reported increased knowledge of heat-related risk and confidence in recognising heat exhaustion and heat stroke symptoms.
Climate informed paediatric care
Preventing heat-related illness in people with severe mental illness
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a set of resources to support prevention and treatment of heat-related illnesses at mass gatherings, such as major sporting events or festivals.
It includes a review of evidence, looking at studies from 1980 to 2025 for lessons on heat-related illness and what works. It also includes a heat-risk assessment tool and a guide to developing communications for events.
Prevention and management of heat-related illness at mass gatherings
The October issue ofThe Lancet Public Healthis all about cities. It includes research on the air quality improvements that have been seen since the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) was introduced in London.
It also has a Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report focused on cities in Europe. As with the global Countdown reports, there is data for particular areas of interest, including heat-related mortality and vector-borne diseases, as well as mitigation and adaptation measures, like tree cover and cycle infrastructure. There are some pithy headlines, 'Urban residents are increasingly at risk from growing climate change-related hazards' and 'Adaptation measures are being implemented, but are not sufficient', but there's also lots of detail to get to grips with if there's a particular aspect you're interested in.
The next global Lancet Countdown report is due to be launched on 28th October. There's an in-person event in London and a livestream online.
Impact of ULEZ on lung function growth in children in London
2026 Europe Cities Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change
Launch of 10th Lancet Countdown report
The National Heat Risk Commission, based at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at LSE, has published a report marking the start of its work and an accompanying call for evidence.
This initial call is for organisations, public bodies, businesses etc. with a separate consultation for individuals to follow. It's UK-wide (even Shetland is on the map!). There are ten questions (e.g. 'How is extreme heat affecting your organisation and the people you serve?') and submissions are due by 30th October.
Call for evidence: National Heat Risk Commission
Report: A heat circuit breaker for the UK
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Innovate UK is working with the UK Department of Health and Social Care to deliver funding to support 'the development and adoption of sustainable technologies for the manufacturing of medicines'. That means, for example, minimising energy use, emissions and waste in the manufacturing process.
Applications for funding should be worth between £500,000 and £1 million. Apply by 2nd December (11am – weirdly specific).
Sustainable medicines manufacturing innovation funding
Watch a recording of the online briefing event
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has opened the application window for its next Net Zero Catalyst programme.
It's a training programme aimed at people developing a medical device or diagnostic, who want to integrate sustainability. As well as training and support, there is also a prize fund for participants.
Applications are due by Monday 1st February 2027.
NIHR Net Zero Catalyst
This is bound to be an event full of inspiration – practical examples of what can be achieved in a real-world NHS setting.
The six teams who took part in the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) Green Gastroenterology Challenge will be presenting their sustainable quality improvement (SusQI) projects.
The free event is on Wednesday 4th November, 2-4.30pm (UK).
Online event: Green gastroenterology challenge showcase
The Health Foundation is hosting a webinar looking at learning from work on building a low-carbon, climate resilient NHS, including examples from frontline experience, capital projects, and alignment with other NHS priorities. The webinar is on Thursday 5th November, 12-1.15pm (UK).
Last month, the Health Foundation published results from polling it commissioned, asking people for their views on the links between climate change, health and the NHS. Among the headline findings: 70% of people said they were concerned about climate change; only 7% feel the NHS is prepared for its impacts; and 62% support the NHS net zero policy.
Webinar: Achieving a low-carbon, climate resilient NHS
The public is right: the NHS is not prepared for climate change
Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate Change and Health (ATACH) is recruiting a Consultant – climate change and health. Apply by 21st October.
Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is recruiting a Group deputy head of sustainability. Apply by 21st October.
University College London (UCL) is recruiting a Research fellow in climate change and public health to support the Lancet Countdown. Apply by 22nd October. UCL is also recruiting a Senior research fellow in climate change and health to work on the Lancet Countdown. Apply by 6th November.
The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) is recruiting maternity cover for its Green space for health programme director. Apply by 25th October.
Wellcome is recruiting a Research manager, mitigation (climate and health). Apply by 25th October.
Unitaid is recruiting a Consultant – Green Climate Fund proposal development support. Apply by 26th October.
Wellcome is also recruiting a Senior content and social media producer – in fact, it's recruiting two, but one will be focused on climate and health. Apply by 27th October.
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting an Environmental and sustainability officer. Apply by 27th October.
East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust is recruiting an Estates and sustainability administrator. Apply by 1st November.
City Health Care Partnership CIC is recruiting a Sustainability manager. Apply by 2nd November.
The Centre for Net Positive Health and Climate Solutions (Net+ Centre) is recruiting a Postdoctoral research fellow (focused on food systems/nutrition). Apply by 8th November.
The Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change Hub (MACC Hub) is recruiting early career researchers to join a series of week-long knowledge sprints – so far the 'heat-risk communication and adaptation action' and 'wildfire risk communication and public preparedness' sprints are open for applications, but there will soon be a third on coastal adaptation. Apply for the first sprint by 9th November.
The newly formed Climate & Health Funders Coalition is recruiting an Executive director. Apply by 15th November.
Consultant – climate change and health
Group deputy head of sustainability
Research fellow in climate change and public health
Senior research fellow in climate change and health
Green space for health programme director
Research manager, mitigation (climate and health)
Consultant – Green Climate Fund proposal development support
Senior content and social media producer
Environmental and sustainability officer
Estates and sustainability administrator
Sustainability manager
Postdoctoral research fellow
Early career researchers for sprints
Executive director
Here'swhat I'm reading/some inspiration from my train-based adventures last month/ andI'm finally catching a performance of this show.
Thanks for reading Climate and health news! This post is public so feel free to share it.
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Curious about me? I work with not-for-profit organisations as an editor. Sometimes as a proofreader, web editor, writer or researcher. I'm open to ideas, if you think we could work well together. I'm curious about you! Reply to this email if you want to tell me something about yourself or if you have questions or feedback for me.

October 2026 climate and health round-up

BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 17. Turkmenistan has
called on interested countries and international partners to
support its initiative to establish the Ashgabat Climate Dialogue,
a multilateral platform for cooperation on climate change and
environmental protection.
This was reflected in a press release published by the press
service of the Turkmen government citing President Serdar
Berdimuhamedov's speech at the 7th Summit of the Conference on
Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in
Baku.
'Turkmenistan is putting forward an initiative to establish the
Ashgabat Climate Dialogue - a multilateral platform for exchanging
experience and coordinating approaches to climate change
adaptation, combating desertification and drought, the rational use
of water resources and the promotion of green solutions,'
Berdimuhamedov said.
The president stressed the importance of strengthening
international cooperation on climate change and environmental
security, including through the rational use of water resources,
the introduction of modern environmental technologies and efforts
to improve the resilience of national economies to global climate
change.
He also said that CICA had significant potential to support
joint projects and promote effective solutions for sustainable
environmental development.
Meanwhile, Turkmenistan has been seeking to expand international
cooperation on climate change, water security and combating
desertification. In July 2026, the government announced plans to
establish the Ashgabat Climate Dialogue, alongside regional centres
for climate technologies and combating desertification in Central
Asia. The proposed interdepartmental commission would coordinate
these initiatives with foreign partners and financial
institutions.
Water management is a key element of the country's climate
agenda. In June 2026, the government, the United Nations and
international development partners held a dialogue on long-term
water availability scenarios for Turkmenistan through 2050,
examining potential implications for agriculture, food security,
employment and ecosystems.
Turkmenistan is also participating in regional climate
adaptation initiatives supported by UN agencies. These include
efforts to strengthen scientific monitoring and cooperation on the
impacts of climate change on Central Asia's cryosphere and
transboundary water resources.

BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 17. Turkmenistan has called on interested countries and international partners to support its initiative to establish the Ashgabat Climate Dialogue, a multilateral platform…

Turkmenistan urges support for Ashgabat Climate Dialogue initiative

Climate Fresk of Nations, organized by Climate Fresk Deutschland e. V. and the City of Munich, unites Munich's international communities and partner cities in one of the largest multilingual climate education events supporting the city's climate-neutral 2035 ambition.
On 24 October 2026, Climate Fresk of Nations will transform the historic Ballroom of Munich's Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) into a vibrant hub of learning, dialogue, and collaboration. Participants from Munich's international communities, partner cities, and local organisations will take part in 25 simultaneous Climate Fresk workshops delivered in 20 languages, making it one of the largest and most diverse events of Munich Climate Week.
Climate Fresk is an interactive workshop based on the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Working together with a set of carefully designed cards, participants explore the causes and consequences of climate change, uncover the connections within Earth's climate system, and discuss practical solutions and actions that can be taken at individual, community, and societal levels.
By offering workshops in participants' native languages, Climate Fresk of Nations removes barriers to climate education and creates an inclusive space where people can engage with climate science in a meaningful and accessible way. The event reflects Munich's international character and demonstrates how diverse communities can contribute to a shared vision for a sustainable future.
The event is organised by Ambassador Martina Weinberger and Climate Fresk Deutschland e. V. Climate Fresk Deutschland e. V is part of the global Climate Fresk movement and a European Climate Pact partner organisation. We are dedicated to advancing science-based climate education. Through interactive workshops, facilitator training, and educational resources, Climate Fresk helps individuals, communities, organisations, and institutions understand the causes and impacts of climate change while empowering them to take meaningful action.
The movement's vision is a world where informed and engaged citizens work together to build a healthy, resilient, low-carbon future.
Questions: info climatefreskdeutschland [dot] de (info[at]climatefreskdeutschland[dot]de)

Massive multilingual Climate Fresk event to engage citizens in climate awareness and action

Climate Fresk of Nations

Understanding how climate and environmental conditions have changed in the past provides important context for predicting how Earth's climate may respond in the future.
Cave stalagmites are an important archive of past climate and environmental conditions. They form slowly, layer by layer, often growing for thousands of years. Different chemical markers are recorded in each layer, that reflect climate and environmental conditions, such as rainfall, temperature or vegetation activity. They can also be dated very precisely with a radiometric technique called uranium-thorium dating.
Various Honours projects are available using cave stalagmites to reconstruct climate changes over the last few hundred thousand years. Projects range from studying abrupt climate changes during glacial periods, glacial terminations and climate during interglacial periods.
Analyse the geochemical properties of cave stalagmites to produce high resolution and precisely dated records of past climate and environmental change. Improve our understanding of how the climate system works, and develop data to evaluate palaeoclimate models.
Direct scholarships are available.
Projects provide the opportunity to develop skills in the laboratory, geochemical analysis and data analysis. Opportunities to visit caves may also be available.
Supervisor: Ellen Corrick
To learn more about this project, contact Ellen Corrick
E: e.corrick@unsw.edu.au
UNSW Sydney NSW 2033 Australia Telephone: +61 2 93851000
UNSW CRICOS Provider Code : 00098G TEQSA Provider ID : PRV12055 ABN : 57 195 873 179

UNSW respectfully acknowledges the Bidjigal, Biripai, Dharug, Gadigal, Gumbaynggirr, Ngunnawal and Wiradjuri peoples, on whose unceded lands we are privileged to learn, teach and work. We honour the…

Reconstructing Earth's climate using cave stalagmites

Effective beginning 5/20/2025: Please note this site is under review and content may change.
USDA contributes to climate assessments, analysis of adaptation and mitigation options, cost-benefit analyses, and tools to support agriculture, forests, grazing lands, and rural communities.
USDA promotes climate-resilient landscapes and rural economic systems. USDA contributes to climate assessments, analysis of adaptation and mitigation options, cost-benefit analyses, and tools to support agriculture, forests, grazing lands, and rural communities.
The Climate Change Program Office (CCPO) operates within the Office of Energy and Environmental Policy (OEEP) to coordinate agricultural, rural, and forestry-related climate change program and policy issues across USDA. CCPO ensures that USDA is a source of objective, analytical assessments of the effects of climate change and proposed response strategies. This website provides information, reports, and data related to USDA's analysis of these topics.

USDA promotes climate-resilient landscapes and rural economic systems.

Global Change

The Romanians are increasingly aware of the impact of extreme weather on homes, the weight of those who believe that they are prepared to cope with the effects of climate change, reducing this year by 10%, to 68%, compared to last year. At the same time, 8 out of 10 Romanians believe that there is a direct link between climate change and the production of extreme weather phenomena, and they are most afraid of strong storms and heat waves.
Fewer and fewer Romanians believe that their home is resistant to extreme weather.What shows a study commissioned by insurersOnly 68% of Romanians still believe that their homes are ready to cope with the effects of climate change, with 10 percentage points less than in 2025, shows an IRES study carried out...
Photo credit: LCV / Shutterstock.com The weight of Romanians who believe that their homes can cope with the effects of climate change... Article Fewer Romanians believe that their homes are ready for climate change. Storms and heat waves, among the most frequent concerns, appear first in the Green Community.
Only 68% of Romanians believe that their homes can cope with the effects of climate change, with 10 percentage points less than in 2025. At the same time, eight out of ten respondents associate climate change with extreme weather phenomena, according to a study [...]

The Romanians are increasingly aware of the impact of extreme weather on homes, the weight of those who believe that they are prepared to cope with the effects of climate change, reducing this year by…

UNSAR: 68% of Romanians Believe that Their Homes Are Resistant to Extreme Weather Phenomena/ Mostly Fear Strong Storms and Heat Waves

Carl de Souza/gettyimages.com
For the first time, scientists have placed precise numbers on a milestone that reshapes how every Pacific coastal community should think about hurricane season: human-caused climate change — the permanent, accumulating product of burning coal, oil, and gas — has grown large enough to outweigh El Niño, the natural Pacific warming cycle that has historically been the dominant driver of Pacific storm intensity. The finding emerged from a rapid attribution study published Thursday by World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central, using last month's record-shattering Hurricane Polo as the test case.
Polo Set the Record: Then Scientists Asked Why
Hurricane Polo reached peak sustained winds of approximately 180 mph (290 kph) and a central pressure of 892 millibars in late September, making it one of the most intense Pacific storms on record — surpassed in peak intensity only by Hurricane Patricia's 2015 record of 879 millibars. What separated Polo from every Pacific hurricane before it was duration: the storm held Category 5 status for two and a half days, a feat no recorded Pacific cyclone had previously achieved.
The storm underwent extreme rapid intensification — a meteorological threshold defined as maximum sustained winds increasing by at least 30 knots (35 mph / 56 kph) within 24 hours, according to the
Two forces accounted for that thermal surplus. One was El Niño — the large-scale warming of the central and eastern Pacific that occurs every few years, suppresses the Atlantic hurricane season while amplifying the Pacific's, and currently ranks among the stronger events on record. The other was the persistent background warming from greenhouse gas emissions: approximately 2.5°F (1.4°C) of average global temperature increase since the pre-industrial era, now baked into the baseline of every ocean on Earth.
The question the attribution study set out to answer was not whether both forces were present — everyone knew they were — but which one contributed more to Polo's destructive power.
What the 23-to-14 Ratio Actually Proves
To separate the two signals, both research teams independently applied the same scientific methodology: comparing the actual world against a modeled counterfactual in which human emissions had never warmed the planet. The same logic was then applied to isolate El Niño's contribution by modeling conditions without its influence. Both approaches drew on the
The results, expressed as probability ratios, were clear. The
Translated into wind speed, climate change added approximately 6 mph (10 kph) to Polo's peak winds. El Niño added approximately 5 mph (8 kph). The margin is narrow but the direction is unambiguous.
"El Niño and climate change both made this hurricane stronger than it would have otherwise been, but the effect of climate change is even bigger than the one of El Niño," said Friederike Otto, the climate scientist at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute who co-leads
This finding represents a threshold-crossing moment in the science of tropical cyclones. For decades, El Niño was understood as the dominant natural forcing on Pacific hurricane intensity — the cycle that made certain years dramatically worse than others. The Polo attribution study's finding that the human-caused warming signal now exceeds El Niño means the anthropogenic background has grown large enough to surpass a forcing that historically drove entire season-scale variability.
How Attribution Science Separates Two Overlapping Signals
The methodology behind this kind of finding — called probabilistic extreme event attribution — was formalized in a
For the Polo analysis, Climate Central's Daniel Gilford used a framework called "potential intensity theory," which treats a hurricane as a thermodynamic engine and calculates the maximum possible wind speed the atmospheric and oceanic environment could sustain. The same approach underlies
The two research teams used somewhat different datasets and statistical approaches, but arrived at the same general conclusion — a convergence that increased the authors' confidence in the result. The study has not yet undergone peer review, which remains the gold standard of scientific validation. Of WWA's
Gilford described the interplay of El Niño and climate change using a driving analogy. In the Atlantic Ocean, El Niño typically acts as a red light for hurricane development, producing wind shear at altitude that disrupts storm organization. In the Pacific, the same climate pattern flips that dynamic — it acts as a green light, reducing the shear that would otherwise weaken storms. The ocean heat warmed by both climate change and El Niño then serves as the fuel that determines how fast the storm accelerates once that green light turns on.
Why Critics Say the Study Is Too Conservative
Three outside scientists argued that Thursday's study likely understates climate change's contribution. Jeff Masters of Yale Climate Connections, Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania, and Carl Schreck of North Carolina State University all independently said the researchers arrived at a figure for climate change's contribution that is lower than the body of existing evidence would predict, as the
Masters pointed to
Gilford acknowledged the apparent gap but explained that the two analyses measure different things. The 2024 Atlantic study tracked observed wind speed enhancement across many storms over several years; Thursday's Polo analysis used the potential-intensity framework applied specifically to sea-surface temperatures during a single event. That framework is inherently more conservative because it captures only the thermodynamic (ocean heat) component of climate change's influence, not the full atmospheric environment — changes in wind shear patterns, moisture availability, and other dynamical factors that climate change also affects. In other words, 6 mph may be the floor, not the ceiling, of climate change's actual contribution to Polo's strength.
What Does Not Change When El Niño Ends
The policy implication that Friederike Otto returned to repeatedly is the one that makes this finding matter beyond Polo and beyond 2026. El Niño is a temporary condition. Climate change is not.
"El Niño comes and goes, but climate change only gets worse," Otto said. "That means that now every hurricane that will occur in the East Pacific has at least this climate change signal making it stronger. And as long as we keep burning fossil fuels, that will only get bigger."
Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist and vice president of science at Climate Central — a science and journalism nonprofit based in Princeton, New Jersey — framed it in terms of what this El Niño season has revealed about the underlying baseline.
"It's a powerful reminder that even though El Niño right now is shifting hazards around the globe and changing where it's flooding and getting dry, the really dominant signal behind all of this remains climate change," Dahl said.
University at Albany atmospheric scientist Brian Tang, who was not involved in the research, said the finding initially surprised him given how extreme the current El Niño is. But on reflection, he added, "from a long-term standpoint, perhaps the result isn't as surprising as it might seem." The human-caused warming signal has been accumulating for decades and compounds with every year of continued fossil fuel emissions; the natural variability of El Niño cycles on a timescale of years. The math eventually favors the permanent forcing.
The 2026 eastern Pacific season had already set records beyond Polo, including the longest stretch without an Atlantic hurricane on record — a statistical anomaly scientists are studying as a possible signature of the same El Niño pattern that accelerated Polo in the Pacific, per
Is the Rapid Attribution Method Reliable Enough to Act On?
The speed with which WWA and Climate Central published their findings is not a bug — it is the method's central design feature. Attribution science's early practitioners recognized that climate change had to enter the public conversation while a catastrophic storm was still in the news cycle, not months later when a peer-reviewed paper would finally appear.
WWA accomplishes this by applying pre-validated methodology — the probabilistic framework itself was established through earlier peer-reviewed research — to new events in real time. The tradeoff is that the event-specific application has not been independently reviewed before publication. WWA's track record, however, suggests the tradeoff is manageable: of its rapid studies that have gone through the full peer-review process, findings have generally been confirmed and in some cases strengthened.
The methodology's fundamental logic — comparing an observed world against a counterfactual world to isolate the causal contribution of a specific factor — is not unique to climate science. The same counterfactual approach underpins causal inference across epidemiology, economics, and public health. What attribution science has contributed is the computational infrastructure to run those comparisons for the atmosphere, rapidly and at global scale, while the storm is still making headlines.
For communities along the Pacific coasts of Mexico, Central America, and Hawaii, the
Frequently Asked Questions
How does a scientist calculate how much climate change contributed to a specific hurricane?
Researchers use a method called
Why would climate change now outweigh El Niño, when El Niño has always been a dominant Pacific hurricane driver?
El Niño's influence on any given Pacific hurricane season depends on how strong that particular El Niño event is — it varies from year to year. Climate change's influence, by contrast, has been accumulating continuously for more than a century and does not reset. At the current level of approximately 2.5°F (1.4°C) of global warming above the pre-industrial baseline, the cumulative human-caused forcing on ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific has grown large enough to exceed even a historically strong El Niño. That threshold was apparently crossed, at least for Pacific hurricane intensity, before the 2026 storm season,
Could Pacific hurricane seasons become safer once El Niño ends?
No, not in the way they once did. When El Niño fades into La Niña conditions, the Pacific pattern that makes storms more likely will ease. But the 6 mph (10 kph) contribution from climate change identified in the Polo study will remain — and grow. Friederike Otto of WWA put it plainly: "Every hurricane that will occur in the East Pacific has at least this climate change signal making it stronger." Communities relying on La Niña years as a window of relative safety need to update that assumption,
Does the fact that this study has not been peer-reviewed mean its conclusions might be wrong?
Peer review remains the gold standard of scientific validation, and this study has not yet undergone it — a limitation the authors explicitly acknowledge. However, WWA's rapid attribution methodology is itself built on peer-reviewed statistical frameworks established in earlier research. Of more than 100 rapid attribution studies WWA has published since its founding in 2014, 26 have subsequently gone through formal peer review — and those results have generally been confirmed or strengthened, not overturned. Three outside scientists have already weighed in on this study's specific finding: all three believe the 6 mph climate change contribution is too conservative, not too high, per the AP's Borenstein study report.

Climate change hurricane intensification is now stronger than El Nino's contribution to Pacific storm intensity, a WWA and Climate Central study finds -- analyzing Hurricane Polo's record-setting…

Climate Change Now Outpaces El Niño in Pacific Hurricane Risk, Polo Study Finds

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ADDIS ABABA, Oct 16 – The IPCC Chair, Jim Skea, suspended tonight the 65th Plenary Session in Addis Ababa after the meeting ran over its planned duration and many delegations from least developed countries and Small Island Developing States had to leave. The Chair's decision safeguards and upholds the inclusivity of IPCC plenaries where the Panel makes major decisions by consensus.
Key agenda items of this plenary – the timelines for the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7) and the IPCC budget – remain open and under discussion.
The 65th Plenary Session of the IPCC and Panel's deliberations on the pending agenda will resume at the earliest opportunity.
For more information or contact:
IPCC Press Office, email: ipcc-media@wmo.int
Andrej Mahecic, +41 22 730 8516; Werani Zabula, +41 22 730 8120
Notes for editors
What is the IPCC? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the UN body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide political leaders with periodic scientific assessments concerning climate change, its implications and risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation strategies. In the same year the UN General Assembly endorsed the action by the WMO and UNEP in jointly establishing the IPCC. Participation in the IPCC is open to all member countries of WMO and the United Nations (UN).
Thousands of experts from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. For the assessment reports, experts volunteer their time as IPCC authors to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
The IPCC has three working groups: Working Group I, dealing with the physical science basis of climate change; Working Group II, dealing with impacts, adaptation and vulnerability; and Working Group III, dealing with the mitigation of climate change. It also has a Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories that develops methodologies for measuring emissions and removals.IPCC assessments provide governments, at all levels, with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC assessments are a key input into the international negotiations to tackle climate change. IPCC reports are drafted and reviewed in several stages, thus guaranteeing objectivity and transparency.
About the Seventh Assessment Cycle
Comprehensive scientific assessment reports are published every 5 to 7 years. The IPCC is currently in its seventh assessment cycle, which formally began in July 2023 with the elections of the new IPCC and Task Force Bureaus at the IPCC's Plenary Session in Nairobi.
At its first Plenary Session in the seventh assessment cycle – the 60th Plenary Session in Istanbul, Türkiye, in January 2024 – the Panel agreed to produce in this cycle the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7), namely the Working Group I report on the Physical Science Basis, the Working Group II report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability and the Working Group III report on Mitigation of Climate Change. The Synthesis Report of the Seventh Assessment Report will be produced after the completion of the Working Group reports and released by late 2029.
During its 62nd Plenary Session held in Hangzhou, China, in February 2025, the Panel agreed on the outlines of the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report (AR7).
At the Panel's 63rd Plenary Session in Lima, Peru, in October 2025, member governments agreed on the scientific content of the 2027 Methodology Report on Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies, Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage. There, the Panel also agreed on the 2026 workplan for the three Working Group contributions to the Seventh Assessment Report.
The Panel decided already during the previous cycle to produce a Special Report on Climate Change and Cities and a Methodology Report on Short-lived Climate Forcers during AR7.
At the IPCC's 61st Plenary Session held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from 27 July to 2 August 2024, the Panel agreed upon the outlines for the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities scheduled for approval and publication in March 2027 and for the 2027 IPCC Methodology Report on Inventories for Short-lived Climate Forcers scheduled for publication in the second half 2027.
In addition, a revision of the 1994 IPCC Technical Guidelines on impacts and adaptation as well as adaptation indicators, metrics and guidelines, will be developed in conjunction with the Working Group II report and published as a separate product.
IPCC's latest report, the Sixth Assessment Report, was completed in March 2023 with the release of its Synthesis Report, which provided direct scientific input to the First Global Stocktake process under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at COP28 in Dubai.
For more information visit www.ipcc.ch.

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65th Plenary Session of IPCC suspended

Ron DeSantis Statue Melts in Rising Temperatures He Spent 8 Years Denying; Climate Change Non-Profit 350 Action, Art Collective Uncommon Creative Studio, and M ss ng P eces Staged a Striking Midterm-Season Installation
On Tuesday, a life-size statue of Ron DeSantis began melting shortly after it was unveiled in front of supporters and onlookers in Tallahassee, an intentionally dramatic installation designed to make the consequences of climate change impossible to ignore.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261016737511/en/
A life-size statue of Ron DeSantis began melting shortly after it was unveiled in front of supporters and onlookers in Tallahassee, an intentionally dramatic installation designed to make the consequences of climate change impossible to ignore.
The installation arrives ahead of the midterm elections and shortly after Climate Week NYC. Through the work, 'DENIAL' is urging Americans to deny climate change deniers and sign a pledge to vote for climate conscious candidates. Sculpted entirely from gallium, a metal that melts at 85.6°F (29.8°C), 'DENIAL' exposes the fragile illusion of performative politicians against the unyielding reality of the natural world. That melting point sits below Tallahassee's average summer high, a threshold Florida will cross more often and for longer under 2°C of global heating.
The statue references DeSantis's 2024 signing of HB 1645, which erased the phrase "climate change" from Florida state law – even as the state spent more than $1 billion responding to floods, storms, and heat. DeSantis is scheduled to leave office in January 2027 after serving eight years as governor and reaching his term limit.
"The climate crisis is one of the top issues facing our planet today. And yet, some candidates running for office still deny it's happening, and deny the bold climate action that the people want," said Candice Fortin, 350 Action Campaign Manager.
'That's why it's more important than ever to deny them back at the ballot box. If everyone who cares about people and our planet makes their voices heard on Election Day, we'll be too loud to deny,' continued Fortin.
The statue was produced using 3D scanning and printing to achieve photorealistic detail, then cast in solid gallium, a metal that melts under the very conditions its subject legislated against acknowledging. As the record heat that has defined much of his tenure continues, DENIAL will not.
350 Action supports the bold, people-powered movements fighting to keep our planet livable. Learn more and get involved at 350action.org/denial.
About 350 Action:
350 Action is an organization that empowers voters to make a direct impact in the nation's most important climate races. From local elections that decide energy policies to House races that could take Congress back from climate deniers, we support climate-progressive candidates and initiatives. Learn more at www.350action.org.
Media Contact:
Débora Gastal
350Action Communications
E: denial@350action.org
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261016737511/en/

Ron DeSantis Statue Melts in Rising Temperatures He Spent 8 Years Denying; Climate Change Non-Profit 350 Action, Art Collective Uncommon Creative Studio, and M ss ng P eces Staged a Striking Midterm…

Ron DeSantis Statue Melts in Rising Temperatures He Spent 8 Years Denying; Climate Change Non-Profit 350 Action, Art Collective Uncommon Creative Studio, and M ss ng P eces Staged a Striking Midterm-S

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Amid wars, inflation, emerging risks from artificial intelligence and threats to democracy, Americans have a lot to be worried about these days. But polls show the majority of voters in 2026 are also concerned about climate change as temperatures and disaster risks rise.
So why are fewer candidates talking openly about climate change in their midterm election campaigns than just a few years ago?
At the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, we study climate communication and are following how Democratic candidates are discussing climate change in their campaigns.
Democratic candidates seem to agree on one strategy: campaign centrally on affordability, emphasizing how ordinary people are struggling to afford to fill up their cars, pay their electric bills and insure their homes against hurricanes and wildfires. It's part of a concerted effort to make the election a referendum on Republicans' support for the Trump administration's contributions to inflation, such as tariffs and the Iran war.
Fossil fuel industry interests have long sought to polarize the public over the phrase "climate change." As one of us, Geoffrey Henderson, discusses in his new book, "Getting to Work on Climate Policy: The Strategy of Labor-Environmental Coalitions," campaigns pitting economic concerns against environmental ones have made it harder to build support for policies meant to slow climate change.
When it comes to talking about climate change today, three distinct camps of Democratic candidates and officeholders reveal three different strategies.
The energy populists talk a lot about lowering energy prices for consumers but very little about either climate change or fossil fuels.
Many have been painting data centers, rather than fossil fuel producers, as villains. Candidates often use messages focused on how utilities and data centers are raising voters' electric rates. They propose measures to lower these costs, like requiring data centers to bring their own energy sources onto the grid.
In North Carolina, former governor Roy Cooper, now running for U.S. Senate, emphasizes lowering energy and utility costs. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, campaigning to return to the Senate, argues that his opponent's votes in favor of data centers have led to "higher electric rates."
Discussing energy affordability, without directly calling out the risks to the climate from burning fossil fuels or advocating for more renewable energy, aligns with the argument that climate change messages can alienate swing voters, who prioritize affordability.
If energy populists are elected, they could become silent backers of climate policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - both Brown and Cooper have a record of supporting renewable energy - or obstacles to climate policies.
Not all Democrats, even in battleground states, think climate change should fade into the background this election. However, few are as outspoken today as they were in the past.
In Massachusetts, Sen. Ed Markey's website pledges that he will champion "bold action to invest in clean energy" if reelected in November. In Maine, Senate candidate Troy Jackson asserts that politicians should not pit working-class people against renewable energy, casting the climate-versus-affordability debate as a false choice.
Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse, one of the Senate's most outspoken supporters of pro-climate policies, contends that candidates should link higher costs to climate change, such as increased home insurance costs due to hurricane risk. He also points to President Donald Trump's blockade of the cheapest energy sources - namely, solar and wind power - which he attributes to fossil fuel industry influence.
If elected, these candidates' messages suggest they will pursue policies that help reduce U.S. contributions to climate change. However, they may need to convince independent voters that their focus on climate change will not overshadow their attention to other challenges.
Another group of candidates wants to have it both ways. They call for actions that can respond to climate change and rapidly build out renewable energy, while also promising cheaper gasoline and more fossil fuel jobs. Scientists warn that more fossil fuel use cuts against global climate goals.
Unlike the other camps, this group does not identify villains in their narrative. These candidates are following the script from the Obama administration, whose "all of the above" energy strategy espoused continued fossil fuel use alongside policies to reduce planet-warming emissions.
In Iowa, U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek hosted a roundtable in April 2026 on how climate-fueled extreme weather is raising insurance costs. But he has also focused on lowering the cost of gasoline and diesel. James Talarico, campaigning for the Senate in Texas, has similarly promised to fight climate change by boosting renewable energy while lowering costs by promoting all energy sources.
These candidates may be trying to signal their potential to support climate policies while respecting their states' cultural connections to fossil fuels. Turek and Talarico are both running in states with abundant wind power.
Studies from the U.S. and Germany find that politicians usually underestimate public support for efforts to address climate change.
So how well do candidates' platforms represent today's voters?
Yale's spring 2026 survey found that 49% of voters believe global warming should be a high priority for Congress and the president. But 70% of moderate or conservative Democrats share this view, alongside 84% of liberal Democrats. Even 1 in 3 liberal-to-moderate Republicans considers the climate a high priority.
Yet polling also suggests that other issues, such as the increasing cost of living, are even more important to many voters. This data suggests that pro-climate messages could appeal to swing voters most strongly if climate policies are seen as complementary to affordability.
Still, a recent survey shows that voters open to Democratic candidates are more likely to support a candidate who prioritizes climate change. Climate messaging may especially resonate with young voters. Over a third of those ages 18 to 29 in a recent Harvard Youth Poll considered climate change an urgent national crisis. Young Republicans are more supportive of addressing climate change than their older counterparts.
While many shifts in the way candidates talk about climate policy have little impact on people's willingness to participate in collective efforts to address it, messages emphasizing cost savings durably increase support for renewable energy across party lines. Voters' current concerns about inflation could make climate messages involving affordability especially effective in 2026, though the impact of these messages may vary from state to state.
These different approaches reflect the Democratic Party's efforts to build a "big tent" that can attract voters with a wide range of views and priorities. Yet Democrats are generally coalescing around a message designed to appeal to working-class voters: that Trump and the Republicans are raising your cost of living.
November's midterm elections will offer some insight into whether Democrats' energy affordability message will resonate in the 2028 presidential election.

How candidates are (quietly) talking about climate change - 3 election strategies you'll see across the US

•FG warns of desertification, food insecurity
Stakeholders, including the federal government and regional authorities, are seeking to mobilise N20 billion over the next four years to tackle climate change challenges in the North-West, while targeting to train 10,000 youths in climate resilience, adaptation and other green skills.
Unveiled yesterday at the maiden North-West Climate Summit 2026 at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja, the initiative comes as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, and presidential aides warn that climate change is deepening environmental degradation, threatening food security and undermining livelihoods across the country.
Abbas warned that climate change posed a growing threat to food security, economic stability and rural livelihoods, particularly in a region heavily dependent on agriculture and livestock production.
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Represented by Kama Nkemkama, Abbas said irregular rainfall, prolonged drought, desertification, soil degradation and flooding demand coordinated interventions across state boundaries.
He called for greater investment in irrigation, flood control, watershed protection, groundwater conservation and climate information systems to help farmers anticipate changing weather conditions and minimise losses.
Also, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Climate Finance and Stakeholder Engagement, Ibrahim Shelleng, said Nigeria must begin financing its climate priorities from domestic sources rather than depend excessively on international support, particularly amid fiscal constraints and changing global geopolitics.
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement (North-West), Abdullahi Tanko Yakasai, disclosed plans to establish a regional climate marketplace, a training academy and a dedicated climate fund.
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Yakasai said the initiative was designed to attract domestic and international climate financing, strengthen collaboration among state and local councils, and equip young people with the skills needed to respond to the growing threats posed by climate change.
He described the summit as a pioneering regional platform intended to connect subnational governments with international development partners, financial institutions and other investors interested in supporting climate-related programmes.
According to him, the climate marketplace will be a platform for states and council areas across the region to showcase their climate initiatives and projects, enabling prospective partners to identify investment opportunities and establish collaborations.
The presidential aide said the second component, the Climate Academy, would train 10,000 young people across the region in a move intended to build local capacity and prepare young people to participate in addressing climate-related challenges while contributing to emerging economic opportunities in the green economy.
Moreover, the third component, which is the climate fund, is expected to mobilise resources for interventions in areas such as flooding, drought, renewable energy and other environmental challenges confronting communities across the North-West, he stated.
On the implications of the summit for Nigeria's participation in the forthcoming United Nations climate change conference, Yakasai said the outcomes, including recommendations from interactive sessions, would help the region identify areas of alignment with international climate priorities and explore opportunities for collaboration.

Stakeholders, including the federal government and regional authorities, are seeking to mobilise N20 billion over the next four

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