Three years left to limit warming to 1.5C, leading scientists warn - 2025
The Earth could be doomed to breach the symbolic 1.5C warming limit in as little as three years at current levels of carbon dioxide emissions.
That's the stark warning from more than 60 of the world's leading climate scientists in the most up-to-date assessment of the state of global warming.
Nearly 200 countries agreed to try to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above levels of the late 1800s in a landmark agreement in 2015, with the aim of avoiding some of the worst impacts of climate change.
But countries have continued to burn record amounts of coal, oil and gas and chop down carbon-rich forests - leaving that international goal in peril.
"Things are all moving in the wrong direction," said lead author Prof Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds.
"We're seeing some unprecedented changes and we're also seeing the heating of the Earth and sea-level rise accelerating as well."
These changes "have been predicted for some time and we can directly place them back to the very high level of emissions", he added.
Tropical forests destroyed at fastest recorded rate in 2024
The world's tropical forests, which provide a crucial buffer against climate change, disappeared faster than ever recorded last year, new satellite analysis suggests.
Researchers estimate that 67,000 sq km (26,000 sq mi) of these pristine, old-growth forests were lost in 2024 – an area nearly as large as the Republic of Ireland, or 18 football pitches a minute.
Major report connects the world's environmental challenges - 2024
Major report connects the world's environmental challenges
Issues like climate chante, biodiversity and water are all interlinked, the report says
Climate change, nature loss and food insecurity are all inextricably linked and dealing with them as separate issues won't work, a major report has warned.
Unsustainable logging, fishing and hunting 'driving extinction' - 2022
One in five people around the world rely on wild animals, plants and fungi for food and livelihoods, according to a landmark assessment.
But many wild species are not being harvested sustainably, putting food security at risk, the report found.
In 2019, experts estimated that one million plants and animals could go extinct in coming decades.
And much of this is being driven by unsustainable fishing, hunting and logging.
Now a new report by the same influential body concludes that the sustainable use of wild species is critical for people and nature.
And climate change and increased demand is likely to push more species to the brink, putting food security at risk.
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is conservation scientists' equivalent of the IPCC group of climate scientists.
Their most recent assessment, approved by 139 countries in Bonn, Germany, focuses on how fishing, hunting and logging can be carried out more sustainably without damaging biodiversity and food security.
It found that billions of people across the world rely on 50,000 species of wild animals, plants and fungi for food, medicine, fuel, income and other purposes.
The assessment paints a picture of widespread exploitation of nature, with about a third of wild fish in the ocean overfished, more than 10% of wild trees threatened by unsustainable logging, and more than 1,300 mammals pushed to extinction by unsustainable hunting.
Rubber plantations destroying biodiversity and forcing habitat loss for endangered birds, bats and primates in Southeast Asia
The global demand for rubber tyres is threatening protected forests in Southeast Asia, according to a study. Tropical forests are being cleared for rubber plantations, putting endangered birds, bats and primates at risk, say UK researchers. By 2024, up to 8.5 million hectares of new rubber plantations will be needed to meet demand, they report in Conservation Letters. This could have a "catastrophic" impact on wildlife, they warn. Species such as the endangered white-shouldered ibis, yellow-cheeked crested gibbon and clouded leopard could lose precious habitat, said the team led by Eleanor Warren-Thomas, from the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. Also, the banteng, which is found in the forests of Cambodia. There's a lot we can do as scientists and the public to make rubber production more wildlife-friendly. "The tyre industry consumes 70% of all natural rubber grown, and rising demand for vehicle and aeroplane tyres is behind the recent expansion of plantations. But the impact of this is a loss of tropical biodiversity," she said. "We predict that between 4.3 and 8.5 million hectares of new plantations will be required to meet projected demand by 2024. This will threaten significant areas of Asian forest, including many protected areas." Eight-point-five million hectares is about the size of the land area of Austria. Biodiversity concern Rubber is the most rapidly expanding tree crop within mainland Southeast Asia.
Brazil drought - deforestation and slash and burn land clearing causing drought in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Mud in reservoir: Levels in the Cantareira reservoir system remain dangerously low. Fires to clear land for agriculture in Sao Felix Do Xingu municipality, Para, Brazil - June 20, 2009. In Brazil's biggest city, a record dry season and ever-increasing demand for water has led to a punishing drought. It has actually been raining quite heavily over the last few days in and around Sao Paulo but it has barely made a drop of difference. The main reservoir system that feeds this immense city is still dangerously low, and it would take months of intense, heavy rainfall for water levels to return to anything like normal. So how does a country that produces an estimated 12% of the world's fresh water end up with a chronic shortage of this most essential resource - in its biggest and most economically important city? It's interesting to note that both the local state government and the federal government have been slow to acknowledge there is a crisis, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. That might have been a politically expedient position to take during the recent election campaign, when the shortage of water in Sao Paulo was a thorny political issue, but the apparent lack of urgency in the city and wider state now is worrying many. At the main Cantareira reservoir system, which feeds much of this city's insatiable demand for water, things have almost reached rock bottom. Huge pipes suck out what water remains as the reservoir dips below 10% of its usual capacity.
This photo taken on 13 November 2013 shows a timber company's vehicle driving down a dirt road in the forests of in Berau, East Kalimantan. Researcher say deforestation has led to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and a loss of Indonesia's biodiversity. A new study has shown that Indonesia lost about 60,000 sq km of virgin forest - an area close to the size of Ireland - over a period of 12 years. The rate of deforestation has increased so much that Indonesia has for the first time surpassed Brazil in the rate of its clearance of tropical forests. The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Scientists monitored the growth of deforested land in Indonesia between 2000 and 2012 using satellites. Picture of Riau province's rate of deforestation. Satellite imagery of Indonesia's Riau province showed wetland forest loss (in red) and forest degradation (in blue) over the study period They say the land was cleared to make way for palm oil plantations and other farms. By 2012, the loss of primary forest every year in Indonesia was estimated to be higher than that in Brazil, said scientists. In that year, Indonesia lost 8,400 sq km of forest compared to Brazil which lost 4,600 sq km.
The role forest matter plays in aquatic food chains is a relatively recent discovery. Deforestation is reducing the amount of leaf litter falling into rivers and lakes, resulting in less food being available to fish, a study suggests. Researchers found the amount of food available affected the size of young fish and influenced the number that went on to reach adulthood. The team said the results illustrated a link between watershed protection and healthy freshwater fish populations. The findings have been published in Nature Communications. "We found fish that had almost 70% of their biomass made from carbon that came from trees and leaves instead of aquatic food chain sources," explained lead author Andrew Tanentzap from the University of Cambridge's Department of Plant Sciences. "While plankton raised on algal carbon is more nutritious, organic carbon from trees washed into lakes is a hugely important food source for freshwater fish, bolstering their diet to ensure good size and strength," he added. Dr Tanentzap observed: "Where you have more dissolved forest matter you have more bacteria, more bacteria equals more zooplankton. "Areas with the most zooplankton had the largest, fattest fish," he added, referring to the study's results. The team of scientists from Canada and the UK collected data from eight locations with varying levels of tree cover around Daisy Lake, Canada, which forms part of the boreal ecosystem.
Brazil says Amazon deforestation rose 28% in a year
Minister Izabella Teixeira says she will tackle the problem with local authorities.
Brazil says the rate of deforestation in the Amazon increased by 28% between August 2012 and last July, after years of decline. The government is working to reverse this "crime", Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira said. Activists have blamed the increase in destruction on a controversial reform to Brazil's forest protection law. Last year Brazil reported the lowest rate of deforestation in the Amazon since monitoring began. The provisional statistics from August 2012 to last July suggest that the area suffering deforestation was 5,843 sq km (2,255 sq miles), compared to 4,571 sq km (1,765 sq miles) in the previous 12 months. The 28% rise interrupts a period of declining deforestation which began in 2009. However, it still remains the second lowest annual figure for forest loss in absolute terms. The worst year on record was 2004, when 27,000 sq km of forest was destroyed. Monthly data from several scientific institutions had suggested the deforestation rate might be on the rise.
This photo taken on 13 November 2013 shows a timber company's vehicle driving down a dirt road in the forests of in Berau, East Kalimantan. Researcher say deforestation has led to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and a loss of Indonesia's biodiversity. A new study has shown that Indonesia lost about 60,000 sq km of virgin forest - an area close to the size of Ireland - over a period of 12 years. The rate of deforestation has increased so much that Indonesia has for the first time surpassed Brazil in the rate of its clearance of tropical forests. The study was published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Scientists monitored the growth of deforested land in Indonesia between 2000 and 2012 using satellites. 
Picture of Riau province's rate of deforestation. Satellite imagery of Indonesia's Riau province showed wetland forest loss (in red) and forest degradation (in blue) over the study period They say the land was cleared to make way for palm oil plantations and other farms. By 2012, the loss of primary forest every year in Indonesia was estimated to be higher than that in Brazil, said scientists. In that year, Indonesia lost 8,400 sq km of forest compared to Brazil which lost 4,600 sq km.
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