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World leaders, heads of business and civil society members will descend on the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheikh on Sunday for the United Nations Climate Conference (COP27).

The climate crisis increasing its intensity and reach, with droughts, floods and heatwaves becoming regular occurrences in both hemispheres. This has triggered a global conversation on how to help people, ecosystems and economies to adapt to a new reality known as climate change adaptation.

The window to take urgent climate action is closing rapidly. Unless countries dramatically scale up their efforts to counter the climate crisis, the world faces a global catastrophe, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned today.

24 October marks United Nations Day, the anniversary of the day in 1945 when the UN Charter entered into force. In the past 77 years, the UN has worked to maintain international peace and security, promote social progress, improve living standards and support human rights.

The destructive impacts of the climate crisis are being felt around the world. This year, unprecedented floods have left one-third of Pakistan underwater, people and animals are dying from climate-related droughts in East Africa, and China is experiencing the most severe heat wave ever recorded.

In the aftermath of intense rains during Nepal’s 2019 monsoon season, farmer Geeta Tharu found her house submerged in a pool of water. The rains destroyed Tharu’s grain stores, which eventually plunged her family into debt.

In the Mpanda Commune in north-western Burundi, a long ribbon of rubber – about a metre high and two metres wide – snakes through a farmer’s field before disappearing into foliage.

A woman is sowing her crops alongside the structure, which is bulging with water and circles much of the commune.

Catastrophic floods have hit Pakistan in recent weeks that have killed over 1,000 people, displaced close to 500,000 and impacted the lives of over 30 million residents.

The floods have left more than one-third of the country submerged in water, with the government saying more rain is expected.

Heat records continue to topple across the globe as concurrent heatwaves bake multiple countries.

From the United States to Europe and China to Japan, extreme temperatures have soared for weeks, killing hundreds of people, sparking wildfires in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Greece and displacing thousands of residents, as many seek refuge in public cooling centers.

Just over two years ago, Christophe Hodder was selected as the first UN Climate Security and Environmental Advisor to Somalia. Since then, he had spearheaded a global effort to bring peace to a country mired in a three-decade-long civil war. A key part of his mission has been to help Somalia counter a record-setting drought and a series of other environmental problems, which have been blamed for stoking the conflict.

A prolonged and deadly heatwave has hit large swaths of India and Pakistan affecting hundreds of millions of people and sparking food and energy shortages. Experts say the extreme heat is a grim preview of what the climate crisis has in store for a region home to over 1 billion people.

As world leaders gathered in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972 for the UN Conference on the Human Environment, they were facing a planet in crisis. Acid rain was falling on cities. Oil spills were fouling the oceans. And forests were being clear-cut into oblivion.

Ancient forests. Snow-capped mountain peaks. And towering waterfalls cascading down rocky slopes. China’s Shennongjia National Park is the stuff of legends, providing inspiration to thousands of years of Chinese poets, artists and authors.

It’s also home to one of the world’s most elusive primates, the endangered golden snub-nosed monkey, who spends winters in large groups of mostly males deep in the mountain forests of Asia.

The world is in the midst of a climate emergency, with growing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions endangering human and environmental health.

It’s 9 a.m. and the rural district of Mount Airy in central Jamaica is already sweltering. As cars trundle along the region’s unpaved roads, chocolate-brown dust clouds burst from behind their back wheels. 

In May 2022, global leaders are meeting in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire for the fifteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

In Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, one of Africa’s fastest growing cities, families come to enjoy the scenic coastline along Barack Obama Drive, gazing out into the vast Indian Ocean.

This piece was originally published on 16 December 2021 and the latest update is based on UNEP's ActNow Speak Up! campaign.

From Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to the highlands of Armenia, the climate crisis is being increasingly felt in vulnerable mountain environments. Amplified warming at higher elevations, changing precipitation patterns and intensified natural hazards are adding substantially to development challenges.   

Energy security is in the spotlight as many countries seek to reduce their reliance on foreign fossil fuels due to rising fuel prices spiked by the war in Ukraine, and the resulting geopolitical uncertainty.

To stave off a climate catastrophe, the world needs to cut emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gasses by 50 per cent within the decade.

For many, ambitious targets such as this can induce a sense of dread and paralysis.

As the sun sets in central Zambia, orange rays reflect across the Lukanga Swamp, a vast wetland spanning 2,600 km².

A watery path cuts through the swamp’s reeds and purple water lilies, where dugout canoes pass daily, ferrying fishers to and from their floating camps. Among them is John Chisela, one of more than 6 million people who rely on the wetlands – and the surrounding forests – for food, firewood and income.

In November 2021, scientists at the Famine Early Warning System Network sent out a warning that an unprecedented drought in the Horn of Africa was imminent if poor seasonal rainfall continued into 2022. Tragically, their prediction is turning out to be prescient. 

In the past three weeks, tens of thousands of Australians have had to evacuate their homes after devastating floods struck the eastern part of the country.

Some regions experienced their worst flooding in decades, as torrential rain submerged residential areas, cut power lines and caused reservoirs to swell past the bursting point, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in damage.

Whether it’s Europe, the Australian coast or the rainforests of Brazil, unrestrained wildfires – shrouded by black smoke and punctuated by the crackle of burning vegetation – have laid waste to some of the world’s most-iconic landscapes in recent years.

These blazes, directly and indirectly, impact millions of people and myriad habitats globally – and they’re becoming more common.