When the rain began falling in late May, Usman Ndagi thought it was like every other downpour since the start of the rainy season in his hometown of Mokwa. But what seemed at first like harmless rain has brought days of devastation for himself and many families in the town in northern Nigeria.
Ndagi woke up to screams on the morning of May 29 to see that the rain had flooded his entire neighbourhood. While his house was not directly affected, from a distance he could see people being swept away by the water. They were “calling for help but we couldn’t help them because it was risky”, he said.
Three of Ndagi’s relatives – some of whom had returned home for the Eid celebrations – are among the more than 200 people confirmed dead from the floods, while rescue officials are still searching for over 500 others.
Ndagi belongs to a group of youths who are actively helping to rescue victims, search for bodies and relocate people to camps where they can receive humanitarian support.
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“It is unimaginable,” Ndagi told Climate Home, detailing how dead bodies are decaying under the rubble and infusing the air with a terrible smell.
Floods made worse by climate change
With over 3,000 people displaced from their homes, the Nigerian government has blamed the flood partly on climate change, adding that the heavy rain overwhelmed Mokwa’s drainage and was worsened by unregulated housing blocking a usually dry River Dingi, a tributary of the Niger River.
Ibrahim Hussaini, acting director-general of Niger State’s emergency agency, said the flood was unprecedented and such loss of life had never been recorded before in Mokwa. He said the impacts of climate change, climate variability and deforestation have become such that “areas that were never previously prone to flooding are now being flooded”.
In 2022, scientists from the World Weather Attribution group said that floods in West Africa at the time were caused by climate change exacerbating heavy rainfall. They have not yet conducted a study on the floods that hit Mokwa in recent days.
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Earlier this year, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) pointed to Niger State, where Mokwa is located, as one of the states at risk of flooding from April to November. In its 2025 flood outlook, the agency warned that the country as a whole is experiencing increasingly severe floods and there is an urgent need for comprehensive flood protection measures.
Infrastructure failure
Nigeria’s water resources minister Joseph Utsev also noted that “the absence of efficient alternative drainage channels worsened the situation” in Mokwa.
Last year, the Niger State government received a $10 million loan from the World Bank, part of which was to be used to construct storm-water drainage structures in Mokwa and other towns to address flooding and gully erosion. But a request for bids to carry out the project was only published in April, and construction had not started before the floods.
In dense towns like Mokwa – whose population numbers around 400,000 – and across much of Nigeria, drainage systems are either poorly designed or completely overwhelmed. And with the rapidly growing urban sprawl, lack of planning, erection of buildings in wetlands and floodplains, and drainage systems choked with waste, heavy rains quickly turn into disasters.
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Lack of an adaptation plan
Despite warnings from the country’s hydrological and meteorological agencies, floods are a rising threat to Nigeria’s inhabitants, causing significant loss of life and destruction to property and infrastructure annually. Last year, according to the country’s emergency management agency (NEMA), over 1 million people were affected by floods across the country, which caused more than 300 deaths.
In its flooding outlook this year, NIHSA had explained that efforts to prevent and adapt to flooding have, for too long, being “fragmented and reactive” and usually “left to humanitarian responses at the last minute”.
Lucky Abeng, a Nigerian climate activist, said the devastating flood in Mokwa shows that state-level authorities have little to no idea about early warning systems. He said that, beyond releasing early warnings at the national level, there is a need for climate education and outreach that would enable community champions to communicate disaster risk reduction measures in local dialect.
With seasonal rains set to intensify in the coming months, Abeng said he hopes “the government will move away from waiting for these types of disasters to strike and then bring in relief materials, to proactively engaging communities… on measures to reduce the magnitude of such reoccurring disasters”.
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A government official, who did not want to be named, told Climate Home that addressing these challenges will be better prioritised when the country finalises its National Adaptation Plan (NAP) – a key requirement by countries under the UN climate regime – to help build capacity and resilience against climate change. So far 63 developing countries, including South Africa, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have submitted their plans.
Nigeria has a NAP framework that was developed in 2020, but the actual plan is yet to be completed. Once finalised, the official said it will provide recommendations on measures that can be incorporated into plans when building infrastructure such as roads – and each sector of the economy will ensure that budget plans have an adaptation focus.
He added that the NAP could also include recommendations such as the need for innovative financing tools such as flood insurance or community resilience funds to help address disasters like the Mokwa flood.
The official, who is part of the team working on the country’s adaptation plan, said “we are doing this, so everybody – including the government, ministers in the housing sectors, health, roads – will have these measures when planning and the government can also make provisions for adaptation in the budget.”
The post Nigeria’s deadly flood exposes urgent need for climate adaptation plan appeared first on Climate Home News.
Nigeria’s deadly flood exposes urgent need for climate adaptation plan
This is a republication of November’s edition of The Climate Agenda – a subscriber-only newsletter designed to keep you informed of the key events, negotiations and announcements happening every month. If you want to receive The Climate Agenda straight to your inbox at the start of each month, sign up as a subscriber today.
COP31 begins in one week, and we’ll have five specialist reporters on the ground in Antalya, Türkiye, bringing you every development as it happens. From the negotiations to leaders’ speeches and side events, we’ll be there to dissect what it all means for international climate policy on electrification, just transition, adaptation finance and much more.
Here’s what you need to know for November, why it matters and what to expect.
US midterm elections
Tuesday 3 November – United States
The geopolitical highlight for the first week of November is the US midterm elections, which will show whether American voters are in any mood to forgive President Donald Trump for failing to bring down the cost of living. From an energy perspective, his pro-oil and gas stance hasn’t led to cheaper prices for consumers, pushed up by the US-instigated Iran conflict. And his diesel deal with Russia won’t yet have made a difference at the pump.
The key issue for climate and energy policy is whether the Republicans hold onto their governing trifecta. If so, then expect continued dismantling of regulations that protect the environment, as well as strong backing for fossil fuel production. If the Democrats regain control of Congress, which polls suggest is possible, it could trigger a push to restore Biden-era clean energy tax credits, and support states wanting to restart mothballed wind and solar projects.
Data centres have been a hot-wire issue, with growing community opposition to their expansion – partly due to concerns over rising utility bills as the facilities gobble power. Whether Republicans or Democrats win Congress, both are likely to make tech firms pay for the extra electricity production they need, with the latter favouring renewable sources.
Governor races are also taking place in key states for climate issues, including Democrat-run California, which has used the courts to fight Trump’s attacks on clean energy.
Read more: National climate plans now promise half the emission cuts expected by UN
Read more: The more Europe relies on the US for energy, the more it’s vulnerable to pressure by Trump
COP30 Deforestation and Fossil Fuel Transition Roadmaps
Tuesday 3 November – Brazil
Brazil is set to unveil two global roadmaps: one for transitioning away from fossil fuels, the other for ending deforestation.
The COP30 presidency promised them in the dying hours of the Belém summit last November as a last-minute fix to break a political impasse. Since then, it has been consulting with countries, experts and campaigners around the world to gather ideas and sketch out the elements to include in these blueprints.
Don’t expect the roadmaps to offer any new global targets or give direct instructions on what countries must do, either to cut fossil fuel production and consumption or better protect forests. Rather, Brazil has said the documents will identify barriers and priority actions, highlight existing mechanisms and present a range of options that can be adapted to different national contexts.
It remains unclear what will happen with the reports once they are delivered on Tuesday. At the Bonn talks last June, a group of European and small island nations called for the roadmaps to be brought into the official negotiations, warning that a one-off report won’t cut it. But such efforts would undoubtedly face stiff opposition from fossil fuel-producing nations that objected to drafting the energy transition roadmap within the formal UN process last year.
Read more: European, island states seek clear future for global roadmap to cut fossil fuels
Read more: COP30 roadmap to end deforestation will invite countries to draft domestic plans
Read more: What we need to see in the roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels
UNEP Adaptation Gap Report
Wednesday 4 November – Nairobi, Kenya
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) will publish its annual assessment of how well the world is planning, implementing and – crucially – financing measures to cope with worsening climate impacts.
Past editions have made for grim reading. Last year’s report warned of a widening gap between what developing countries need for adaptation and what they can access. It estimated they will need $310–365 billion a year by 2035, which is 12 to 14 times current international flows. The report also found that a goal of doubling international public adaptation finance by 2025 was likely to have been missed.
This year’s edition will be closely watched with adaptation expected to be a big-ticket item at COP31. Governments are likely to discuss the specifics of a commitment to triple adaptation finance for developing nations by 2035, agreed at COP30 last year – particularly what the baseline for that pledge is. Negotiators will be debating how to track progress against the 59 indicators of the Global Goal on Adaptation.
Read more: Editor’s Desk: Nepal’s disaster has laid bare the world’s adaptation accountability gap
Read more: Bonn climate talks end in “gridlock” on adaptation and emissions-cutting
Read more: New data shows rich nations likely missed 2025 goal to double adaptation finance
COP31 Climate Conference
Monday 9 November – Friday 20 November – Antalya, Türkiye
The climate community’s attention turns this month to Antalya for the annual UN climate summit. From the outset, COP31 will have an unprecedented, and potentially explosive, set-up: Türkiye is COP president overseeing the non-negotiated Action Agenda, while Australia runs the negotiations.
Billed, once again, as an “implementation COP”, the talks come amid a global energy crisis largely sparked by the actions of the US government, which is not expected to show up on the Turkish Riviera. It is also the first COP in the era of climate overshoot, coming just weeks after the UN officially confirmed the 1.5C warming limit will be breached and set out a narrow pathway to bring temperatures back down to the most ambitious Paris goal.
Unlike most recent COPs, the formal negotiations lack a clear headline item. Countries are due to establish and define the scope of the Just Transition Mechanism agreed in Belém last year, including its rules, governance and possible funding arrangements. On adaptation, vulnerable countries want a clearer path to delivering last year’s pledge to triple finance by 2035 and to putting the new progress indicators to work on the ground.
Governments are also likely to clash over next steps on the transition away from fossil fuels, and especially over whether the mitigation work programme – the forum dedicated to emission-cutting measures – has any future beyond this year.
Notable events to look out for in Antalya:
Opening session (9 November): The summit kicks off with the customary first-morning plenary. After the usual pageantry from the host nation, negotiating blocs and individual countries will deliver statements setting out their stall for the next two weeks. Watch out for a potential fight over the summit’s agenda – perhaps on issues relating to finance and trade following submissions requesting additional items – also a COP tradition.
Electrification (10 November): On Energy Day, the Turkish presidency is expected to formally launch its flagship electrification pledge, revealing which countries have signed up. Signatories will voluntarily commit to raising electricity’s share of global final energy consumption to 35% by 2035, though the current text does not require that power to come from clean sources. There is also a question mark over whether and how this can be included in the political cover decision the COP co-hosts have said they will aim to produce.
Leaders Summit (11-12 November): Heads of state and governments will jet into town for the traditional high-level segment in the middle of the first week, where world leaders typically talk up their climate record, air their grievances and call for more action.
Relatively few powerful leaders are on the list this time. Brazil’s Lula is set for another star turn this year, fresh from his surprise election win in October. The UK’s Andy Burnham, Spain’s Pedro Sanchez and China’s vice-premier Ding Xuexiang are expected, alongside Türkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Australia’s Anthony Albanese. In addition, African and small island nations will feature prominently.
Our COP31 Briefing newsletter will offer a more in-depth preview of the talks later this week.
Read more: Early speakers’ list suggests few powerful leaders will attend COP31
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Read more: From Belém to Antalya – gains, gaps and challenges for a new Just Transition Mechanism
International Maritime Organization (IMO) Shipping Talks
Monday 23 November – Friday 4 December – London, United Kingdom
One year on from explosive talks in which Trump’s officials teamed up with Saudi Arabia to delay a deal to make the shipping industry greener, governments will gather on the banks of the Thames for another attempt to reach agreement.
The Net Zero Framework, provisionally agreed in October 2025, includes a series of emissions reduction targets for the owners of large ships along with penalties for not meeting them, rewards for doing so and measures to make the maritime transition fair.
The framework is likely to be either tweaked or radically rewritten so that it’s more acceptable to the US and Saudis. Brazil and Japan have submitted compromise proposals. Analysts find those will move shipping further away from being able to meet its climate goals.
There will be closed-door talks between November 23-27 and a second week of talks open to accredited media from November 30 to December 4. Agreement on a proposal, perhaps decided through a vote, is expected after long and technical negotiations. The shipping industry’s 3% share of the world’s emissions is at stake.
Read more: London talks raise hopes for green shipping deal
The post What’s on the climate calendar for November 2026? appeared first on Climate Home News.
Delegates will soon gather in the Turkish resort city of Antalya for UN climate negotiations, against a backdrop of war, energy crisis and climate extremes.
At COP31, nations will try to find agreement on various issues, including climate finance for developing countries and a global “just transition” towards a cleaner economy.
This summit is unusual due to its joint presidency, which means that Australia is leading the negotiations while Turkey hosts the conference.
Outside the formal negotiations, Turkey is also pushing its own priorities as part of a wider “action agenda”, including electrification, oceans and “green industrialisation”.
In order to track parties’ positions on key negotiating points and wider issues at COP31, Carbon Brief has analysed around 100 documents and captured them in the interactive table below.
The first column shows the countries and UN negotiating blocs, the second shows the topics up for debate and the third indicates specific issues within those topics.
The final column indicates the positions that the parties have expressed on each topic. These range from “priority” – meaning the party is likely to be pushing the issue – to “oppose”, meaning it is likely to push against it.
This is a “living document” that will be updated over the course of COP31.
Please get in touch if you would like to offer additions by emailing policy@carbonbrief.org.
Brief explanations of the key issues and jargon-filled language that permeate the talks can be found below the interactive table.