Biblioteca

This report provides valuable new insights, albeit limited in scope, on the basis of the 64 new NDCs submitted by 64 Parties to the Paris Agreement and recorded in the NDC registry between 1 January 2024 and 30 September 2025, covering about 30 per cent of total global emissions in 2019. It is not possible to draw wide-ranging global-level conclusions or inferences from this limited data set.

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) will take place in Belém, Brazil, from November 10-21.

UNEP is releasing a new COP30 Factsheet Series exploring the most critical adaptation and mitigation themes shaping today’s global climate agenda. The series equips readers with clear, accessible insights into the debates, decisions, and expected outcomes across priority themes.

Designed to help negotiators, policymakers, journalists, and observers navigate the road to Belém, each factsheet takes stock of where we stand today and—crucially—previews what to expect at the conference. What issues are rising up the agenda? Where is progress being made? What major outcomes could emerge from the negotiations?

Topics covered in the series include finance, the Baku–Belém Roadmap, mitigation work programme, adaptation loss and damage, technology negotiations, and key sectors such as cooling, buildings, forests, transport, and more.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has issued this report in response to a request from the State of Palestine to assess environmental damage arising from the conflict in the Gaza Strip, pursuant to United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) Resolution 6/12 regarding “Environmental assistance and recovery in areas affected by armed conflict”. This is the second assessment of environmental damage in the Gaza Strip issued by UNEP since October 2023.

The 2025 Climate Technology Progress Report (CTPR): ‘Advancing biobased technologies in the bioeconomy’ examines how advancing the climate and nature agenda through the integration of technology and sustainable biobased solutions can offer a comprehensive and cost-effective pathway to achieving both objectives simultaneously.

The report is intended as a resource for policymakers, practitioners, and stakeholders seeking to advance integrated, effective, and equitable climate and nature action in the lead-up to COP 30 and beyond.

The Global Cooling Watch 2025, launched today at COP30 in Belém, Brazil, finds that cooling demand could more than triple by 2050 under business as usual, driven by increases in population and wealth, more extreme heat events and low-income households increasingly gaining access to more polluting and inefficient cooling. This would almost double cooling-related greenhouse gas emissions over 2022 levels –pushing cooling emissions to an estimated 7.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2050 – despite efforts to improve energy efficiency, phase down climate-warming refrigerants and overwhelm power grids during peak load.

The report suggests adopting a ‘Sustainable Cooling Pathway’, which could reduce emissions to 64 per cent – 2.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide – below the levels expected in 2050. When combined with rapid decarbonization of the global power sector, residual cooling emissions could fall to 97 per cent below business-as-usual levels.

Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) technologies—such as Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI) and Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) are speculative concepts that aim to temporarily lower global temperatures by reflecting solar radiation back into space. These approaches do not reduce greenhouse gas concentrations—the root cause of climate change—nor do they address its impacts. These technologies also represent different levels of readiness and have been subject to a great deal of political and scientific controversy. Sometimes cast as an emergency tool, SRM remains poorly understood and fraught with uncertainties and risks and is no substitute for mitigation or stronger adaptation. For now, SRM is largely confined to models, simulations and theory. The unintended consequences include disruptions to climate patterns, biodiversity and the ozone layer, with regional hydrological impacts modelled as being uneven.

This Issues Note provides a review of the latest literature on specific topics that are of relevance to UNEP’s mandate. It also presents a set of agreed approaches and recommendations regarding UNEP’s communication of the subject matter. It is meant to ensure consistency in messaging across the organization on this topic.

Climate Change in the courtroom: Trends, impacts, and emerging lessonsis the fourth edition of a series first launched in 2017. Drawing on data from the Sabin Center’s Climate Change Litigation Databases, the report highlights emerging trends and key issues shaping the field of climate litigation.

As of 30 June 2025, a cumulative 3,099 climate-related cases have been filed in 55 national jurisdictions and 24 international or regional courts, tribunals, or quasi-judicial bodies including landmark opinions by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), among others.

This report serves as an essential resource for judges, lawyers, advocates, policymakers, researchers, environmental defenders, climate activists, human rights advocates, NGOs, businesses, and the international community, offering insights into how courts are becoming avenues for addressing the multifaceted legal dimensions of climate change.

The report updates the cost of adaptation finance needed in developing countries, putting it at US$310 billion per year in 2035, when based on modelled costs. When based on extrapolated needs expressed in Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans, this figure rises to US$365 billion a year. Meanwhile, international public adaptation finance flows to developing countries were US$26 billion in 2023: down from US$28 billion the previous year. This makes adaptation financing needs in developing countries 12-14 times as much as current flows.

If current finance trends continue, the Glasgow Climate Pact goal of doubling international public adaptation finance from 2019 levels by 2025 will not be achieved, while the New Collective Quantified Goal for climate finance is not ambitious enough to close the finance gap. The private sector could do more – with potential to provide around US$50 billion per year if backed by targeted policy action and blended finance solutions.

While far from enough, there is visible progress on closing the planning and implementation gap. Most countries have at least one national adaptation policy, strategy or plan in place; countries are getting better at mainstreaming adaptation into wider national development planning; and countries reported on over 1,600 implemented adaptation actions, mostly on biodiversity, agriculture, water and infrastructure. Climate fund support for new adaptation projects rose in 2024, although emerging financial constraints make the future unclear.

Both public and private finance must step up to increase adaptation, taking care not to increase the proportion of debt instruments used by vulnerable nations.

The 2025 White Paper From Silos to Synergies outlines the progress and practical pathways for integrated implementation of the Rio Conventions. It highlights how countries are advancing from fragmented, project-based action toward coherent planning, financing, and monitoring systems that deliver multiple benefits across the three agendas. By synthesizing lessons from global dialogues and emerging country examples, the White Paper aims to sustain momentum for system-level reform, providing both evidence and incentive for scaling up integrated, country-led approaches. It also underscores the role of data, fiscal coherence, and inclusive governance in accelerating a transition from coordination to true coherence.

Drawing on 10 case studies from the Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), this publication shows how action-oriented pedagogies can empower people of all ages to contribute to a more sustainable future. By integrating participatory and experiential approaches such as problem-based learning and community engagement, these initiatives illustrate the transformative potential of education in fostering sustainability competencies and agency among learners. Marking the 20th anniversary of the Global RCE Network, the volume contributes to the discourse on innovative pedagogical practices and provides insights for educators, policymakers and institutions seeking to advance ESD in various educational settings.

Many indigenous peoples and marginalized populations live in environments that are highly exposed to climate change impacts, such as arid zones, small islands , high- altitude regions, and the Arctic . As a result of this heightened exposure and their natural resource- based livelihoods, these societies are already observing and responding to changes exacerbated by climate change. Local and indigenous knowledge is therefore a source of invaluable information for climate change assessment and adaptation . This unique transdisciplinary publication is the result of collaboration between UNESCO ’s Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (LINKS ) programme, the United Nations University’s Traditional Knowledge Initiative, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC ), and other organizations. Chapters written by indigenous peoples, scientists and development experts provide insight into how diverse societies observe and adapt to changing environments. A broad range of case studies illustrate how these societies, building upon traditional knowledge handed down through generations, are already developing their own solutions for dealing with a rapidly changing climate and how this might be useful on a global scale. Of interest to policy makers, social and natural scientists, and indigenous peoples and experts, this book provides an indispensable reference for those interested in climate science, policy and adaptation. This publication is the second in the “Local & Indigenous Knowledge” series published by UNESCO.

Since the ICPD in 1994, what was then referred to as “climate change” has evolved into today’s “climate crisis”, and is now recognized as the existential threat of our time. Recent increases in global warming are unprecedented in human history, causing the melting of polar ice caps, a rise in sea levels, the warming and acidification of the oceans, and the increasing frequency, duration and intensity of adverse weather events. Scientists agree that we have entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, in which humans are the primary drivers of change in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The latest estimates show that if the burning of fossil fuels and their corresponding carbon emissions are not drastically reduced, we will reach a 3.2°C degree increase in warming by the end of the century. Approximately 50 to 75 per cent of the global population could be exposed to periods of life-threatening climatic conditions due to extreme heat and humidity.

The climate crisis is already disrupting social, economic and natural systems. It is pressuring water availability, food production, transport and urban infrastructure as well as biodiversity and human health. Examples of devastating impacts have already been recorded in various climate hotspots. In West and Central Africa, global warming continues to worsen droughts, desertification, floods, food insecurity, human displacement, social unrest and insecurity. Climate impacts on large semiarid agrosystems are making livelihoods difficult to sustain, especially for those directly dependent on agriculture. Increasing drought has led to escalating competition over grazing land, heightening water stress and food insecurity, all of which are risk factors for conflicts; indeed, the region is currently home to 7 of 13 medium-intensity conflict countries. Other critical climate hotspots include many small island developing States, as rising sea levels and extreme weather events such as cyclones pose existential risks for these island nations. The consequences of the climate crisis amplify inequalities, such as gender inequality, and contribute to social trauma that heightens vulnerabilities and violence, including against women and girls.

The climate crisis will have an impact on everyone, everywhere, affecting both present and future generations to whom people today have a moral obligation. While no individual, country, system or sector is entirely spared from the consequences of the climate crises, climate impacts are grossly unequal, within and among countries. Low- and middle-income countries that have contributed the least to carbon emissions are the most severely impacted by the climate crisis, and are less able to afford and implement necessary adaptation and resilience strategies to prevent and recover from loss and damage. Among groups of people, poor women and marginalized populations bear the brunt. Around the world, individuals are being deprived of their “human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment of which a safe and stable climate is a key element. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report stresses that rights-based approaches to climate action are crucial to achieving outcomes that are both effective and sustainable.

The publication provides a summary on the state of the climate indicators in 2024 with sections on key climate indicators, extreme events and impacts. The indicators include global temperatures, greenhouse gas concentration, ocean heat content, sea level rise, ocean acidification, Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, glaciers , precipitation, with an analysis of major drivers of inter-annual climate variability during the year including the El Niño Souther Oscillation and other ocean and atmoshperic indices. The highlighted extreme events include those related to tropical cyclones and wind storms; flooding, drought and extreme heat and cold events. The publication also provides most recent finding on climate related risks and impacts including on food security and population displacement.

Women and girls are taking action worldwide to realize human rights, particularly the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, and the rights of nature. They are defending land, water, natural resources, territories, and communities from environmental harms and climate impacts, often at great personal risk, facing criminalization, threats, stigmatization, violence, and even death.

Women environmental human rights defenders (WEHRDs), many of whom are indigenous peoples and people of African descent, face gender-specific challenges and violence. They are targeted not only as defenders of rights, land, and natural resources but also as women defying discriminatory societal gender norms. These threats include gender-based violence, assault, threats to their families, defamation campaigns, and other forms of gender-based intimidation, offline and online, to silence their voices and undermine their work.

As we mark the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+30), which emphasized the importance of women’s participation in environmental decision-making and action, this brief outlines key actions for defending the women who defend our planet. It underscores the importance for Member States to reaffirm their commitments and responsibilities, and to respect, protect, and fulfil their human rights obligations to WEHRDs, including the right of indigenous peoples to free, prior, and informed consent, and ensure WEHRDs’ full, meaningful, and equal participation in decision-making processes and environmental and climate action.

Sustainable finance taxonomies have emerged as a key policy tool in global efforts to channel capital towards sustainable development priorities. While notable progress has been made globally in the publication of green-oriented taxonomies, which classify economic activities based on their contribution to environmentally sustainable objectives, less emphasis has been placed to date on socially sustainable objectives, including gender equality. A just transition to a resilient future for all relies on accelerating investment in gender equality and social inclusion.

Within this context, this issue paper aims to provide guidance on integrating gender equality considerations into sustainable finance taxonomies. It covers both how gender equality can be targeted as a priority objective within social- and sustainability-oriented taxonomies as well as how gender equality considerations can be integrated into green-oriented taxonomies. The paper underscores the need to go beyond just codifying a list of gender-labelled activities to systematically integrate gender equality considerations throughout the taxonomy development process: from governance structures to technical criteria to monitoring and consultation.

Considering that gender is a more nascent area in taxonomies, the paper highlights emerging examples as well as insights and lessons learned from other relevant policy toolkits and methodologies for practitioners.

Targeting financial regulators, government authorities, financial institutions, the private sector, gender advisors, and other stakeholders, this paper seeks to contribute to evolving conversations on social objectives in taxonomies and to support the development of new taxonomies and the enhancement or refinement of existing ones to better support gender equality and women’s empowerment objectives.

Leadership is at the heart of quality education. There is a growing belief that educational leadership is the second most important factor explaining learning outcomes. Leaders at multiple levels matter, from those within the school, to those outside of the school such as middle managers, and including those outside of education systems in government, or those working on legislature and oversight.

The 2024/5 GEM Report released on 31 October, 2024, at the Global Education Meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil examines the requirements of good leadership in education and how they vary between countries and over time. It looks at the visions and goals that are driving leadership in education and examines the extent and through what practices the exercise of leadership contributes to better education outcomes.

External factors including social, cultural, governance conditions are looked at to see how they impact on effective leadership, as well as the policy levers that can be used to develop leadership skills in different contexts.

211 PEER country profiles containing laws and policies related to the selection, preparation and development of school leaders helped to inform the report.

The 2025 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report highlights the importance of mountain waters, including alpine glaciers, which are vital for meeting basic human needs such as water supply and sanitation. They are also essential to ensuring food and energy security to billions of people living in and around mountain regions and areas downstream. They also support economic growth through various water-reliant industries. As the ‘water towers’ of the world, mountains are an essential source of fresh water. They store water in the form of ice and snow during cold seasons, releasing it during warmer seasons as a major source of fresh water for users downstream. Mountains play a unique and critical role in the global water cycle, and they affect atmospheric circulation, which drives weather and precipitation patterns.