Averting Global Meltdown by IFRC, WHO, ICCI, WMO, Lancet Countdown   Nov. 2026   COP31: IFRC calls for urgent investment to protect world's most vulnerable   The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is calling on world leaders gathering at COP31 to urgently scale up investment to better protect communities from the growing humanitarian impacts of climate change.   Across the world, extreme heat, floods, droughts and storms are threatening lives, livelihoods and health, with the greatest impacts often falling on communities already facing poverty, conflict and displacement.   With a stronger El Nino expected to bring further extreme weather in the coming months, investment in preparedness and adaptation is increasingly critical to protecting communities and saving lives.   The recent devastating floods in Nepal demonstrate both the humanitarian risks and the life-saving importance of investing in preparedness. When a glacier collapse triggered a flash flood that was thundering towards a school, its headteacher evacuated his 1600 students to higher ground, just nine minutes before the flood arrived. Years earlier, the headteacher had received disaster preparedness training from the Nepal Red Cross Society, which he credited for giving him the knowledge and confidence to act quickly. His school was destroyed, but every child survived.   "The experience in Nepal shows what is possible when communities have the knowledge and resources to act before disaster strikes," said Jagan Chapagain, IFRC Secretary General.   "But far too many communities still lack the support they need to prepare for increasingly severe climate risks. At COP31, we need governments to move beyond commitments and invest in practical solutions that protect lives, livelihoods and health, particularly for those most at risk. At a time when budgets are under pressure, investing in preparedness is not only the right thing to do. It can also significantly reduce the costs of responding to disasters after they strike."   Updated analysis undertaken for the IFRC and WWF ahead of COP31 also suggests that nature-based solutions could reduce the intensity of climate- and weather-related hazards by approximately 31% on average. The research estimates that these solutions could help developing countries avoid at least US$148 billion in economic losses annually by 2030, rising to US$577 billion annually by 2050.   At COP31, the IFRC is calling for action in three priority areas:   Protecting health and wellbeing: Governments must invest in climate-resilient health systems and take stronger action to protect people from extreme heat and other growing climate-related health risks. Health must be central to national climate adaptation plans.   Investing in local communities: More climate finance must reach the people and communities most affected by climate change.   Following the commitment at COP30 to triple adaptation finance by 2035, governments must now deliver on that promise and ensure that funding reaches local organisations and communities, enabling them to lead their own adaptation efforts.   Getting ahead of disasters: Early warnings only save lives when communities have the resources and capacity to act on them. In 2025, 9.6 million people were supported by anticipatory action. Governments must match investment in early warning systems with greater support for community preparedness, anticipatory action and pre-arranged financing.   Through its network of 191 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the IFRC works alongside communities around the world to strengthen preparedness, expand early warning systems and support action before disasters strike. For the IFRC, COP31 is an opportunity to ensure that global climate commitments translate into meaningful action for the communities facing the greatest risks.   http://www.ifrc.org/press-release/cop31-ifrc-calls-urgent-investment-protect-worlds-most-vulnerable http://ifrcclimatesummit.solferinoacademy.com/en http://www.wfp.org/stories/cop31-and-hunger-what-you-need-know http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/nearly-half-worlds-children-exposed-least-three-overlapping-climate-threats-unicef http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/children-exposed-to-extreme-heatwaves-2026-update http://www.unicef.org/environment-and-climate-change   http://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-update-september-2026-inter-agency-report-global-enso-analysis-cell-el-nino-status-humanitarian-outlook http://impactlab.org/news-insights/more-than-451000-heat-deaths-projected-from-super-el-nino/ http://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/ http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/new-un-brief-highlights-governance-challenge-of-earth-system-tipping-points http://www.un.org/scientific-advisory-board/en/earth-system-tipping-points-0   Nov. 2026   UNEP report: Tripling adaptation finance would leave over 70% of developing countries’ needs unmet - Climate Action Network International   Even if rich governments triple the money available to support developing countries to adapt to climate change by 2035, it would still cover less than a third of what is needed to protect people from worsening climate impacts, according to a new UN report. The findings underline the need for COP31 to shift the focus from negotiating finance targets to meeting the actual needs of developing countries.   The UN Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report 2026 estimates that developing countries will need around US$305 billion a year by 2035, or approximately US$420 billion once future inflation is taken into account.   Yet depending on how governments interpret the COP30 pledge to triple adaptation finance, funding could reach only US$85-120 billion a year by 2035, meeting just 20-29% of what is needed.   Meanwhile, in 2024, rich countries only provided about US$30 billion to help developing countries prepare for and cope with climate impacts, only slightly more than the previous year.   Pooja Dave, Adaptation Lead at Climate Action Network International, said: “Even if rich countries triple adaptation finance by 2035, more than 70% of the money developing countries need to protect their people from climate impacts would still be missing. The money is there, but the political will to provide it isn’t. Floods, droughts and heatwaves won’t wait for governments to act, and every year of delay costs more lives, homes and livelihoods.   “As a first step, COP31 must agree a credible plan to deliver at least US$120 billion a year in adaptation finance well before 2035, through new and additional public, grant-based funding that reaches the communities most at risk. And rich governments must set out how they will close the remaining gap to meet developing countries’ full adaptation needs. People have a right to a climate safe world and protection from climate impacts. Adaptation is not charity. It is a legal and moral obligation.”   The funding shortfall also extends to the loss and damage caused by climate change. The Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage received requests totalling US$2.8 billion in its first funding round, but only has US$342 million available in the Fund – enough to cover roughly one dollar in every eight requested.   Teresa Anderson, Global Lead on climate justice for ActionAid International, said: “Even though UNEP’s numbers probably underestimate the real need, they show us just how badly the world is failing to invest in its own survival. The Earth is heating up but adaptation spending is just a fraction of the money needed to keep humanity safe.   “Wealthy countries need to be reminded that their pollution is leaving billions of people exposed to catastrophic climate impacts. They need to get their priorities straight and secure our collective survival by filling the alarming gap in adaptation funding. COP31 needs to deliver a new finance goal that actually meets the scale of need.”   Marlene Achoki, Global Climate Justice Policy and Advocacy, CARE International, said: “The adaptation finance gap is not just a funding gap; it is a failure to match climate ambition with the realities facing vulnerable communities. Developing countries need US$305 billion annually for adaptation by 2035, yet current international finance flows fall far short. Inflation will further erode the value of future commitments, meaning that even tripling adaptation finance to US$120 billion annually by 2035 would meet only a fraction of their needs. We cannot measure progress by targets announced, but by resources that actually reach vulnerable communities. COP31 must put grant-based public adaptation finance at the centre of the response. Communities cannot adapt on promises.”   http://climatenetwork.org/2026/11/04/unep-report-tripling-adaptation-finance-would-leave-over-70-of-developing-countries-needs-unmet http://www.unep.org/en/publications/report/adaptation-gap-report-2026 http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/nov/04/funding-poorer-countries-climate-crisis-adaptation-un-report http://www.ldc-climate.org/press_release/ldc-ministers-adopt-dili-declaration-and-set-priorities-for-cop31 http://www.caritas.org/press-release/caritas-calls-for-radical-rethink-of-climate-loss-and-damage-finance-amid-growing-geopolitical-uncertainty http://www.caritas.org/article/a-just-transition-must-put-people-and-the-planet-first-caritas-says-ahead-of-cop31/ http://gi-escr.org/en/our-work/on-the-ground/gi-escr-joins-nearly-150-organisations-calling-for-ambitious-climate-finance-ahead-of-cop31 http://actionaid.org/publications/2026/debt-fuels-climate-crisis http://gcap.global/climate-justice/   Nov. 2026   Climate and health actions that can save 1.6 million lives and deliver major economic benefits each year. (WHO)   Six proven climate and health measures could save 1.6 million lives a year while delivering trillions of dollars in economic and fiscal gains, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report released today.   Scaling up these measures globally, from heat-health warning systems and climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene to clean household energy and efficient fossil fuel pricing policies, could generate US$ 3.9 trillion in economic welfare benefits annually, while also helping to cut carbon emissions. They could deliver a further US$ 5.4 trillion a year in fiscal benefits.   The report, Global benefits and costs of prioritized actions on climate change and health, is the first comprehensive analysis of the economic and fiscal returns from taking six WHO-recommended actions to scale. Together, the findings point to a triple dividend from these climate actions: healthier people, lower emissions, and stronger economies.   “The climate crisis is a health crisis, but much of the harm it causes can be prevented with tools we already have,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “This report shows that scaling up proven, affordable actions could save millions of lives, with the greatest gains in the countries that need them most. As governments prepare for the next round of climate negotiations, protecting health must be at the centre of climate action.”   Released ahead of COP31, where governments are expected to share their climate commitments, the report underscores that many health impacts of climate change are preventable with solutions available today. But these solutions must be implemented across health and health-determining sectors to help anticipate, prevent, prepare for and reduce climate-related health risks.   The report estimates that scaling up the six actions globally could prevent 1.6 million deaths annually – equivalent to one in every 40 deaths, based on modelled projections.   The six actions include: heat-health warning systems; climate-resilient drinking-water services; basic sanitation services; hygiene and handwashing facilities; cleaner household fuels and technologies for cooking and heating; and efficient fossil fuel pricing policies.   The actions could also help avoid 16.7 billion tonnes of CO₂ emissions, equivalent to 31% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions excluding land use, land use change and forestry.   cross five of the actions, every US$ 1 invested is estimated to yield US$ 24 in benefits. Benefits are estimated to be greater in low- and middle-income countries, helping reduce health and economic inequalities.   Heat-health warning systems would be among the most cost-beneficial measures assessed, with an estimated return of US$ 835 for every US$ 1 invested, reflecting their ability to leverage existing systems and prevent heat-related illnesses at relatively low cost.   Efficient fossil fuel pricing policies, including removing inefficient subsidies and appropriately taxing these fuels, would generate the largest gains. These policies are estimated to prevent 1.2 million deaths and generate US$ 3 trillion in economic welfare benefits and US$ 5.4 trillion in fiscal benefits annually.   In 2026, countries around the world are facing record-breaking climate shocks. Protecting people and the planet from the impacts of climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. WHO calls on governments, development partners, and financing institutions to act on this economic evidence and invest in these proven actions for health, climate and economies.   http://www.who.int/news/item/04-11-2026-six-climate-and-health-actions-could-save-1.6-million-lives-and-deliver-trillions-in-benefits-each-year   27 Oct. 2026   Researchers call for climate change to be declared a global health emergency - Lancet Countdown on health and climate change   The latest global study on climate change-related health risks has found that 3 million deaths between 2016 and 2023 can be attributed to a warming planet.   The Lancet Countdown report noted some progress had been made on key climate goals that could reduce heating by 2100 from up to 3.5 degrees Celsius to 2.8C.   It found the growth of energy from renewable sources had "vastly exceeded expectations", but that global action on climate change was "grossly insufficient", and that this had already led to significant harm to human health.   For the first time the authors of the Lancet Countdown study quantified heat-related deaths directly due to human-caused climate change.   The authors estimate more than half a million deaths per year between 2016 and 2023 were linked to heat and that 68 per cent of those deaths were caused by climate change.   Developing countries had the highest proportion of heat-related deaths, which the authors found "reflected the disproportionate adverse impacts of climate change on those least responsible for it".   “These numbers point to a clear emergency,” said climate health researcher Marina Romanello, the executive director of the Lancet Countdown. “The risks become even more profound when you consider how different hazards interact and compound. At the same time, drought is spreading, and the world is swinging to water extremes, some drying out, while others are flooding.”   "Climate change has become a global health emergency. Addressing it requires urgent course correction."   The study authors note that the past 11 years had been the hottest on record, accompanied by more frequent heatwaves and droughts.   Climate change has increased the risk and intensity of droughts, which affected more than 50 per cent of global land in 2025 for at least a month. At the same time, extreme rainfall has also increased, resulting in a higher flood and landslide risk.   The report found the world's exposure to very high or extremely high risk of wildfire had also increased.   "Globally, heat exposure caused the loss of 573 billion potential work hours in 2025, resulting in US $1.07 trillion in income losses," the report found, with low-and middle-income countries most affected.   "The rate of increase in many climate-related health threats is accelerating, while heat deaths linked to climate change have reached a record-high, and the economic toll is battering vulnerable sectors and communities the hardest," said Marina Romanello.   "A decade after the Paris Agreement, our findings are unambiguous: the health harms of climate change are growing faster than the world's response to them, and in many cases are accelerating," Romanello says.   "Progress has been too slow, too small, and isn't reaching those who need it most. That is why we are calling for climate change to be formally recognized as a global health emergency, with health placed at the center of every climate decision."   http://lancetcountdown.org/2026-report/ http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/climate-change-health-risks-are-accelerating-as-the-global-response-falls-short http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/document/children-exposed-to-extreme-heatwaves-2026-update http://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/national-heat-risk-commision-respond-to-research-confirming-that-over-50000-people-are-estimated-to-have-died-in-urban-areas-during-europes-sweltering-summer/ http://www.climatecentre.org/publications/17312/the-lived-experiences-of-vulnerable-populations-in-the-context-of-extreme-heat-a-comprehensive-narrative-report-based-on-survey-data-from-five-cities-in-nepal-and-bangladesh/   Nov. 2026   Overshoot and the Cryosphere: Averting Global Meltdown - International Cryosphere Climate Initiative   Exceeding the 1.5°C Paris Agreement target will bring large and in many cases irreversible impacts from the Earth’s melting ice sheets, permafrost, glaciers, sea ice and polar oceans. These losses can still be limited if overshoot is kept to a minimum by deep emissions reductions followed by scaled-up carbon drawdown.   Overshoot and the Cryosphere: Averting Global Meltdown sets out the global impacts of ice loss with overshoot, exploring which ones are locked in – and how more urgent climate action can still stop or slow the worst of this damage, delivering vital evidence ahead of COP31 in Turkiye: http://iccinet.org/overshoot/   Nov. 2026   Cryosphere faces permanent damage when world overshoots 1.5C, scientists warn. (Guardian News, agencies)   Earth’s icy regions face such dangerous melting that global heating should be brought back below 1C after an inevitable period of overshooting global temperature targets, a UN report has found.   Permanent and widespread losses of snow and ice expose a “persistent myth” that overshooting the 1.5C target of the Paris climate agreement – to 2C or 3C – could be manageable or even preferable to urgent cuts to emissions, the report found.   The planet has heated by at least 1.3C since pre-industrial times and failures to curb greenhouse gas emissions and protect nature have led scientists to conclude that some level of overshoot is inevitable as they fight to keep end-of-century warming to 1.5C.   But extreme effects on the cryosphere – Earth’s water in a solid state, including all its ice and snow – mean temperatures must rise above that threshold for as short a period as possible, the scientists urged. Added to this, enough planet-heating carbon should be removed from the atmosphere through nature based processes to bring long-term warming down much further, ideally below 1C by 2150.   The high overshoot expected under current policies – with peak temperatures of about 3C – would thaw nearly all near-surface permafrost, make “severe and possibly abrupt” disruption to ocean circulation likely, and lead to widespread acidification, the report found. The latest scientific research suggests sea ice recovers more slowly than previously thought.   The report, written by 80 scientists brought together by the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), found much of the damage would be permanent even if global temperatures were brought back down to 1.5C, such as glacier melt raising sea levels and threatening water security.   James Kirkham, a glaciologist at ICCI and the lead author of the report, said the cryosphere is “one of the most sensitive components of the climate system”, and the consequences of its loss affect the whole planet.   “This year, we’ve already seen one of the largest and most deadly ice rock avalanches ever recorded, on the Nepal-China border – it killed thousands of people and left damage equivalent to 10% of Nepal’s GDP in a single event,” said Kirkham. “Switzerland has lost 20% of its glacier ice in the last five years, and thousands of glaciers worldwide are expected to become extinct in the coming decade, every single year.”   The report, which comes as world leaders and diplomats converge on Turkey for the 31st annual Cop climate conference, documented rapid and accelerating melting of the cryosphere and polar oceans, with damages that range from the loss of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, driving sea level rises that threaten hundreds of millions of people, to thawing permafrost, which releases more planet-heating gas.   Glaciers, which are still responding to historical warming, would only preserve about 70% of their current volume over a timescale of centuries if long-term heating were brought back down to 0.8C, the report found.   Meanwhile, the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, which are melting about six times faster today than in the 1990s, would continue to lose ice even in scenarios where overshoot is brief and temperature rise returns to 1.5C, the report found.   The scientists said a safe, long-term temperature limit for polar ice sheets lies much closer to 1.0C of global heating, and possibly even lower.   “Snow and ice respond rapidly to every fraction of a degree of warming,” said Kirkham. “But most of these systems will take centuries or millennia to recover after overshoot, especially if tipping points are crossed that cause changes to become essentially irreversible.”   Last month, a UNEP report found the world must cut emissions by 18% by 2030 and by 45% by 2035 to have a good chance of keeping temperatures from rising 1.7C above pre-industrial levels. It found there were “no good outcomes” of remaining above 1.5C.   The cryosphere report found that current policies, which will result in 2.8C of global heating, would reduce the mass of glacier ice to below 10% in the Rockies, Alps, Iceland and Scandinavia. If warming was limited to 1.5C, about 20-35% of the mass would remain.   In the Hindu Kush Himalayas, where glaciers are a source of water for nearly a quarter of humanity, current policies will leave just 41% of the ice mass. If warming was limited to 1.5C, 83% would remain.   Bill Hare, a climate scientist and the CEO of Climate Analytics, a policy institute, who was not involved in the report, said: “Ice sheets melting six times faster than 30 years ago, sea ice and mountain glaciers disappearing at record speed, sea levels inexorably rising, the life-giving polar oceans acidifying: all irreversible now on human timescales, all laden with worldwide consequences, and all taking climate impacts past limits of adaptability.”   He added: “Every government minister and every fossil fuel executive who’s ever succeeded in watering down climate action can look at this report and see how their actions have fundamentally damaged the world we live in.”   http://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/nov/02/permanent-damage-crysophere-overshoots-15c-scientists-warn http://climateanalytics.org/press-releases/cryosphere-reports-highlight-irreversible-damage-of-fossil-fuels http://iccinet.org/overshoot/ http://climateanalytics.org/press-releases/comment-unep-gap-report-shows-urgency-of-fossil-fuel-phase-out-as-climate-overshoot-looms http://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01132-6 http://theelders.org/news/climate-crisis-will-not-wait-world-s-geopolitics-improve   27 Oct. 2026   Greenhouse gas levels once again reach record high - World Meteorological Organization (WMO)   Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other major greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached unprecedented highs in 2025, locking in more long-term temperature increase for the planet, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).   The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reported that the globally averaged surface concentration of CO2 in 2025 was 426.8 parts per million, or 153% of the 1750 pre-industrial baseline.   Concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide - the second and third most important long-lived greenhouse gases related to human activities - also rose to a new record.   “Another year, another new record. Greenhouse gases are trapping an unprecedented amount of heat in the atmosphere, providing energy for more extreme weather and associated risks to our economies and societies. The past 11 years have been the warmest on record and this trend is set to continue. CO2 has a very long life-time and so will affect the global climate not just for years but for decades and even centuries,” said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Ko Barrett.   WMO releases the Bulletin, one of its flagship annual publications, to provide authoritative scientific information for negotiators at the UN Climate conference. The COP 31 meeting in Antalya, Turkiye, from 9-20 November 2026 is seeking to turn climate commitments into concrete actions.   The Bulletin reports on greenhouse gas concentrations - namely the amount of gas that accumulates in the atmosphere - and not new annual emissions. About half of the total CO2 emitted each year remains in the atmosphere and the rest is absorbed by Earth’s land ecosystems and oceans.   The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Annual Greenhouse Gas Index shows that from 1990 to 2025, radiative forcing – the warming effect on our climate - by long-lived greenhouse gases increased by 56%, with CO2 accounting for about 81% of this increase. Growth rates of CO2 have tripled since the 1960s.   WMO Deputy Secretary-General, Ko Barrett at press conference on the release of the WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin:   "The World Meteorological Organization today releases its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin for 2025. And, once again, we are reporting that levels of long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are at record levels. The big three are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.   Since the 1960s, growth rates of CO2 have tripled. When the Bulletin was first published in 2004, the annual level of carbon dioxide was 377.5 parts per million. In 2025, it was 426.8 parts per million. Data that we have from individual monitoring stations in WMO’s Global Atmosphere Watch show that CO2 levels continue to rise in 2026.   Every additional part per million matters because it traps additional heat. In effect, we are supercharging the ocean and the atmosphere. That means that heatwaves, tropical cyclones, and rainstorms are intensifying faster than our historical baselines prepared us for".   http://wmo.int/news/media-centre/greenhouse-gas-levels-once-again-reach-record-high http://wmo.int/secretariat/ko-barrett/record-greenhouse-gases-trap-more-heat-future http://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1y/k1ywcvn57q   * COP31 Focus Area: Food-Water-Climate Nexus   COP31 treats food, water and climate not as siloed agendas but as a single interdependent system. The Presidency will promote integrated approaches that improve resource efficiency and strengthen cross-sectoral resilience to climate shocks.   http://unu.edu/inweh/news/world-enters-era-of-global-water-bankruptcy http://unu.edu/inweh/collection/global-water-bankruptcy http://wmo.int/media/news/wmo-recent-water-trends-have-serious-future-implications http://unu.edu/inweh/news/water-quality-mirror-and-magnifier-of-structural-inequalities-and-social-injustice http://unu.edu/inweh/news/environmental-cost-of-AIs-Enrgy-use-carbon-water-and-land-footprints http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc6244-transforming-food-systems-safe-climate-and-health-all   http://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/climate-action-from-geneva-to-antalya-un-climate-change-conference-cop31 http://unfccc.int/resource/bigpicture/ http://unfccc.int/news/cop31-preview-comments-from-un-climate-change-executive-secretary-simon-stiell-cop31-president http://www.wri.org/news/advisory-wri-press-call-expectations-cop31 http://www.iied.org/collection/un-climate-change-conference-cop31 http://www.lossanddamagecollaboration.org/resources/key-messages-on-loss-and-damage-for-the-thirty-first-conference-of-parties-cop-31 http://350.org./press-release/cop31-in-antalya-a-moment-for-action/ http://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us-story/money-wont-matter-on-a-dead-planet/ http://coveringclimatenow.org/event/why-cop31-could-surprise-us/ http://coveringclimatenow.org/from-us/climate-beat/   http://www.ciel.org/cop31-can-climate-multilateralism-deliver-in-a-world-of-crisis-and-conflict/ http://www.ciel.org/news/climate-talks-cop31-experts-available-for-comment/ http://www.ciel.org/news/unep-overshoot-report/ http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/disaster-divide-how-climate-chaos-deepens-inequality-and-enriches-few http://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-fuels/everything-you-need-to-know-about-cop/ http://globalwitness.org/en/topics/cop/ http://www.fossilfueltreaty.org/cop31 http://www.iisd.org/events/inside-cop-31 http://www.iisd.org/articles/explainer/what-governments-can-do-about-investor-state-dispute-settlement-cop31   http://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-is-in-the-global-roadmap-for-transitioning-away-from-fossil-fuels http://transitionawayconference.com/santa-marta-process http://transitionawayconference.com/reports#outcomes http://www.fossilfueltreaty.org/news http://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/fossil-fuel-subsidies-after-2025-missed-deadlines-and-new-coalitions/ http://climate.law.columbia.edu/news/new-sabin-center-reports-find-widespread-restrictions-and-misinformation-are-hampering http://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climate_change/281/ http://www.wri.org/insights/climate-goals-national-ambition-must-be-met-local-action http://oilchange.org/blogs/we-know-where-fossil-fuels-are-taking-us-now-we-need-a-roadmap-out/ http://carbonmajors.org/ http://oilchange.org/blogs/bangkok_actions/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/11/australias-global-leadership-must-be-underpinned-ambitious-human-rights http://acfid.asn.au/from-promises-to-progress-what-cop31-must-deliver-for-the-pacific/ http://www.ciel.org/news/what-states-knew-climate http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc5942-imperative-defossilizing-our-economies-report-special http://www.ipbes.net/nexus/media-release Visit the related web page
	Everyone, everywhere must enjoy the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment by UN Human Rights experts, Special Rapporteurs   Oct. 2026   Commemorating five years since the UN Human Rights Council expressly recognised that everyone, everywhere must enjoy the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, States, international entities and businesses must prioritise its implementation.   Implementing the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is an urgent priority, especially in light of the increasingly severe human rights impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and toxic pollution.   As UN human rights experts, we urge all States, international entities and businesses to demonstrate leadership and advance practical solutions on the ground to address the triple planetary crisis, mainstreaming this right, instead of increasing resistance to its implementation.   Today, the universal recognition of this right is further reinforced by the legal certainty provided by international law. Effective implementation is therefore essential to ensure the protection and realization of all other human rights and must be achieved without further delay.   On 8 October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council expressly recognised in Resolution 48/13, the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right. This historic resolution opened the way for the General Assembly to, accordingly, recognise the right in July 2022. However, recognition alone is not enough. The right must be translated from principle into practice, particularly for marginalised individuals and groups who are suffering the most from the negative impacts of environmental degradation and climate change, including women who experience particular and disproportionate effects of these crises, and should be integrated in all tiers of education.   As we mark the historic recognition of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for everyone, everywhere, we stress the interdependence of this with all other rights, and how essential it is to advancing peace and sustainable development.   Human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent, and, as unanimously reaffirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and more recently, in the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, a healthy environment is essential to and a precondition for the enjoyment of all other human rights.   The recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right marks a milestone achieved through the collective efforts and collaboration of many actors from around the world.   This historic recognition was supported by States –with a vast majority voting in favour and none voting against these resolutions. It was achieved after five decades of efforts from Indigenous Peoples, human rights defenders, social movements, people of African descent, peasants and campesinos, civil society organizations, United Nations entities, Special Procedures and many others.   It therefore stands as a testament to what international cooperation and participatory processes can achieve for the benefit of present and future generations.   The right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment includes clean air, a safe climate, safe and sustainably produced food, safe and sufficient water, healthy biodiversity and ecosystems, and non-toxic environments.   Industrial food systems impact healthy ecosystems and biodiversity and other elements of the right, therefore, agroecological transformation pathways of industrial food systems must be advanced to safeguard ecosystems and food for future generations.   A healthy environment also includes access to information, meaningful public participation and access to justice and effective remedies.   The recognition of this right by the UN Human Rights Council, followed by the UN General Assembly, inspired an increasing number of States to recognise it in their constitutions or legislation. To date 166 have done so.   The African and the Inter-American human rights systems were the first to recognise this right. It is also included in the Arab Charter of Human Rights and by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which recently adopted a declaration on the right to safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, with a regional action plan currently under development. The Council of Europe has been discussing this recognition for several years, and UN human rights experts have urged member States to begin negotiations on a legally binding instrument recognising the right to a healthy environment.   The legal recognition is strengthened by recent advisory opinions from the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, which confirm that a healthy environment is both a human right, and essential to advancing urgent and systemic transformative changes needed to achieve a healthy planet to all.   We also emphasise the importance and the obligation of States to effectively protect environmental human rights defenders, civil society organizations and movements, including women human rights defenders, independent media and those working to protect the environment, the climate system, lands, the ocean and their territories.   Implementing the right to a healthy environment also requires ensuring that they are highly supported, recognised, and protected, reflecting the crucial importance of their work for all communities, societies and the planet.   Instead, today they increasingly face serious threats attacks and even enforced disapperances and killings, as well as shrinking civic spaces in which to carry out their work.   We note with concern that the recognition of the right to a healthy environment contrasts with the worrying situation faced by environmental human rights defenders, particularly women and girls, Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent, campesinos and peasants, and fisherfolk, independent environmental scientists, independent media, and civil society organizations and movements.   We therefore reaffirm the obligation of States and the responsibility of international entities and business to respect this right and to guarantee a safe space for those who work to defend it.   States must also investigate all enforced disapperances and killings of environmental human rights defenders in line with international standards including the Minnesota Protocol on the investigation of potentially unlawful death (2016) with a view to ensuring truth, justice, accountability, preventing impunity and drawing lessons to avoid repeated violations.   We welcome the positive inclusion of the right to a healthy environment in multilateral decisions, such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and emphasize the importance of continuing with this inclusion and implementation. We stress that States, businesses and international entities must work in a coordinated manner to ensure its effective implementation.   We are also concerned by legislative and policy setbacks as well as the increasing prevalence of war, conflict, occupation and genocide, all of which have direct and profound impacts on the right to a healthy environment. A healthy environment both catalyzes and sustains a healthy and peaceful planet.   Thus, rather than pursuing deregulation, and escalating conflicts, militarization and financing of war, efforts should be shifted towards strengthening the rule of law and increasing investment in environmental protection, climate action, and ecosystem restoration, in accordance with international law obligations.   Recent challenges to explicitly include the right to a healthy environment in international negotiations and agreements underscore the need to renew the collaboration and commitment in advancing this right.   It is vital that States and businesses, as well as all international entities, mainstream the right to a healthy environment; as happened when the recognition of the right was achieved, by closely collaborating for its implementation.   We stress that the inclusion of the right to a healthy environment and a human rights-based approach is fundamental to addressing root causes, preventing and solving the serious impacts of the planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and toxic pollution, with their severe environmental, economic, social, cultural and developmental consequences.   We reiterate that the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is essential for the enjoyment of all human rights and that those in the most marginalised and discriminatory situations are suffering the most from the negative impacts of the triple planetary crisis.   We therefore highlight the importance of ensuring that all actions and initiatives prioritise addressing these impacts and developing intersectional solutions, informed by science as well as by good practices– including Indigenous knowledge, local knowledge, and the meaningful participation of children, youth, women and persons with disabilities–and supported with adequate budgets so that measures are implemented as a matter of priority to support and benefit, in particular, those who have contributed the least to these crises yet suffer the most from their impact.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2026/10/five-years-recognition-right-healthy-environment-un-experts-urge http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/10/justice-systems-front-line-climate-crisis-must-be-fit-purpose-un-expert http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/10/people-and-planet-centred-planning-essential-address-global-existential http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/10/international-carbon-credits-should-not-benefit-climate-harming-actors-un http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/10/un-expert-warns-toxic-pollution-remains-one-greatest-human-rights-challenges http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/un-experts-welcome-recognition-international-court-justice-all-states-must
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