Climate and Environmental Conflicts

In 1895, Noble Prize-winning scientist Svante Arrhenius suggested that increasing C02 emissions from burning fossil fuels could lead to global warming. His discovery derived from an attempt to explain past ice ages, where he theorized a decrease in volcanic activity could lower global C02 levels. His experiments showed that if C02 levels were halved, global temperatures could decrease by 5 degrees Celsius. However, at the time, his discovery was disputed by many scientists who did not believe humans alone had the capability of changing the Earth’s climate.

Between 1920 and 1930, 8 million hectares of rainforests were deforested globally. At the time, the global population was growing at a significant rate, and tropical rainforests such as the Amazon became extraction targets for the rapidly industrializing global economy.

Also known as the 1993 London Convention, this was an agreement between former colonial powers for the conservation of nature. The convention is one of the first general conservation agreements in Africa, and the first agreement specifically tailored to protecting plants. The convention obligated its signatories to establish parks and reserves where human settlement was limited and to give special protection to a list of specified species.

Guy Stewart Callender’s research on global warming first appeared in the quarterly journal of the Royal Meteorological Society in April 1938. He collected data on world temperatures and suggested that global warming was related to C02 emissions. His discovery would become known as the “Callendar Effect.”

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/qj.49706427503

According to the UN Interagency Framework Team for Prevention Action’s 2012 Renewable Resources and Conflict report, 40 percent of civil wars from 1952-2012 were associated with natural resources.

Charles Keeling, a geochemist for the Scripps Institution, aided in creating a way to globally record C02 levels. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, formerly known as Marine Biological Association (formed in September 1903), discovered what is now known as the “Keeling Curve.” The curve showed a steady increase in C02 levels and jagged up-and-down levels of produced gas caused by the changing of the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere.

In the 1960s, the Brazilian government offered subsidies to encourage cattle ranching in the Amazon. Deforestation of the Amazon provided new land for the cattle industry to grow, and the government offed tax exemption programs for large beef producers. Further growth of the cattle industry solicited the more extensive deforestation of the rainforest.

The African Convention on Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources was signed in Algiers in 1968. The convention superseded the 1933 Convention Relative to Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State.

In the 1970s, the Lake Chad area suffered from a series of severe droughts that significantly reduced the size of the lake. The shrinking of the lake was so considerable that it could be noticed from space. Due to the droughts and loss of arable land and water resources in the area, conflict began to erupt over control of the lake between farmers and pastoralists who competed for greener land.

The Central Sahel Countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger suffered from a series of droughts during the 1970s and 1980s that classified them as ecologically fragile and highly impoverished. These droughts lowered water and other ecological resources that would leave these countries vulnerable to years of violence as migration and resource conflicts increased.

The UN Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment was an international conference held by the United Nations in 1972. It was the United Nation’s first major conference on global environmental issues and is regarded as the beginning of International Environmental Politics.

The UN Environment Program was created to coordinate the UN’s environmental agenda and assist developing countries with implementing environmental policies.

During the 1970s, Brazil began construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway to connect the Amazon to Brazil’s growing cattle economy. The highway resulted in massive deforestation of the Amazon and acted as an incentive for the cattle industry growth.

EU Environmental Policy was formally adopted through the European Council’s declaration in Paris, 1972. The EU adopted its first Environment Action Program (EAP), and the first environmental ministries were established. The basic idea of the EU’s Environmental Policy was that prevention was better than ignorance, and the ‘polluter pays’ principle.

China Established its Environmental Protection Leadership Group in 1974, following the 1972 UN conference on the Human Environment. At first, the group had limited capabilities until the Chinese government announced environmental protection as a state policy in 1983. The group’s jurisdiction grew even more significant in 1998, following a year of disastrous flooding that led the Chinese government to upgrade the group to a ministry-level agency. After 1998, the Environmental Protection Leadership Group became known as the State Environmental Protection Administration.

The Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution of 1979 created protocols to regulate the emission of noxious gases. It was the first multilateral agreement addressing the issue and created a regional framework for Europe, North America, Russia, and the former Eastern Bloc countries for reducing transboundary air pollution.

The African Charter of 1981, also known as the Banjul Charter, was an international human rights charter created to promote and protect human rights in Africa. The Charter included articles specifically related to environmental rights. Article 24 accentuates the rights to a satisfactory general environment, and Article 21 refers to free disposal of wealth and natural resources.

Between 1982-1985, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased from 5% to 12%. The increase is primarily due to the construction of the Trans-Amazonian Highway and population and cattle industry growth in the region.

The Chinese government announced in 1983 that environmental protection would be promoted to a state policy. The adoption of environmental protection as a state policy allowed for greater promotion of environmental policies as well as increased authority for the Environmental Protection Leadership Group.

The Single European Act of 1986 provided an Environment Title, which allowed for the first legal basis for a standard environment policy with a goal of environmental preservation, the protection of human health, and the rational use of natural resources in the European Union. It was signed in Luxembourg on February 17th and The Hague on February 28th.

The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer. The treaty phases out the production of substances that deplete the ozone. The Treaty became effective in 1989, with 46 signatories.

1988 was recorded as the hottest summer on record (however, this record has been broken in the years since). The year saw widespread droughts and wildfires in America that raised the salience of global warming to the national level.

NASA scientist James Hansen presents models and testimony to Congress in 1988, where he famously said he was “99 percent sure” that global warming was already in process.

The IPCC was established in 1989 under the United Nations to provide a scientific view on climate change and its future political and economic effects. Since its creation, the IPCC has been enormously instrumental in releasing climate change data and prediction modules.

During the 1990s, Saddam Hussein drained Iraq’s marshlands to punish the rebellious tribesmen who lived there. The draining of the marshes caused a mass migration of the marsh tribespeople into urban areas. It was not until 2008 that 75% of the marshlands were restored. However, the marshlands have begun to deplete again with National Geographic reporting that, “the wetlands are now at 58 percent of their average pre-drained level and look to set to shrink below 50 percent.”

According to the UN Interagency Framework Team for Prevention Action’s 2012 Renewable Resources and Conflict report, at least 18 international conflicts were “fueled or financed by natural resources” between 1990-2012.

By 1990, 11 countries in arid or semiarid regions of Africa and the Middle East were recorded as having less than 1000 cubic meters of water available per person. The lack of widespread water availability continues to deteriorate in these regions and has led to resource-based conflicts and intra-state socio-political tensions.

The EEA was established in 1990 to support the development, implementation, and evaluation of environmental policy and to act as a conduit to inform the general public on the matter. The agency is responsible for providing independent information and analysis on the state of the environment and helping policymakers make informed decisions on the development of environmental legislation and policies.

In August of 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait in a bid to gain Kuwait’s lucrative oil resources. In response, America and the UN Security Council demanded Saddam Hussein remove his troop from the region. However, Hussein refused, and an American-led coalition of 34 countries began a strategic bombing campaign of Iraq. The invasion is a prime example of resource competition.

Also known as the Espoo Convention, the Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context is a UN Economic Commission for Europe convention that was signed in Finland in 1991. The treaty obligates states that have agreed to the convention to carry out environmental impact assessments and create the general responsibility of states to notify and consult one another on all major projects that are likely to have adverse environmental effects across boundaries.

8 Arctic countries signed the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy in 1991. AEPS is a multilateral, non-binding agreement on environmental protection in the Arctic circle.

Also known as the Earth Summit, The United Nations Rio Conference on Environment and Development adopted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 154 signatories agreed to stabilize “greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous interference with the climate system.” The United States was the first industrialized country to ratify the UNFCCC. The treaty is non-binding and sets no mandatory limits to GHG emissions. However, the treaty does provide for future negotiations to set emission limits.

The 1993 Treaty of Maastricht made the environment an official EU policy area. The promotion of the environment to an official state policy allowed the EU to expand its environmental protection programs onto the international level.

The Pressure-State-Response Framework was created in 1994 for reporting national environmental performance reviews. The PSR framework works to show the connection between human pressure on land resources and the response to these changes as society attempts to rehabilitate the land.

The First Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC was held in Berlin in 1995. At the conference, the parties agreed that the mechanisms under the UNFCCC were not adequate and agreed to the Berlin Mandate. The Berlin Mandate initiated a period of negotiations to binding targets.

COP 2 was held in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1996. Attendees of the conference endorsed the results of the IPCC’s second assessment report, which led to calls for acceleration of negotiations of a legally binding protocol but was never adopted.

The 1996 Ottawa Declaration saw the formation of the Arctic Council. The Council includes the Arctic states of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and America. The Arctic Council was designed to increase cooperation, coordination, and diplomacy among the Arctic States with the involvement of indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants. The Arctic Council has performed studies on climate change’s effects in the Arctic.

In the late 1990s, Uganda became involved in the political turmoil and conflicts of its neighbor, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) controlled the resource-rich Northeast area of the DRC and was accused of illegally extracting natural resources from the country. Uganda’s illicit behavior is an example of resource competition and exploitation.

The American Senate passed the 1997 Byrd-Hagel Resolution at a vote of 95 to 0. The Resolution was designed to undermine the Berlin Mandate from COP 1 that called for legally binding protocols under the UNFCCC.

The Kyoto Protocol was the first global agreement on the reduction of greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and called for the decreased emission of six greenhouse gases to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels during a target period of 2008-2012. The protocol included legally binding emission targets and offered three means of meeting these targets: emissions trading, the clean development mechanism (CDM), and joint implementation (JI).

1998 saw widespread flooding in China that lead the Chinese government to promote the Environmental Protection Leadership Group to a ministry-level agency. Following the promotion to the ministry level, the group became known as the State Environmental Protection Administration.

The Aarhus Convention established several public rights to the environment. The parties present at the convention are responsible for creating and implementing the provisions necessary to apply these rights. Such rights include the right to receive environmental information, the right to participate in environmental decision-making, and the right to review procedures to challenge public decisions that were made without respecting the public’s rights or environmental law in general.

COP 4 was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1998. The parties agreed to adopt the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, which allowed a 2 year period to develop mechanisms for implementing the Kyoto protocols. The conference also agreed to review the financial mechanisms of the convention every 4 years.

The 1999 Treaty of Amsterdam integrated the European Union’s environmental protection into all EU sectoral policies intending to promote sustainable development.

President George W. Bush decided not to send the Kyoto Protocol to Congress for ratification, resulting in the effective withdrawal of America from the agreement. The Bush administration explained the treaty’s rejection as being related to the economic burden of emission reductions. Shortly after America left the treaty, Canada followed as well.

The Third Report of the IPCC was released in 1997. The report said that global warming comparable to the end of the prior ice age is “very likely,” with a high risk of adverse effects.

Click to access SYR_TAR_full_report.pdf

The Sixth Conference of the Parties was divided into two parts after negotiations faltered in the first. The second part of the conference took place in 2001 in Bonn, Germany. The conference produced the “Bonn Agreements,” with all nations except the United States agreeing on the mechanisms for implementing the Kyoto Protocols.

The Seventh Conference of the Parties was held in Marrakesh, Morocco. The conference produced detailed rules for implementing the Kyoto Protocol, which became known as the Marrakesh Accords. The conference also saw the establishment of the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF).

The Eighth Conference of the Parties was held in Delhi, India. The conference adopted the Delhi Ministerial Declaration that called for developed countries to transfer technology to developing countries to minimize the adverse effects of climate change. Notably, Russia hesitated in the acceptance of the Delhi Ministerial Declaration.

Fighting began in Darfur in February 2003 when a new rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army, began to launch attacks. The conflict followed decades of droughts in the Sahel region in the 1970s and 1980s that saw the advancement of the Sahara Desert Southward by nearly a mile every year and a decrease in annual median rainfall of 15-30 percent. Sudan and Darfur are home to incredibly diverse ecological systems, ranging from deserts in the North to semi-tropical zones in the south. In 2004, then US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that a genocide was occurring in Sudan in his testimony to the US Senate. Many political scientists and ecologists have linked the rise in tensions in the regions to the forced migration of multiple ethnic groups due to climate change that increased the competition for natural resources.

The Ninth Conference of the Parties was held in Milan, Italy. The conference resulted in new emissions reporting guidelines based on IPCC recommendations. Additionally, the Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) and the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) were further developed.

The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 officially took effect on February 16th. 141 nations had ratified the Kyoto Protocols in agreement to legally binding emission quotas. However, significant emissions producers such as America and Russia had withdrawn from the protocol before its activation.

Syria undergoes extreme drying and drought from 2006 to 2011, leading to the eventual Syrian Civil War of 2011. The droughts were the worst on record for the country and destroyed agriculture and mass migration into urban areas. The migration and decrease in the water supply and agriculture resulted in additional social stress, further agitated by refugees pouring into Syria to escape the war in Iraq. Many political scientists regard the droughts as an instigating factor to the eventual onset of the civil war.

New ExxonMobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, changed the company’s stance on climate change from the previous denial to announced acceptance of climate change’s legitimacy. In his 2006 interview with the New York Times, Rex Tillerson said, “We recognize that climate change is a serious issue. We recognize that greenhouse gas emissions are one of the factors affecting climate change.”

In June of 2006, protests began in the Peruvian city of Arequipa against the city’s copper mine’s acquisition of additional water rights and previous tax exemption. The copper mine is the third-largest in Peru, and after the protests entered into negotiations to become co-provider of the city’s water services to resolve tensions.

Then Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Wen Jiabao, made 48 references to the environment and pollution in his 2007 annual address to the Chinese people. Jiabao emphasized China’s role in environmental protection, and shortly following his speech, stricter environmental regulations were implemented. However, many internal environmental goals were still left unreached.

In April of 2007, the UN Security Council (UNSC) held its first-ever debate on the impact climate change would have on security and peace. The meeting was called by the UK and examined the relationship between energy, security, and climate. British Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, warned of migration on an enormous scale due to flooding, disease, and famine from droughts that could agitate competition over food, water, and energy. The meeting was instrumental for the UN as it identified climate change as a threat multiplier.

CNA Corporation stated in their 2007 National Security and the Threat of Climate Change report that, “Climate change can act as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world, and it presents significant national security challenges for the United States.” The term ‘threat multiplier’ became increasingly popular in the study of climate change conflicts as an explanation of how climate change can result in public unrest.

In 2007, then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon declared Darfur as the world’s first climate change conflict. In a statement made by Ki-Moon, he said, “amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change.” Ki-Moon pointed to the years of severe drought and expansion of the Sahara desert, both of which he connected to climate change, as agitating factors in the violence.

The IPCC released a major report in November of 2007 that confirmed that climate change is occurring and mostly as a result of human activity. The report was produced by a collaborative effort of 500 authors and 2,000 expert reviewers and is widely regarded as the most definitive report to date on global warming.

Al Gore, a former American presidential nominee, won a noble prize for his work on climate change following his film “The Inconvenient Truth” and years of climate change advocacy. In his acceptance speech, Gore said, “now comes the threat of climate crisis – a threat that is real, rising, imminent, and universal. Once again, it is the 11th hour. The penalties for ignoring this challenge are immense and growing, and at some near point would be unsustainable and unrecoverable.”

At the 13^th ASEAN summit, the organization announced its commitment environmental sustainability. ASEAN released a statement from the summit saying, “We intend to work closely with the international community to better understand and adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change, including, in particular, the related issues of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sinks”. The announcement was the first of its kind to directly accept climate change and environmental sustainability as a policy issue for the organization.

The Thirteenth Conference of the Parties was held in Bali in 2007. The parties agreed to the Bali Action Plan, which negotiated GHG mitigation actions after the Kyoto Protocol expired in 2012. However, the plan did not include binding targets for developing countries.

Both major 2008 democratic presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, supported a mandatory cap on carbon emissions. Additionally, the democratic platform called climate change, “an epochal, man-made threat to the planet.”

John McCain, the 2008 Republican candidate who ran against Barack Obama, announced support for Climate Change legitimacy and for cap-and-trade legislation that would require those responsible for major carbon emissions to reduce emissions or buy credits to offset future emissions. “Instead of idly debating the precise extent of global warming or the precise timeline of global warming, we need to deal with the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring,” said McCain in a campaign speech.

American House speakers Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi filmed a television ad to promote public education and awareness of climate change in 2008. The ad was the first public announcement of bipartisan agreement on the issue and raised the salience of climate change as a national security issue in America.

In 2019, Human Rights watch reported that “more than 300 people have been killed during the last decade in the context of conflicts over the use of land and resources in the Amazon — many of them by people involved in illegal logging.” HRW’s report is based off of data from the Pastoral Land Commission, which is a non-profit group affiliated with Catholic Church. Of the over 300 deaths, only 14 went to trial.

In Barack Obama’s 2009 State of the Union address he spoke on the “ravages of climate change” and called for a “market-based cap” on carbon pollution. The cap would limit the level of carbon emissions produced, with companies that exceeded the cap able to buy additional credit from companies that produced less than their given amount. The cap and trade emission policy gave financial incentives to companies to reduce their emissions.

On June 5^th, in the Bagua province of Peru, 32 people were killed in demonstrations held by indigenous people against oil and gas extraction in the Amazon. The violence began after police were given instructions to remove demonstrators. The protest was long-running and held by indigenous people of the region that wished to protect their ancestral land from degradation.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 passed through the House, but was dropped by Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid, before it could enter the Senate and pass into legislation. The Bill was intended to reduce pollution and move America towards a clean-energy based economy. Harry Reid said he dropped the bill in the Senate because, “We know that we don’t have the votes.” The failure of the bill to pass into legislation marked a major setback for the Obama Administration in its fight against climate change.

Akio Kitoh of Japan’s Meteorological Research Institute predicted that climate change induced droughts will result in the Euphrates water flow falling up to 73 percent within this century. “The ancient Fertile Crescent will disappear in this century,” said Akio, “the process has already begun.” Loss of the Euphrates will result in mass migration of the peoples of the Fertile Crescent that could result in resource competition and ethnic tensions.

Within the 2009 Treaty of Lisbon “combatting climate change” on the international level became a clear goal. The European Committee said in a statement that, “the Lisbon Treaty stresses the importance of combating climate change on an international level. Environment policy is based on the principles of precaution, prevention and rectification at source and on the principle that “the polluter should pay”. Lastly, the Treaty states that the Union’s environment policy must take account of the diversity of situations in the various regions of the European Union.” The treaty became effective on December 13^th, 2007.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) found historical linkages between civil war and temperature in Africa. Their 2009 study found that, “this historical response to temperature suggests a roughly 54% increase in armed conflict incidence by 2030, or an additional 393,000 battle deaths if future wars are as deadly as recent wars.”

The Fifteenth Conference of the Parties was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference failed to reach an agreement on binding targets after the Kyoto Protocol expired in 2012. However, towards the final hours of the conference, leaders from Brazil, America, China, Indonesia, India, and South Africa agreed to the Copenhagen Accord. The Copenhagen Accord recognized the necessity to limit the rise of global temperatures beyond 2 degrees Celsius. There are no legally binding targets of commitments associated with the Copenhagen Accord. Instead, countries openly pledged to GHG reduction, and $100 billion was pledged to climate change aid in developing countries.

In 2010, NASA reported that 2000-2009 was the warmest decade on record. NASA’s data showed that, “throughout the last three decades, the GISS surface temperature record shows an upward trend of about 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade.”

The National Academy of Sciences released its most comprehensive report in May of 2010. Within the report it claimed that, “Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for — and in many cases is already affecting — a broad range of human and natural systems.”

In August of 2010, Russia instated an export ban on grain after severe droughts resulted in lower crop yields and higher grain prices. The ban lasted until June of 2011 and hit the countries of Egypt and Pakistan especially hard. Egypt relied on Russia for around 50% of its wheat imports prior to the ban and Pakistan was Russia’s fourth biggest consumer. Both countries saw a large spike in grain prices, with Pakistan reporting a 16% increase in the price of wheat.

In 2010, Boko Haram, an armed jihadist group based in Northern Africa, re-emerged in Nigeria. Climate change greatly aided the group in their securing of power by causing instability in Nigeria and the Lake Chad area through the reduction of the lake’s water capacity and surrounding arable land. In 2015, then American president Barack Obama commented on the role that climate change played in Boko Haram’s re-emergence, saying, “severe drought helped to create the instability in Nigeria that was exploited by the terrorist group Boko Haram.”

The Sixteenth Conference of the Parties was held in Cancun, Mexico. At the conference, the parties officially adopted the tenets of the Copenhagen Accord, which included limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, protecting vulnerable forests, and establishing a Green Climate Fund for developing countries.

2010 saw climate change events throughout the world that impacted global food prices. Severe droughts in Russia, Ukraine, China and Argentina resulted in decreased crop production, while storms in Canada, Australia and Brazil ravaged their agricultural sector. The result of such events was the rise in global food prices.

The Arab Spring started in Tunisia on December 18^th, 2010. Violence and protests followed the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in protest of police corruption and brutality. Although, the protests were not directly connected to climate change, many scientists agree that climate change induced droughts, migration, and high food prices were agitating factors in the buildup of the Arab Spring. The Center for Climate and Security and the Stimson Center noted that, “The Arab Spring would likely have come one way or another, but the context in which it did is not inconsequential. Global warming may not have caused the Arab Spring, but it may have made it come earlier.”

In January of 2011 revolution broke out in Egypt against increasing police brutality in the state. Although the revolution was about police brutality many scientists have linked the rise of food prices in Egypt due to climate change as a catalyst for the public unrest that eventually led to revolution.

The First Libyan Civil War of 2011 broke out with the Libyan Revolution. The war was between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and foreign groups seeking to oust his authoritarian government. Although the war was not related to the climate in outward appearance, many scientists agree that climate change through the form of low rainfall amounts further undermined the country’s effort for peace. The decrease in water-availability increased instability within the country that agitated political tensions.

In March of 2011, civil war broke out in Syria. Climate change caused decades of drought that preceded the war. The droughts resulted in mass migration of rural citizens to Urban areas, causing rising political tensions. Between 2002-2010 Syria’s Urban population increased by 50 percent. The civil war itself was in protest of Bashar Al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on the people of Syria, however climate change was a highly agitating factor that contributed to the rapid buildup of violence.

Since 2011, Ethiopia has been building a large dam in an effort to become a regional leader in electricity exportation. However, it is expected that the dam will decrease water flow to Egypt by 25 percent. Considering that rainfall has decreased in the area annually and global temperatures continue to rise it is essential for Egypt to secure reliable water resources for their country. The Egyptian government has said that the dam with affect the water supply of nearly 100 million citizens. Egyptian officials have considered military action as recent as 2013.

In 2011, the European Union officially committed itself to a goal of stopping the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services by the year 2020. The EU made this commitment through its Biodiversity Strategy which strives to decelerate species extinction rates and ensure protection of ecological systems.

Somalia suffered from regional droughts in 2011 that have been linked to climate change. During the time of the droughts, jihadist fundamentalist group Al-Shabaab changed their tactics to include cutting off water supplies to cities to increase their power.

In July of 2011, The UN Security Council (UNSC) released a presidential statement by Peter Wittig that noted the possible security implications of climate change were crucial to take into context when climate issues drove conflict and challenged implementation of the council’s mandates or endangered peace processes. The presidential statement was the first of its kind to directly speak on climate change acting as a threat multiplier in conflicts.

The Seventeenth Conference of the Parties was held in Durban, South Africa. At the conference, the parties agreed to the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, which established a new international emissions reduction protocol. The Durban platform will come into force in 2020. Additionally, The EU agreed to extend their Kyoto Protocol target to 2017.

In May of 2012, a land dispute led to the death of at least 16 Fulani pastoralists by Dogon farmer in Sari. The massacre remains unpunished and was instrumental in encouraging pastoralists in the region to acquire arms to protect themselves, with some even joining jihadist groups in response.

In April of 2012, a new power plant project was set to begin in the Southern town of Yinggehai, China. Following the announcement of the new plant, protests broke out in the town that resulted in the successful halting of the project. When another town was selected for the new location of the plant, residents in of that town followed in protest as well. Overall, during 2012 there were 50,000 protests in the country for environmental protection.

On November 6, 2012, future American President Donald Trump tweeted to his millions of followers his opinion on climate change. The tweet said, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” With the tweet Donald Trump clearly demonstrated his stance on climate change’s non-existence, a theme that would return in his 2016 presidential race where he ran on a platform of pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement and returning the use of coal to the energy sector.

The Eighteenth Conference of the Parties was held in Doha, Qatar. At the conference parties agreed to extend the expiring Kyoto Protocol by creating a second commitment phase that would begin on January 1^st, 2013 and expire December 31^st, 2020. However, parties failed to secure $100 billion in aid for developing countries, as agreed upon at COP 15 in Copenhagen. Instead, the concept of “loss and damage”, where developed countries pledge aid to developing countries for damages caused by climate change, was created.

In 2013, The African Union added 12 region-specific environmental and climate information services. Such services include: Monitoring of droughts, floods, vegetation, bush fires, agriculture, and water levels.

The Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative (GGWSSI) met in April of 2013. The Initiative promotes investment in sustainable land use practices and fights against environmental degradation and climate change. The Summit discussed implementation of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) within the GGWSSI framework.

In October 2013, the Arctic Circle conducted its inaugural Assembly. The meeting included institutional and government representatives, as well as scientists, political and policy leaders, experts, activists, and indigenous people. The Arctic Circle Assembly is designed to increase the international focus on the Arctic.

In 2014, China announced a $277 billion plan to reduce air pollution in the country. The Chinese government had a goal of reducing air emissions by 25 percent by 2017, relative to its 2012 levels.

During the opening of the National People’s Congress in March 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping declared war on pollution. Following his speech, a new environmental law was approved in April. The new law allowed environmental agencies to gain greater punitive power and gave independent environmental groups more ability to operate within China.

The African Union released their strategy for climate change in May 2014. The plan is built around four pillars: climate change governance, promotion of research, education, and advocacy, mainstreaming climate change imperatives in planning, budgeting, and development, and promotion of national, regional, and international cooperation. The strategy will provide member states with a single strategic plan for mitigation of climate change.

Click to access cap_draft_auclimatestrategy_2015.pdf

The Second Libyan Civil War in less than a decade broke out on May 16^th, 2014. The War continues today and began between rival factions seeking control of Libya after the power vacuum created by the first civil war in 2011. The first civil war was partially credited to lower rainfall levels that exacerbated tensions within the state.

Iraq faced severe climate change events in 2014. Such events included droughts, flooding, and winds. The extreme weather events caused economic instability for many throughout the country, which ISIS capitalized on for its 2014 invasion of the country. ISIS targeted recruits who had been economically effected by climate change as a method to sew discord in the country.

At the 2014 UN Climate summit, then UK Prime Minister David Cameron called climate change “one of the most serious threats facing our world,” and labelled it as a threat to national and global security.

In March of 2015, Yemen erupted into its second brutal civil war. The Civil war is between two main factions: The Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi-led Yemeni government and the Houthi armed movement. The civil war was labeled by the New York Times as “the World’s worst humanitarian crisis.” A year before the civil war, in 2014, the World Bank announced that the water table of Yemen was already sinking annually in the countryside. The war in Yemen accelerated the decrease in water supplies across the country and with global temperatures and droughts still on the rise, water scarcity is likely to be a problem that will plague the country for years to come.

In April of 2015, Eusébio Ka’apor, the leader of the indigenous Ka’apor people was assassinated. Ka’apor organized forest patrols to prevent illegal logging in the Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory. Following his death, several other council leaders of the Ka’apor people were sent death threats from loggers.

The 2015 Pentagon Report, “National Security Implications of Climate Change-Related Risks and a Changing Climate,” acknowledged that climate change will have wide-ranging implications for American national security over the foreseeable future. Additionally, the report also identified climate change denial as a threat to national security.

In 2015, environmental defender Riamundo Santos was killed after reporting illegal logging activities in the Gurupi Biological Reserve. A landowner confessed to police that he had hired a retired police officer to aid in the assassination.

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global goal to end extreme poverty, cease inequality, and protect the planet by 2030. 193 countries adopted the SDGs in 2015, making it the most inclusive negotiations in UN history.

Prior to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, NATO stated that climate change was a significant threat to security and its “bite has already been felt.” French Parliamentarian Philippe Vitel and the NATO parliamentary Assembly’s Special Rapporteur of the Science and Technology Committee said, “climate change is increasing the risk of violent conflict by exacerbating known sources of conflict, like poverty and economic shocks. The time to act is now.”

The Paris Agreement is a landmark environmental agreement that was adopted by nearly every country in the World in 2015. The agreement was specifically tailored towards climate change. 195 countries signed onto the agreement and pledged to set targets for their own greenhouse gas reduction. The Paris agreement is designed to prevent a global temperature rise past 2 degrees Celsius.

In 2016, violence in the Sahel of Africa increased five-fold. The violence is exacerbated by continued droughts and mass migrations caused by climate change. The UNOWAS chief commented that, “The impact of climate change on security also spawns a negative relationship between climate change, social cohesion, irregular migration and criminality in some places.”

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that the Earth’s surface temperature in 2016 was the warmest on record since temperature record keeping began in 1880.

On February 20^th, 2017, famine was declared in the South Sudan. The famine is a result of severe droughts coupled with violence from the South Sudan Civil War. The famine resulted in the mismanagement of natural resources that was exacerbated by lower rainfall amounts. The famine has left 40 percent of the country food insecure.

On June 1^st, 2017, American President Donald Trump announced his intentions of withdrawing America, a leading emissions producer, from the 2015 Paris Agreement. In 2012 Trump tweeted of his disbelief in the legitimacy of climate change, which continues to be a theme of his presidency.

In November of 2017, indigenous leader Naraymi Suruí and his wife were attacked by two gunmen after confronting illegal logger in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Territory. The gunmen who shot at him and his wife were recognized as two illegal loggers.

President Trump removed climate change from America’s National Security Strategy in December of 2019. At the time he stated that the real danger to America was regulations, not climate change.

The Escazú Agreement, also known as Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, was signed by twelve Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2018. The agreements goals is to “deepen the link between environmental protection and human rights in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

In May of 2018, the Australian Senate Foreign Affairs and Defense and Trade References Committee reviewed the implications of climate change in relation to Australia’s national security. Their review was included in a senate inquiry report that identified climate change as a “current and existential national security risk” to Australia.

In June of 2018, The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Frederica Mogherini, hosted the high level event Climate, Peace and Security: The Time for Action. The event brought together leading international figures, think tanks, and civil society to discuss and highlight the ongoing threats climate change poses to security and peace. At the event Mogherini said, “sustainable peace requires good jobs, decent access to natural resources, and sustainable development. Sustainable peace needs climate action…So let us keep this in mind: when we invest in the fight against climate change, we invest in our own security.”

In August of 2018, Swedish teenager, Great Thunberg, began to protest outside of the Swedish parliament with the sign “School Strike for Climate.” By November of the same year, over 17,000 students in 24 countries were participating in climate strikes.

In October of 2018, The ICCP released a special report on the impact of global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The report concluded that “rapid, far reaching” actions were needed to cap global warming before irreversible consequences were to the environment.

In 2019, a series of massacres erupted in central Mali due to land and water resource competition. The violence caused 50,000 people to flee their homes and increased socio-political tension in the state.

According to the New York Times, at least seven indigenous leaders were killed in the Amazon in 2019 over conflicts related to land resources. Deforestation continues to increase in the Amazon, leading to conflicts between indigenous people and the Brazilian government who is responsible for a vast amount of the rainforest’s destruction.

2019 saw widespread wildfires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, totaling to over 60,500 fires. The fires are more than double than that of the year before and signal severe degradation of the forest. Usually the Amazon’s tropical conditions made it nearly fireproof, but now scientists believe rising global temperatures are drying the rain forest.

The Pentagon’s 2019 “Report on Effects of a Changing Climate to the Department of Defense,” stated that climate change is a national security threat to America. The document cited climate-related events of recurrent flooding, drought, desertification, wildfires, and thawing permafrost as issues of national security. The report defied the beliefs of President Trump, who removed climate change from the National Security Strategy in 2017.

In February of 2019, seventeen Sahel countries met in the Niger’s capital of Niamey. The goal of the meeting was to adopt an investment plan for $400 billion over the period of 2019-2030 to combat the adverse effects of climate change.

UN Secretary General Guterres spoke at the 32^nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU. Guterres notably said in his speech, “Climate change is an existential threat – particularly here in Africa, which has the least responsibility for the crisis but will shoulder some of the heaviest burden.”

In February of 2019, the Israeli Civil Administration and Border Police dug up water supply pipes to 17 Palestinian communities. The shutdown of water supply for the communities was a purposeful act by Israel to force the movement of Palestinian out of the area to make room for more Israeli settlements.

Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who inspired thousands of students to strike for climate change reform in 2018, was nominated for a Noble Peace Prize for her climate change advocacy work in 2019.

Tropical Cyclone Idai hit the Southeast coast of Mozambique in March 2019. The storm was an example of a climate change induced severe weather event, with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reporting that 1.85 million people were in need of assistance and 146,000 people were displaced due to the storm.

In March of 2019, the Chereponi region of Northeast Ghana erupted in ethnic armed violence over access to land and water resources in the area. The region is rich in arable land and water, with 60% of the land remaining uncultivated at the time. The resources of the region resulted in resource competition among ethnic lines and resulted in the fleeing of thousands in the area.

In March of 2019, environmental defender Dilma Ferreira Silva and five others were assassinated by the order of a Brazilian landowner. The landowner was involved in illegal logger and was reportedly scared Silva and her followers would report his illicit logging activity.

Beginning in June of 2019, widespread wildfires begin to ravage Australia. Thousands of acres of land were destroyed and it is reported that over a billion animals were killed in the fire. The wildfires have been linked to climate change and the rise of global temperatures.

The 864^th meeting of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) was dedicated to the issue of climate change and natural disasters. The council expressed solidarity for AU member states that are adversely affected by climate change and emphasized that climate change can exacerbate community tensions. The council implored member states to create policies and reinforce measures to address climate change and prevent environmentally based conflicts.

In December of 2019, the European Union announced its new green deal. The deal is a roadmap for the EU’s economy to become more sustainable. The deal aims to make the EU the world’s first climate neutral continent by 2050.

The report released by the American Lung Association in April of 2020 found that 150 million American live in counties with unhealthy levels of pollution. 150 million Americans is equal to 45.8% of the population, essentially half of the country. Senior Vice President of Advocacy for the American Lung Association, Paul Billings, commented that, “What we’re seeing is an actual increase in the number of people breathing unhealthy air in this year’s report compared to last year’s report. And that is a result, we believe, of climate change. And also lack of enforcement and compliance by the U.S. EPA of the Clean Air Act.”

A report by the U.N. Environment Programme detailed the effects of rising temperatures and decreasing monthly precipitation in the regions of the West Bank and Gaza. These factors are predicted to exacerbate existing threats to available water in those regions, which include population growth, poor water management, and pollution. The aquifer that Gaza relies on is continuing to become contaminated with pollution and sea water.

The temperature in the town of Verkhoyansk hit 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit). The town is known for having the World’s widest temperature range and with this new report has broken its hottest record. Within 2020, Siberia has seen higher temperatures than normal, resulting in widespread wildfires in the region.

In June 2020, at least 15 people were killed in an Oaxanca village. The attack is linked to a dispute over a wind-power project that has faced local opposition because the project would encroach on local fishing, farming, and sacred spaces. Activists against the wind power project claim that the they were ambushed by security forces at a coronavirus checkpoint.

A Japanese-owned ship carrying at least 4,000 tons of fuel oil ran aground on a coral reef off of the southeast coast of Mauritius, spilling tons of oil out into the coastal waters. Oil spilled into surrounding environmentally protected ecosystems, including the Blue Bay Marine Park Reserve, which is a wetland of international importance. On 7 August 2020 the Mauritian government declared the spill a national emergency.

Over a fourteen hour period, a derecho formed over the state of South Dakota and moved east to Ohio in the United States with extremely powerful winds and thunderstorms. It left almost 2 million people without power. The state of Iowa was the most devastated by this climate event, with about 40% of the state’s crops destroyed.

In August 2020, the combination of a heat wave and a strike of lightning set ablaze wildfires in the state of California in the United States. Hundreds of homes were claimed by the flames and more than 100,000 people were forced to evacuate the area. One of the wildfires ranks as the second largest fire in California’s state history.

Tropical Storm Marco and Hurricane Laura hit the Gulf of Mexico concurrently in late August 2020. While Marco made landfall around the mouth of the Mississippi River and then subsequently became weaker, Laura gained strength from the warm waters of the Gulf and became a category 4 hurricane with winds of up to 150 miles per hour and deadly storm surges along the Gulf coastline.

A study conducted by the University of Leeds found that over the next century the geographical location of many high transmission areas for malaria in Africa will shift substantially due to ongoing climate and environmental change. The study suggested that as some regions become dryer and more arid, such as South Sudan, the malaria suitability of the area will decrease. However, the study pointed to river corridors like the Niger and Senegal rivers in Mali and Senegal as potential areas where malaria suitability can increase in the future as a result of climate shift.

The water levels of Lake Baringo and Lake Bogoria have been rising in Kenya, shrinking the distance between the two lakes from 20 km to just 13 km. A major cause of this was deforestation, which allowed for huge amounts of flash flooding that filled the bottom of the lakes with sediments. This caused more than 5,000 people to be displaced in 2020.

Wildfires raged in at least a dozen provinces in Argentina in early September 2020, with at least 22,000 fires happening across the province. The fires also affected one of the country’s most biodiverse regions.

Sudan’s Security and Defense Council declared a national state of emergency for three months due to floods that killed 99 people, injured 46 people, and designated Sudan as a natural disaster zone. The floods inflicted damage on more than half a million people and caused the partial or total destruction of at least 100,000 homes.

In March 2020, the Kichwa indigenous community in Ecuador closed off one of their villages in order to protect themselves from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, two weeks into their quarantine, two damaged oil pipelines caused crude oil to leak into the river the Kichwa community lives off of, contaminating the water. The lawsuit the community brought against oil companies OCP and Petroecuador was dismissed in September of 2020, denying the Kichwa the urgent environmental and community reparations they demanded from the government and the oil companies responsible.

The states of California, Oregon and Washington in the United States experienced devastating wildfires at the beginning of September that took at least 35 lives and released smoke into the air, giving the region the worst air quality in the world for that period of time. California governor Gavin Newsom attributed the severity of the region’s fire season to climate change.

A chunk of ice sized 44 square miles was found to have broken off of the Arctic’s largest remaining ice shelf in northeast Greenland. The ice shelf is the second biggest in the world behind Antarctica’s, and its melting has contributed to more than a millimeter rise in sea levels annually.

The noble pen shell, the largest Mediterranean clam, has appeared to be close to extinction due to the spread of a deadly pathogen, according to Croatian marine biologists. The pathogen affecting the clams is believed to have been on the increase due to rising sea temperatures related to climate change. The noble pen shell plays an important ecological role by filtering sea water for other organisms to flourish.

The deaths of over 300 elephants in Botswana was revealed to have been tied to toxins in water produced by cyanobacteria. Toxic cyanobacteria occur more frequently as climate change raises global temperatures.

Britain and Canada joined the E.U. in late September 2020 in pledging to protect 30% of their land and seas by 2030 to prevent catastrophic loss of biodiversity. Without action, The Nature Conservancy predicts 30-50% of all species could be lost by 2050.

A study done by the journal Nature Climate Change revealed that heating of ocean waters creates larger and deeper blankets of warm ocean water that can alter ocean currents, hinder absorption of carbon, intensify storm events and even disrupt biological cycles.

The government of Paraguay declared a national state of emergency in early October 2020 due to intense forest fires raging in the Chaco dry forest, threatening cattle ranches, jaguars, and many indigenous tribes. Paraguay’s National Emergency Secretariat said that it had detected over 5,000 fires in 24 hours.

Unexplained water pollution off of the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka region has rendered multiple surfers ill and sea life has washed up dead. Preliminary tests revealed that there were levels of oil products and the chemical phenol present in the pollution.

Severe drought that has lasted decades is drying the native lands of the Navajo people in the United States. Climate change has been drying out the western U.S., leaving the Navajo water supply increasingly lower as they have been forced to compete with large American cities in the area for water.

Fire fighters, students and residents in Tanzania fought to control a raging fire that broke out on Africa’s highest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro. The fire began in the Whona area, a popular rest center for climbers of the mountain.

China’s top experts on climate change and emissions issued a major report that pushed for large cuts on carbon emissions and coal use in the country over the next five years. This occurred at a time when China was responsible for about 29% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Intense flooding and rains have claimed 23 lives and left at least 14 people missing in Vietnam’s central provinces as a result of storm Nangka. Local authorities reported that they had evacuated nearly 46,000 people out of the affected areas.

A harsh months long drought brought the Paraguay River to its lowest level in 50 years. As a landlocked state, Paraguay depends on the river for nearly 85% of their foreign trade.

More than 280 female scientists and conservation experts urged for stronger protections of the Arctic Peninsula region in October of 2020. This region is home to penguins, seals, and krill, which is a main staple food for scores of marine animals including fish, birds, and baleen whales.

Heavy rains and coronavirus restrictions that disrupted the supply chain of pesticides caused locust swarms to ravage crops in Ethiopia. An estimated 200,000 hectares of land had been damaged since January 2020.

Vietnam prepared to evacuate over 1.3 million people as a typhoon approached its mainland after hitting the Philippines, where the typhoon caused huge amounts of flooding and landslides and has left at least a dozen people missing.

The government of Brazil announced they will be extending their military’s deployment in the Amazon rainforest through April of 2021 in order to fight destruction of the rainforest. The Amazon is key to combatting climate change through its large-scale absorption of greenhouse gases.

Danish researchers found that there had been an 8.2% decline in arctic sea ice over the last 10 years, with sea ice levels reaching a record low for the month of October in 2020. Researchers reported that unusually warm waters slowed the recovery of the ice.

There have been multiple recent oil spills in Yemen, including two on land and one at sea that potentially impacts the biodiversity of the area. The spills have been linked to the ongoing humanitarian crisis and civil war conflict happening in Yemen.

The state of New South Wales in Australia unveiled a plan to shift from coal to renewable energy sources in the next decade, aiming to pull $23 billion in private investments to the industry. The plan would create close to 10,000 jobs.

South African researchers planned to release a large number of hand-reared African penguin chicks at the Western Cape’s De Hoop nature reserves. This came after the African penguin population plunged to only 13,000 breeding pairs in 2019 from more than 1 million pairs that bred in 1920 as a result of dwindling fish stocks and a warming climate.

Residents in the Indian capital city of New Delhi experienced some of the worst air pollution in years, which heightened risks already posed by the coronavirus which affects the respiratory system. Pollution virtually disappeared in New Delhi in early 2020 due to a nationwide lockdown that aimed to curb the coronavirus outbreak, but after restrictions were lifted the pollution returned at a record rate.

Australia’s weather bureau released a report saying that the country’s climate is expected to get hotter and dryer as climate change progresses, increasing the risk of devastating drought and bushfires. The report blamed carbon emissions for the projected increase in extreme heat.

South America’s Pantanal region was hit by the worst wildfires seen in decades, threatening areas of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The fires have destroyed unique biodiverse habitats and threatened the livelihoods of many indigenous communities.

Category 5 Hurricane Iota hit the small Colombian island of Providencia extremely hard, causing severe damage to homes and public infrastructure. Iota marked the first Category 5 hurricane to ever hit Colombia, leaving 98% of Providencia’s infrastructure damaged.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson aims to meet the country’s net zero emissions climate target by banning new petrol cars and vans by 2030. He also said 250,000 new jobs will be created as part of a green industrial revolution.

Fresh wildfires in the states of California and Nevada in the United States have forced thousands of evacuations, injured dozens, and killed at least one person. Extremely dry conditions helped to fuel the fires.

Australian scientists pushed for the platypus to be listed as a vulnerable species after reports that the animal’s habitat had shrunk by more than one fifth in the last 30 years. This is due to severe drought brought on by climate change, land clearing for farming, and dam-building.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said his country will lead global efforts to combat climate change in comments on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Japan has aimed for net zero emissions by 2050 as a key policy priority.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published a report that detailed rising carbon dioxide emission levels despite hopes that emissions would be curbed in 2020 due to coronavirus driven industrial lockdowns across the world.

The EU said that it has the ability to produce enough batteries by 2025 to power its electric vehicles without relying on imports as a part of its plan to become climate neutral by 2050.

Thousands of people in South Sudan have been displaced from their homes and have needed humanitarian assistance due to devastating floods. This level of flooding is unprecedented in South Sudan, and has been linked to climate change.

The Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, is in a critical state due to climate change warming the waters around it. The reef has lost more than half of its coral in the past three decades.

The government of Japan announced that it aims to eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles by the mid-2030s as part of a plan to reach net zero carbon emissions and generate approximately $2 billion a year in green growth by the year 2050.

Exxon Mobil Corp., one of the largest petroleum companies in the world, disclosed emissions data for the first time due to pressure from investors. The company’s emissions in 2019 equaled roughly 730 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is about the same as the entire country of Canada.

According to German reinsurer Munich Re, natural disasters around the globe resulted in $210 billion in damage during 2020, with the United States being particularly hit hard by hurricanes and wildfires. This global total for 2020 is up from $166 billion in damages from natural disasters in 2019.

2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record making the past decade the hottest ever recorded, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation service. These record high temperatures demonstrate the harsh effects of increasing greenhouse gas emissions on the Earth’s climate.

According to predictions by the United Kingdom’s Meteorological Office, concentrations of climate-warming carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be pushed to levels 50% higher than before the industrial revolution in 2021.

Landslides caused by heavy rain in West Java, Indonesia have killed 11 people and left 18 people with injuries. Indonesia frequently suffers from floods and landslides during the annual rainy season of November through March, but these disasters have been worsened by deforestation.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that its early data has shown that global greenhouse gas emissions are set to rebound in 2021 as the coronavirus pandemic wanes.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that Britain will allocate 3 billion pounds ($4 billion) over five years to measures aimed at protecting and restoring nature and biodiversity. The funds for this will come from an existing commitment of 11.6 billion pounds for international climate finance.

A large Antarctic iceberg that recently threatened a penguin-populated island off the southern tip of South America has lost much of its mass and is breaking into smaller pieces. Scientists have been tracking the iceberg since it broke off from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf in July 2017, but in the last month the iceberg has shed about a third of its size.

Less than one week after President Joe Biden was inaugurated and announced the return of the United States to the Paris Climate Agreement, the U.S.’s special climate envoy John Kerry will join world leaders at the Climate Adaptation Summit. The online summit hosted by the Netherlands aims to set out practical solutions for dealing with climate change.

Tropical Storm Eloise has left 13 people dead and displaced thousands after it made landfall in central Mozambique, Zimbabwe, eSwatini, South Africa, and Botswana. Zimbabwe’s national weather authority warned that dams were spilling over and could cause floods further downstream.

U.S. President Biden is set to announce a widespread moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on U.S. federal lands as a move to reverse harmful energy and environmental policies from the previous presidential administration.

The collapse of a Himalayan glacier destroyed a small dam as it moved downriver, eventually smashing into a larger, under-construction dam, killing 31 people and leaving 165 people missing. Warming temperatures from climate change has been melting Himalayan glaciers which has facilitated increased avalanches and landslides.

In a major shift towards combatting plastic waste and reducing the company’s carbon footprint, Coca-Cola has announced that it will sell 100% of its beverages in recycled plastic bottles in the U.S. This could cut down on the amount of plastic waste that is put into the environment by a major producer of plastic bottles.

Unprecedented cold temperatures in Texas in the United States overwhelmed the state’s power grid, causing the local energy authority to institute rolling outages where as many as 4 million people were left without power for days on end. The cold weather marks an extreme weather event that was exacerbated by climate change.

According to a study by Greenpeace Southeast Asia Analysis and Swiss firm IQAir, air pollution in the Indian capital of New Delhi caused an estimated 54,000 premature deaths, a higher death toll than any other large global metropolis.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has reported that global emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide have reached levels equivalent before shutdowns in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. The IEA reported that energy-related emissions were 2% higher in December 2020 than in the same month a year earlier, a daunting sign for climate change as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a major contributor to the warming of the climate.

Indonesia, home to the world’s third largest rainforest area, has reduced the rate of deforestation by at least 75% in 2020 by more effectively controlling forest fires and limiting the clearing of woodland, according to the country’s environment ministry. Deforestation across the world is a major contributor to climate change, as the survival rainforests is important in combatting the rise of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Indigenous people from Brazil and Colombia have sued the retailer Casino over the selling of beef that is linked to land-grabbing and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Deforestation is one of the largest contributors to climate change.

Representatives of 30 nations have met to discuss ways to save quickly depleting tuna stocks in the Indian Ocean. Environmentalists report that the yellowfin tuna species is at risk of increased depletion due to overfishing and threats from climate change and pollution.

The Rainforest Foundation Norway has found that humans have destroyed or degraded roughly two-thirds of the world’s original tropical rainforest cover. Rainforests are key to combatting climate change caused by climate-warming emissions, and more than half of rainforest destruction since 2002 has occurred in South America’s Amazon Rainforest and bordering rainforests.

Poland will resume some logging in the ancient Bialowieza forest in a move that one local environmental group called a “spit in the face.” The forest is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is protected by environmental laws that Poland was indicted for breaking by the European Court of Justice in 2018.

A report by Climate Action Tracker (CAT) has found that if the United States wants to meet its goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, it needs to set a target to slash its emissions between 57 and 63% below 2005 levels by 2030. The United States is one of the countries with the highest emissions on the planet.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that the COVID-19 pandemic has undermined nature conservation efforts as more than half of Africa’s protected sites have cut park and anti-poaching patrols. This leaves many endangered species that are vital to their ecosystems vulnerable to poaching and bush hunting.

The government of Nepal has ordered for schools to close for four days as air pollution levels hit hazardous levels, forcing millions of people to stay home. Nepal is situated between China and India, two of the world’s largest polluters.

A survey of economists by New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity found that two thirds of economists surveyed say that the economic benefits from net-zero emissions by 2050 would outweigh the costs of achieving it, and that “immediate and drastic action” on climate change is needed.

The coolest and wettest summer in years closes out Australia’s quietest fire season in a decade, according to Melbourne’s fire service. This is a stark difference from the uncontrolled fires and widespread blazes that afflicted the country the year before.

Kyoto’s cherry blossoms reached full bloom on March 26^th, the earliest date in 12 centuries, according to scientists at Osaka Prefectural University. Scientists say this is due to warmer temperatures that occur earlier in the year as a result of climate change.

A worsening leak in a Florida wastewater reservoir’s wall prompted evacuation of more than 300 homes in the area, causing the state’s government to declare a local state of emergency. The leaking of wastewater has posed environmental concerns as it discharged into the Gulf of Mexico.

De Beers Group has made plans to build a new mine landfill on the traditional territory of the Kattawapiskak Cree people, an action that the First Nations group has strongly opposed. De Beers has sought government approval for construction of a landfill in vulnerable wetlands that have immense cultural, spiritual, and subsistence importance for the Kattawapiskak Cree, and would be incredibly damaging to the fragile ecosystems in the wetlands.

Authorities in Ghana’s capital Accra are investigating at least 80 dolphins and large numbers of fish that washed up dead on beaches near the city. The cause of death is unclear. Dolphins are important parts of surrounding ecosystems, with many species being endangered.

China and the United States said in a joint statement that stronger pledges to fight climate change are needed. The two countries have said that they are committed to cooperating with each other and with other nations to fight the climate crisis as two of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Cecil Roberts, the president of the United Mine Workers of America, said that the union would accept President Joe Biden’s plan to shift to renewable energy and away from fossil fuels if jobs were ensured for displaced miners. Moving away from reliance on fossil fuels is key to combatting climate change, especially in the U.S. which is one of the world’s largest global emitters.

A coalition of cryptocurrency firms and organizations have announced the Crypto Climate Accord (CCA), an industry-driven agreement where participants pledge to switch to using renewable energy sources to power their digital currencies. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been criticized for using vast amounts of fossil fuel energy to power the computers which mine the currency.

Lawmakers in the state of Idaho in the U.S. have approved a bill which authorizes the state to exterminate up to 90% of its wolf population, a measure that has been supported by farmers and cattle ranchers in the area. This measure threatens the population of wolves in the area, and conservationists are concerned it may cause the species to become endangered.

Qatar has planned to increase fish farming as demand for fresh fish in local markets increases. Coral reef bleaching in Gulf waters has threatened the livelihood and biodiversity of many fish species in the area.

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro said that that his government will opt to reduce environmental fines handed out to ranchers in order to promote “peace and tranquility” in Brazil’s countryside. A lack of environmental regulation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest territory puts the important region at risk for increased deforestation, which is a major contributor to global climate change.

The Biden administration has approved the U.S.’s first major offshore wind farm. The government views this as the launching of the country’s domestic clean energy industry that will help to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases.

Satellite data suggests that an area of forest the size of France has regrown across the world over the last two decades. These restored forests have the potential to soak up the equivalent of 5.9 gigatons of carbon dioxide.

A survey of 800 cities carried out by the Carbon Disclosure Project found that 43% of those cities, representing a population of over 400 million people, do not have a plan to adapt to climate crisis. As climate change worsens in coming years, cities across the globe will face flooding, high temperatures, water shortages and damage to their infrastructure.

The seven largest national economies—the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and Japan along with the European Union—have agreed to halt international funding for coal projects that emit carbon by the end of the year. Coal is a huge emitter of fossil fuels, which is a major contributor to the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere and climate change.

The United States is to up its spending on preparations for extreme weather to $1 billion USD. As climate change worsens, extreme weather events occur at a higher rate, and a particularly active hurricane season is predicted for the east coast of the United States this year.

A new study shows that Black Americans living in U.S. cities are subject to double the level of climate change-related heat stress than white Americans. The study cites historic racism and segregation in the United States as the explanation for this disparity, as areas with larger populations of color have fewer green spaces and more buildings and roads.

Scientists have been collecting data on the plant and wildlife around Albania’s Vjosa River as they attempt to stop the construction of hydropower plants along its banks. The Vjosa River has been called the last “wild” river in Europe, since it flows 270 kilometers from Greece to southern Albania and the Adriatic Sea without any dams or power stations.

A global indicator has found that the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has hit record levels in May of 2021. Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said these levels are the highest since measurements began 63 years ago. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas largely responsible for the warming of the Earth’s climate.

Fisheries researchers in the Gulf of Thailand have scuba dived to the ocean floor where they have released baskets full of young bamboo sharks. Bamboo sharks have become endangered in recent years due to their popularity with fish collectors and exotic food dinners. By releasing young sharks in a safe place, researchers hope to give the species a better chance at survival.

The western United States has been experiencing the effects of chronic drought brought on by climate change earlier than usual this year as California, Oregon, Nevada, and Utah endured lakes at historically low levels, unusually early forest fires, restrictions on water use, and a potentially record breaking heatwave.

Climate activists in Norway have asked the European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) to rule against Norway’s plans for continued oil drilling in the Arctic. The activists have argued that Norway is breaching human rights by depriving young people of their future through continued fossil fuel extraction in the fragile ecosystem of the Arctic.

The Czech Republic has asked the top EU court to impose a daily fine of 5 million euros on Poland for continuing mining operations of the Turow lignite mine located on the border between the two countries. The Czech Republic claims that continued mining by Poland border pollutes the environment across the border.

A report shows that as climate change worsens, access to safe drinking water across the world will become more difficult as it is estimated that by 2025, about 50% of the world’s population will be living in an area that is water-stressed. In addition, currently at least 2 billion people get their water from a source that is contaminated by feces.

Japan has pledged to offer $10 billion in support for decarbonization projects in Asia in order for the region to transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources of energy.

According to auditors, the EU’s huge subsidy program for agriculture is failing to reign in greenhouse gas emissions from farming. 100 billion euros of agricultural subsidies have been labelled as climate spending by the EU since 2014, but have been unable to decrease the amount of climate-warming greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

The states of Washington and Oregon in the United States and the province of British Columbia in Canada experienced record-breaking high temperatures during a heat wave at the end of June. The Pacific Northwest was ill prepared for temperatures this high, as many homes and public buildings lack air conditioning.

An Antarctic polar blast hit New Zealand, shutting down highways, airports, and essential services across the country. The city of Wellington was hit by the worst tidal storms in recent years, and a state of emergency was declared. As climate change worsens, increasingly extreme weather events are expected to occur across the world.

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro issued a 120-day ban on unauthorized outdoor fires as Brazil experienced its worst drought in decades. This comes just ahead of Brazil’s annual burning season in the Amazon rainforest.

A long-term drought has hit Mexico that is expected to persist over coming weeks, with worrying forecasts of extreme temperatures, crop damage, and water supply shortages. This comes as many parts of the world experience record high temperatures as a result of greenhouse gases warming the atmosphere.

Brazil’s Mines and Energy Minister Benito Albuquerque said that the nation’s current drought crisis is linked to global climate change. Water at many of Brazil’s hydroelectric dams are at record low levels, and many parts of the country are experiencing extreme drought that raises the risk of forest fires.

Record high temperatures in Finland have been reached as the Nordic region experiences a heat wave. A northern Finnish weather station recorded a staggering 33.5 degrees Celsius. High summer temperatures are being experienced across the world as the effects of climate change become apparent.

Record high temperatures continue to be reached in the western United States. The state of Oregon in particular has been experiencing wildfires, drought, and strained power grids.

Thousands of people across the northern United States and Canada have been evacuated from their homes as a result of dangerous wildfires. The wildfire season began early and has been more intense than usual due to climate change, effecting citizens from Oregon and British Columbia to Ontario.

At least six Rohingya Muslims have been killed as a result of heavy monsoon rains that triggered floods and landslides in southern Bangladesh. Heavy rains continued for days, having a large impact on the fragile shelters that house Rohingya refugees at the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

A study shows that the Atlantic Ocean’s currents have been weakening, which could signal drastic changes in global weather patterns. This is a result of a warming atmosphere, which has caused the ocean’s surface to retain more heat over time.

A landmark report from the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that climate change is close to spiraling out of control, and that the world is certain to face climate disruptions for decades if not centuries. The panel argues that immediate action is needed to quell some of the more severe effects of climate change.

Countless residents have been evacuated and some have lost their homes as wildfires burn across Greece. Some residents on the island of Evia have mounted a round-the-clock watch to prevent fires from burning their homes. Wildfires become more common and more severe as climate change worsens.

Rain fell at the highest point on the Greenland ice sheet for the first time on record, indicating the effects climate change is having on the region. Increased rain on ice means that it becomes more prone to surface melt.

Chinese scientists are warning that climate change could destabilize water supplies and cause more frequent disasters in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. The region is home to the Himalayan mountains.

Aid groups and engineers are warning of a potential humanitarian disaster that could happen in Syria as a result of drought and lowering water levels in the Euphrates River. Plummeting water levels at hydroelectric dams since January 2021 have been threatening water and power cutoffs for up to 5 million people.

September of 2021 was Africa and South America’s warmest September on record, as well as North America’s third-warmest September and Asia’s ninth warmest.

The Philippines was hit by Super Typhoon Chanthu, one of the strongest storms of the year. Its winds are equivalent to the strength of a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane.

A drought in Kenya has been declared a national disaster as it ravages 12 of its 47 counties. Kenya’s weather department has warned that the drought may affect farm production and food security in the country.

A new era of climate policy has been ushered in in Turkey, where the country has ratified the Paris Climate Agreement, according to a joint statement from 15 environmental groups in the country.

An atmospheric river hit the western United States, causing record-breaking heavy rains and strong winds. This unique weather event affected Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and up into British Columbia, Canada.

The UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, begins in Glasgow, Scotland.

The UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, ended on November 13th after 200 nations signed onto a new “Glasgow Climate Pact” which declared that emissions from fossil fuels must plummet by 45% by 2030.

November 2021 brought record-breaking rains to Australia, who had the wettest November since the beginning of the record 122 years ago.

Tornadoes devastate five states in the U.S., destroying homes and killing 70.

Heavy rains and flash floods in Iraq cause damage and kill 14 people while displacing and affecting 7,000 others.

The UK government has been sued by ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth for failure to implement its net-zero climate strategy.

The government of Australia has announced that it will spend $700 million on protecting the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef.

The Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy has finalized its flaring and fugitive methane emissions regulations, which makes Colombia the first South American nation to regulate methane emissions from oil and gas. This is significant, and positions Colombia as a leader on the continent to push away from reliance on fossil fuels.

Australia’s Green Party has proposed a $19 billion plan to subsidize the wages of coal workers who transition to jobs in clean energy industries, such as employment in critical minerals or green metals. Under the plan, workers would get a decade or more of support, as the Green Party emphasizes the value of restructuring the energy sector in the face of the climate crisis.

The UN has announced that representatives of 175 countries have agreed to develop a global treaty on restricting plastic waste, the first of its kind that the world has seen. The executive director of the UN Environment Program has called the resolution the most significant multilateral climate deal since the Paris Agreement.

Chile has unveiled a plan to create a National Glacier park that will protect 75,000 hectares of glacier in the country’s Andes mountains. This is a significant protection for the country’s vital glaciers, as Chile is among the world’s top ten countries as measured by glacier surface area.

The European Commission has called for an end to fast fashion by 2030 as it announced an expansion of eco-design rules that could apply to any products in the future, starting with textile goods. The EU is also asking companies to start disclosing how much unsold stock is sent to landfills. Fast fashion represents one of the largest polluters in the world.

In a report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, authors say that the world is set to hit the threshold of a rise in temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius within the next two decades. The IPCC warns that only drastic measures from this point can prevent environmental disaster.

Over 1,000 climate scientists from 25 countries participated in demonstrations advocating for climate action. Scientists across the world used varying protest tactics, including chaining themselves to the fences of government buildings, throwing fake blood, protesting at embassies, gluing themselves to bridges, and holding teach-ins.

Wynn Bruce, an American climate activist, died after setting himself on fire in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Earth Day to protest climate inaction. This happened as the Supreme Court hears an environmental case that could restrict or eliminate the country’s Environment Protection Agency’s authority to control pollution.

A study has found that heatwaves in India and Pakistan are 30 times more likely due to climate change. Previously, long term heatwaves in the South Asian region were rare, seen as once a century events. 

Populations in Texas in the United States upped their energy usage as an unseasonably early heatwave hit the region. Unlike previous extreme weather events in Texas, which overwhelmed the grid and caused multi-day blackouts, this time the grid held up thanks to wind and solar power, which generated close to 40% of the state’s energy during peak demand times.

A study has found that exposure to chronic air pollution cuts average global life expectancy by more than two years per person. This is a comparable impact to smoking. More than 97% of the global population lives in areas where air pollution exceeds recommended levels.

A UN-backed plan to push for fast climate action is toughening standards for companies who are pledging to curb their fossil fuel emissions. These new standards could affect many of the world’s largest companies and force them to cut their emissions.

A record breaking heatwave hit the United Kingdom and Europe, with temperatures in the UK getting as high as 40.3 degrees Celsius for the first time. Many homes and buildings in the UK do not have air conditioning, leaving many people to suffer through the extreme summer heat.

Parts of France and Spain have been plagued with wildfires. Record breaking heat in the region have made the fires difficult to contain, with 36,000 people evacuated in France, and over 1,100 deaths reported in Spain and Portugal.

Heatwaves across Europe have accelerated the melting of glaciers in the Swiss Alps. Many of the world’s glaciers have been gradually retreating as a result of climate change.

The United States government has passed a sweeping $700 billion package, which has allocated $369 billion for climate action. This represents the largest investment in climate action in US history.

Pakistan is dealing with the worst flooding it has experienced in recent history, with nearly one third of the country underwater and more than 30 million people affected. This flooding comes as a result of extreme rains and weather events tied to climate change.

A flood in the US state of Mississippi has knocked out a major water plant in the state, depriving more than 150,000 people of clean drinking water. This has highlighted the danger of increased flooding as a result of climate change to clean drinking water across the world, as infrastructure struggles to keep up with a changing climate.