Climate

Less-Thirsty Rice Offers Hope in Drought-Stricken Chile

A cold, dry part of Chile might not sound like the best place to grow rice, a famously thirsty grain that thrives in tropical conditions. But a new strain of the world's favorite cereal developed by scientists in the drought-plagued South American country has generated hope that rice can be grown in seemingly inhospitable conditions. Using ...

Coral Reefs on the Verge of Collapse as Bleaching Crisis Escalates

An unprecedented coral bleaching episode has spread to 84 percent of the world's reefs in an unfolding human-caused crisis that could kill off swathes of the essential ecosystems, scientists warned Wednesday. Since it began in early 2023, the global coral bleaching event has mushroomed into the biggest and most intense on record, with reefs ...

Himalayan Snow at 23-Year Low, Threatening 2 Billion People

Snowfall in Asia's Hindu Kush-Himalayan mountain range has reached a 23-year low, threatening nearly two billion people dependent on snowmelt for water, scientists warned in a report on Monday. The Hindu Kush-Himalayan range, which stretches from Afghanistan to Myanmar, holds the largest reserves of ice and snow outside the Arctic and ...

Global Temperatures at Near Historic Highs in March: EU Monitor

Global temperatures hovered at historic highs in March, Europe's climate monitor said on Tuesday, prolonging an extraordinary heat streak that has tested scientific expectations. In Europe, it was the hottest March ever recorded by a significant margin, said the Copernicus Climate Change Service, driving rainfall extremes across a continent ...

China's 2024 Coal Projects Threaten Climate Goals

China began construction last year on projects with the greatest combined coal power capacity since 2015, jeopardizing its goal to peak carbon emissions by 2030, according to a report published on Thursday. The world's second-largest economy is the biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change but is also a renewable energy ...

Lebanon Launches National Drought Management Plan to Address Climate Challenges

On Thursday, caretaker Minister of Agriculture Abbas al-Hajj Hassan launched Lebanon’s National Drought Management Plan, in collaboration with the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development. This plan is the first of its kind in Lebanon’s efforts to combat drought, positioning Lebanon among the last Arab countries to implement such a ...

Deadlocked COP29 Awaits Fresh Draft Deal on Final Day

Representatives from nearly 200 nations awaited a fresh proposal Friday for a potential compromise in marathon climate finance talks on the last day of a hard-fought COP29 summit in Azerbaijan. The gruelling two-week conference in the Caspian Sea city Baku is almost certain to go into overtime, with key details for a deal yet to be released, let ...

World Still Split Over Money as Clock Ticks on COP29

A fresh draft of a climate pact unveiled Thursday at COP29 failed to break an impasse over money, with time running out for nations to reach a long-sought trillion-dollar finance agreement. The UN climate summit in Azerbaijan is supposed to conclude on Friday but the latest draft only underlines divisions as nations return to the negotiating ...

‘Steep Climb’ Ahead as Clock Ticks on Stalled Climate Talks

Pressure mounted on rich nations Wednesday to commit nearly $1 trillion a year in assistance for poorer countries as time runs out to strike a deal at the COP29 climate talks. With two days left to break the impasse in Azerbaijan, wealthy nations have still not revealed how much they are willing to provide the developing world to cope with ...

G20 Fails to Progress on Climate

G20 leaders failed on Monday to break a deadlock in UN climate talks at a summit in Rio that was dominated by divergences over the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump's impending return to the White House. Ahead of the meeting, the UN had implored the leaders of the world's richest economies to rescue stalled climate talks in Azerbaijan by boosting ...

Trump taps climate skeptic as energy chief

US President-elect Donald Trump nominated fracking magnate and climate change skeptic Chris Wright as energy secretary on Saturday, tasking him with "cutting red tape" which the new administration hopes will drive investment in fossil fuels. "As Secretary of Energy, Chris will be a key leader, driving innovation, cutting red tape, and ushering in ...