Should the world move away sharply from fossil fuels, or manage a slower, more careful retreat? 

Pregnancy and childbirth have become a “new fault line in the global climate crisis” as extreme heat worsens, the head of the UN climate action body (UNFCCC) warned on Monday, calling for maternal and newborn health to be built into countries’ climate plans. 

A documentary drawn from United Nations University research was screened at the COP30 climate conference and film festivals across Europe. Its most important journey, though, was the one back to the Mexico City canals where it was filmed.

Rotting food waste is causing up to 10 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions – five times more than the entire aviation sector, the UN’s environment agency warned this week.

The package originated in Entebbe, Uganda, bound for Cairo, containing 10 kilograms of thumb-sized pieces that could have been either bone or elephant ivory.

The continuing conflict in the Middle East is disrupting global energy markets and pushing up fuel prices, with knock-on effects far beyond the region.

World leaders approved the UN Declaration on Sea Level Rise by consensus on Thursday as the UN chief warned that encroaching waters are already threatening the future of coastal communities worldwide.

Sea level rise is among the most visible consequences of global warming, but for some countries, it is an imminent existential threat. World leaders approved a new declaration on Thursday while debating the best ways to strengthen international cooperation and support vulnerable low-lying nations most at risk.

“We are the first generation with the tools to end the fossil fuel age – and the last who can avert climate catastrophe,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday, calling on countries to draw up credible roadmaps with clear timelines to transition away from fossil fuels.

From deadly floods in the Himalayas to wildfires and extreme heat across Europe, 2026 has brought a succession of stark reminders of a changing climate. The task is immediate: Protect people from the impacts already unfolding while rapidly cutting the emissions of harmful gasses driving climate change. World leaders have been meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to turn those priorities into action.

Rising sea levels and ever-more-powerful storms are eroding shorelines, submerging land and threatening to evict millions of people from their homes worldwide. 

El Niño is strengthening in a world that is already hotter, raising the risk of drought, floods and crop losses across some of the world’s most important food-producing regions. But unlike many disasters, this one can be seen coming. UN experts say the months ahead offer countries a chance not only to protect the next harvest and our food security, but to prepare for a more unpredictable climate in the long run.

Along the coast of Tanzania, in East Africa, the Indian Ocean is pushing saltwater ever farther inland, shrinking coconut harvests, driving fish away and leaving some residents wondering how much longer they can stay.

Temporarily exceeding the 1.5°C global warming goal set in Paris is widely considered inevitable. The challenge now is to keep that overshoot as small and short as possible by cutting emissions faster, unlocking finance and strengthening international cooperation.

For Benin, making progress on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has meant finding new ways to finance development.

The world is entering a period in which abnormal water supplies are becoming the norm, with river flows, groundwater and glaciers all showing signs of sustained disruption, the UN weather agency warned on Thursday. 

Poor management of toxic chemicals and hazardous waste threatens “many, if not all, human rights,” the newly appointed independent human rights independent expert on the rising threat told the Human Rights Council on Monday. 

Earth just had the hottest August on record, according to newly released weather data.

The head of the UN's climate body has warned that treating global warming as a partisan issue is dangerously out of step with reality, as he set out a stark account of the economic toll climate change is already inflicting on Europe.

When the creek beside Taudibura Garo's school in Papua New Guinea floods, the water doesn't stop at the gate. It rises through the pit toilets – making the school unsafe – sending the 16-year-old and her classmates home without being able to finish.