Here at Climate Home News we tell you what happens inside the air-conditioned boardrooms, government ministries and negotiating halls where people in suits discuss the politics of climate change – but we also like to take a step back and look at the effects their decisions have on the real world.
As the year comes to an end, we have made a list of the stories we feel embody that spirit, published during 2024. If you’d like to receive stories like this in your inbox every Friday in 2025, subscribe to our free weekly newsletter. And if you want to stay up to date with our work, follow us on BlueSky, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.
- On beaches of Gaza and Tel Aviv, two tales of one heatwave
- Germany uses funding to pressure climate groups on Israel-Gaza war
- Saudi visa crackdown left heatwave-hit Hajj pilgrims scared to ask for help
- Where East African oil pipeline meets sea, displaced farmers bemoan “bad deal” on compensation
- Indonesia turns traditional Indigenous land into nickel industrial zone
- Greenpeace Africa in disarray as restructuring meets resistance
- In Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s net zero vision clashes with legacy of war
- World Bank climate funding greens African hotels while fishermen sink
- From cyclone to drought, Zimbabwe’s climate victims struggle to adapt
1. On beaches of Gaza and Tel Aviv, two tales of one heatwave
As 2023 became 2024, the biggest international story was Israel’s invasion, and continued bombing of, the Palestinian territory of Gaza after Hamas militants targeted an Israeli music festival, killing more than 1,100 people. That incident unleashed ongoing attacks by Israel that have caused the deaths of more than 46,000 Palestinians.
But larger numbers have died as an indirect result of the war – for example, when many Gazans were left without shelter or cooling during a climate change-fuelled heatwave that struck in April and May.
Our reporter in Gaza, Taghreed Ali, spoke to two fathers in refugee camps who had lost children to the heat – against which the flimsy protection of their nylon tents, where they waved food containers as makeshift fans, was no match.
Just north of there, our reporter in Israel – Jessica Buxbaum – spoke to beachgoers in Tel Aviv. With their homes still intact, their main concerns were the cost of air-conditioning, the threat of power cuts and drooping house plants.
Climate change affects everyone, but it doesn’t affect everyone equally.
Beaches in Gaza (left) and Tel Aviv (right) in May 2024 (Photos: Taghreed Ali and Jessica Buxbaum)
2. Germany uses funding to pressure climate groups on Israel-Gaza war
Many climate activists continued to speak out against the Israeli government’s role in the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza but came under pressure to stay quiet on the issue from one of the Israeli government’s biggest political backers – Germany.
The German government funds many climate campaign groups in the Global South and, we revealed, used this financial leverage to try to silence criticism of Israel’s offensive. Some activists complied, but others didn’t and suffered financially when contracts were put on hold or their funding was cut.
Veteran British climate activist Asad Rehman said climate justice activists were questioning their partnerships with German civil society, as well as the government. “How can we ally and work together with German organisations that are not prepared to stand up against their own government?” he asked.
Protesters at COP28 in Dubai (Photos: Cop28/Christopher Pike)
3. Saudi visa crackdown left heatwave-hit Hajj pilgrims scared to ask for help
Another reminder that climate change hits some people harder than others came in June, as 1.5 million Muslims descended on Mecca for the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
As temperatures soared to an unusually high 52C, wealthy pilgrims travelled from air-conditioned hotels to the holy sites by bus and were offered medical help if they needed it.
Poorer pilgrims, however, who had snuck in to the city without the expensive proper visa avoided public transport and cooling centres for fear of deportation. Instead, they walked 19 kilometres in the extreme heat. Over 1,300 died – more than 80% of whom did not have official Hajj permits.
Instead of promising to look after irregular pilgrims better, Saudi Arabia and other governments have reacted by cracking down on the travel agents who organise unofficial trips. We’ll find out next June if that approach has worked or not.
Muslim worshippers make their way to cast stones as part of a symbolic stoning of the devil ritual on June 18, 2023. (Photo: Medhat Hajjaj/apaimages)
4. Where East African oil pipeline meets sea, displaced farmers bemoan “bad deal” on compensation
Governments may have agreed to “transition” away from fossil fuels at COP28 in Dubai last year, but the building of fossil fuel infrastructure continues, harming the planet and sometimes local communities.
Our reporter – who did not want to be named due to fears of government retaliation – travelled to the spot in Tanzania where a 1,400 km-long new pipeline will meet the sea so that the oil it is due to transport from Uganda can be shipped abroad.
Climate Home found that people evicted from their homes to make way for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) – a joint venture between the two countries, French firm TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation – and its port had been warned off talking to journalists but they complained to us about the terms of their compensation nonetheless.
“I am angry that the government took advantage of our ignorance of legal matters and gave us a bad deal that we couldn’t argue against,” said one.
Land by the ocean has been closed off to the public (Photo: Climate Home News)
5. Indonesia turns traditional Indigenous land into nickel industrial zone
Green energy projects can hurt locals too though. The world needs nickel to make electric vehicles, preventing the climate change and air pollution caused by fossil fuel-powered vehicles.
Indonesia has the world’s largest reserves of the silvery white metal. But one of its mines on the island of Sulawesi has displaced Indigenous people, with police arresting those who resist. Nature-rich forests, meanwhile, have been chopped down by politically-connected nickel bosses.
“It’s not to say that nickel mining can’t take place in Indonesia. But it has to be done in a way that’s a lot more careful,” one campaigner said.
Stories like this and others in our Clean Energy Frontiers series are having an impact. This year, the United Nations Secretary-General backed a report calling for human rights, the environment and nature to be respected by those digging up these minerals the world needs for the energy transition.
Road to the SCM nickel mine in southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia, which holds one of the world’s largest reserves of nickel. (Photo: Franco Bravo Dengo)
6. Greenpeace Africa in disarray as restructuring meets resistance
At Climate Home News, we aim to hold the powerful to account. That means governments and corporations but also large international campaign groups – and there’s no bigger name than Greenpeace.
We spoke to former staff and consulted leaked documents to reveal turmoil at its African branch. A restructuring led by a new boss has resulted in mass job losses, court cases, a retreat from the Democratic Republic of Congo and heated debates over strategies on LGBT+ issues and government relations.
Legal proceedings against lay-offs continue in South Africa and Senegal while, in Amsterdam, parent organisation Greenpeace International has stayed silent.
A Greenpeace activist protests against a coal plant in Kenya, on June 12, 2019. (Photo: Baz Ratner/Reuters)
7. In Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s net zero vision clashes with legacy of war
Oil and gas-reliant Azerbaijan and the rest of Central Asia have stayed under the climate radar for a long time. But that changed as Azerbaijan’s capital Baku hosted COP29 in 2024, thrusting the authoritarian regime and its energy policies into the limelight.
Azerbaijan’s government spent big money taking journalists, including our own Matteo Civillini, to see its new “smart villages”, hydropower plants and solar energy installations in the conflict-torn region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
What they didn’t draw attention to – but Climate Home reported anyway – was that Armenians had been chased out of these villages less than a year before our visit. “It’s greenwashing of an ethnic cleansing,” one analyst said.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev tours the “smart” village of Aghali in an electric cart. (Photo: Azerbaijan Presidency)
8. World Bank climate funding greens African hotels while fishermen sink
COP29 was Azerbaijan’s COP – but also the “finance COP”. Figures of millions, billions and trillions of dollars shot around in press releases, while journalists struggled to differentiate between verbs like “mobilise” and “provide”.
But what exactly is counted in the figures that make up climate finance? How about when you help Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund and a huge hotel corporation buy up a chain of African hotels and spruce them up to luxury standard in an energy-efficient manner? If you ask the World Bank Group – which has ambitious targets to increase climate finance – this makes the cut.
Our reporter Jack Thompson hung out at one of these five-star hotels in Senegal (not the worst assignment) and then spoke to local fishermen just down the coast, who said they’d rather the money was spent helping them protect the beaches that are their workplace from rising sea levels.
With wealthy nations pledging at COP29 to increase their climate finance to $300 billion a year by 2035 – much of it coming from development institutions like the World Bank – this story, an award finalist, shows the importance of questioning the top-line numbers.
Le Lamantin Hotel, in Saly, Senegal, where a standard room costs about $220 a night. (Photo: Jack Thompson)
9. From cyclone to drought, Zimbabwe’s climate victims struggle to adapt
And in Zimbabwe we found more evidence that quantity isn’t all that matters. You can spend all you want on a climate project but if it’s badly-designed, it’s no use.
That’s what Matteo Civillini learned from a visit to the country’s eastern highlands, where cyclone victims have been moved out of a storm-prone area and into a drought-prone one where the authorities lack the money to build a planned dam. Out of the frying pan into the fire, you might say.
People in the resettled community said that, despite the cyclone risks, they miss their old home and its bountiful water supply. “We’d never run out of water – we could always access fresh food,” one said. “Here it’s more difficult.”
Tambudzai Chikweya stands in front of her home in Runyararo. Photo: Matteo Civillini
(Writing by Joe Lo, editing by Megan Rowling)
The post Nine of our best climate change stories from 2024 appeared first on Climate Home News.
A new storm recovery charge could soon hit Georgia Power customers’ bills, as climate change drives more destructive weather across the state.
Hurricane Helene may be long over, but its costs are poised to land on Georgians’ electricity bills. After the storm killed 37 people in Georgia and caused billions in damage in September 2024, Georgia Power is seeking permission from state regulators to pass recovery costs on to customers.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill says she supports both AI and lowering her constituents’ bills.
With New Jersey’s cost-of-living “crisis” at the center of Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s agenda, her administration has inherited a program that approved a $250 million tax break for an artificial intelligence data center.
Amid Affordability Crisis, New Jersey Hands $250 Million Tax Break to Data Center
Gabrielle Dreyfus is chief scientist at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, Thomas Röckmann is a professor of atmospheric physics and chemistry at Utrecht University, and Lena Höglund Isaksson is a senior research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
This March scientists and policy makers will gather near the site in Italy where methane was first identified 250 years ago to share the latest science on methane and the policy and technology steps needed to rapidly cut methane emissions. The timing is apt.
As new tools transform our understanding of methane emissions and their sources, the evidence they reveal points to a single conclusion: Human-caused methane emissions are still rising, and global action remains far too slow.
This is the central finding of the latest Global Methane Status Report. Four years into the Global Methane Pledge, which aims for a 30% cut in global emissions by 2030, the good news is that the pledge has increased mitigation ambition under national plans, which, if fully implemented, could result in the largest and most sustained decline in methane emissions since the Industrial Revolution.
The bad news is this is still short of the 30% target. The decisive question is whether governments will move quickly enough to turn that bend into the steep decline required to pump the brake on global warming.
What the data really show
Assessing progress requires comparing three benchmarks: the level of emissions today relative to 2020, the trajectory projected in 2021 before methane received significant policy focus, and the level required by 2030 to meet the pledge.
The latest data show that global methane emissions in 2025 are higher than in 2020 but not as high as previously expected. In 2021, emissions were projected to rise by about 9% between 2020 and 2030. Updated analysis places that increase closer to 5%. This change is driven by factors such as slower than expected growth in unconventional gas production between 2020 and 2024 and lower than expected waste emissions in several regions.
Gas flaring soars in Niger Delta post-Shell, afflicting communities
This updated trajectory still does not deliver the reductions required, but it does indicate that the curve is beginning to bend. More importantly, the commitments already outlined in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions and Methane Action Plans would, if fully implemented, produce an 8% reduction in global methane emissions between 2020 and 2030. This would turn the current increase into a sustained decline. While still insufficient to reach the Global Methane Pledge target of a 30% cut, it would represent historical progress.
Solutions are known and ready
Scientific assessments consistently show that the technical potential to meet the pledge exists. The gap lies not in technology, but in implementation.
The energy sector accounts for approximately 70% of total technical methane reduction potential between 2020 and 2030. Proven measures include recovering associated petroleum gas in oil production, regular leak detection and repair across oil and gas supply chains, and installing ventilation air oxidation technologies in underground coal mines. Many of these options are low cost or profitable. Yet current commitments would achieve only one third of the maximum technically feasible reductions in this sector.
Recent COP hosts Brazil and Azerbaijan linked to “super-emitting” methane plumes
Agriculture and waste also provide opportunities. Rice emissions can be reduced through improved water management, low-emission hybrids and soil amendments. While innovations in technology and practices hold promise in the longer term, near-term potential in livestock is more constrained and trends in global diets may counteract gains.
Waste sector emissions had been expected to increase more rapidly, but improvements in waste management in several regions over the past two decades have moderated this rise. Long-term mitigation in this sector requires immediate investment in improved landfills and circular waste systems, as emissions from waste already deposited will persist in the short term.
New measurement tools
Methane monitoring capacity has expanded significantly. Satellite-based systems can now identify methane super-emitters. Ground-based sensors are becoming more accessible and can provide real-time data. These developments improve national inventories and can strengthen accountability.
However, policy action does not need to wait for perfect measurement. Current scientific understanding of source magnitudes and mitigation effectiveness is sufficient to achieve a 30% reduction between 2020 and 2030. Many of the largest reductions in oil, gas and coal can be delivered through binding technology standards that do not require high precision quantification of emissions.
The decisive years ahead
The next 2 years will be critical for determining whether existing commitments translate into emissions reductions consistent with the Global Methane Pledge.
Governments should prioritise adoption of an effective international methane performance standard for oil and gas, including through the EU Methane Regulation, and expand the reach of such standards through voluntary buyers’ clubs. National and regional authorities should introduce binding technology standards for oil, gas and coal to ensure that voluntary agreements are backed by legal requirements.
One approach to promoting better progress on methane is to develop a binding methane agreement, starting with the oil and gas sector, as suggested by Barbados’ PM Mia Mottley and other leaders. Countries must also address the deeper challenge of political and economic dependence on fossil fuels, which continues to slow progress. Without a dual strategy of reducing methane and deep decarbonisation, it will not be possible to meet the Paris Agreement objectives.
Mottley’s “legally binding” methane pact faces barriers, but smaller steps possible
The next four years will determine whether available technologies, scientific evidence and political leadership align to deliver a rapid transition toward near-zero methane energy systems, holistic and equity-based lower emission agricultural systems and circular waste management strategies that eliminate methane release. These years will also determine whether the world captures the near-term climate benefits of methane abatement or locks in higher long-term costs and risks.
The Global Methane Status Report shows that the world is beginning to change course. Delivering the sharper downward trajectory now required is a test of political will. As scientists, we have laid out the evidence. Leaders must now act on it.
The post Curbing methane is the fastest way to slow warming – but we’re off the pace appeared first on Climate Home News.
Curbing methane is the fastest way to slow warming – but we’re off the pace
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