Beatrice Tridimas

Global humanitarian aid continued to decline in 2024 with a funding shortfall stuck at a record high as new and existing conflicts and multiplying climate disasters left more than 320 million people in need of aid.

In 2024, $21.2 billion was raised to help dedicated country programmes, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) figures.

Britain has pledged 1.98 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) from its overseas aid budget to the World Bank to fund international development but as the year closes, NGOs remain disappointed that aid spending is still below a U.N. recommended target.

Britain will provide the money over three years to the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank's fund for the lowest income countries, development minister Anneliese Dodds said in November.

Hundreds of people, and possibly even thousands, may have been killed after Cyclone Chido devastated France’s poorest overseas territory, the Indian Ocean archipelago of Mayotte, over the weekend.

The cyclone was the strongest storm to strike Mayotte in more than 90 years with winds of more than 200 kph (124 mph) tearing up makeshift houses and leaving streets covered in mud and rubble and residents without water or power.

More children are taking perilous routes to reach safety in Europe but rights groups warn the bloc is ill-equipped to help them

Signatories to the Energy Charter Treaty, an agreement that allows fossil fuel companies to sue governments over climate policies, have adopted changes meant to address concerns that the pact undermines efforts to fight climate change.

The 1998 Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) has allowed firms and investors to sue governments on the grounds that their profits could be hurt by policies aimed at cutting planet-heating emissions from burning fossil fuels.

The world has pledged to wean itself off 'dirty' coal to slow the pace of climate change, so why is China - already the world's top producer and consumer of coal - upping its output?

China is home to dozens of polluting coal-fired power plants and emits more greenhouse gasses than any other nation.

Shuttering the world's dirtiest power plants could help to eliminate vast amounts of planet-heating emissions that are threatening international climate goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). 

From India to Poland, these super polluting power plants most often run on coal and emit tens of millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide a year. 

After the intense heat and drought of summer, the threat of a repeat of the devastating floods that swept through Greece's central breadbasket last September is making farmers like Achilleas Gerotolios consider giving it all up.

In the village of Sotirio, where Gerotolios owns a farm, unharvested corn still sits in fields clogged with mud from last year's floods and debris surrounds fruit trees. 

As temperatures soar and tourist arrivals swell, Greece is under pressure to reimagine a tourism model that climate change is making increasingly untenable.

With its turquoise waters and reliable sunshine, Greece has long been a popular holiday destination, attracting nearly 33 million visitors last year and generating 28.5 billion euros in revenue ($31.7 billion).

Setting off with just 60% of the power needed to finish the race, drivers at the Formula E World Championship race in London this month relied on their brakes at tight turns to produce enough energy to complete the race's 39 laps.

The latest model of the electric racecar regenerates nearly half of its power from braking in what the International Automobile Federation (FIA), the motorsport's organiser, describes as the most efficient Formula E car yet.