📚The UN Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 released on 2 May highlights that 15% of the SDG targets are on track, 49% show minimal or moderate progress, and 36% show signs of stagnation or regression, especially for climate indicators as well as ocean acidification, forest cover and species extinction risk. The report further identifies critical steps needed to deliver transformative progress by 2030.

📚The OECD’s seventh assessment of progress towards the UNFCCC goal released on 29 May finds that in 2022 developed countries provided and mobilised a total of USD 115.9 billion in climate finance for developing countries, exceeding the annual USD 100 billion goal for the first time, with 60% going to mitigation action. Public climate finance accounted for close to 80% of the total, while private finance mobilised by public climate finance grew by 52%. The 100 billion are achieved two years later than the original 2020 target. 

📚A study published on 20 May in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows the critical slowing down of the Amazon forest after increased drought occurrence. Over the past 20 years, the Amazon has experienced 3 “one-in-a-century droughts,” and the predicted increase in extreme drought could further alter the functionalities of this ecosystem.

📚The High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy released a report on “The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change: Updated Opportunities for Action”, showing that ocean-based climate solutions could reduce the “emissions gap” by up to 35%.

📚A study published on 22 May by IUCN shows that half of world’s mangroves are at risk due to human behaviour, as a result of agriculture including prawn farms, developments along coastlines, pollution, dams, as well as rising sea levels. These ecosystems can store almost three times more carbon than tropical forests of the same size.

📚A report issued on 22 May by the WB, “Recipe for a Liveable Planet: Achieving Net Zero Emissions in the Agrifood System” shows that systemic changes could cut agrifood emissions by a third by 2030, by investing USD 260 billion annually – which is half the amount of yearly agricultural subsidies, many of which harm the environment. Shifting subsidies and investments would lead to more than USD 4 trillion in benefits, from improvements in human health, food and nutrition security, profits for farmers, to more carbon retained in forests and soils. Changing current diets to more sustainable ones would reduce diet-related emissions by 70-80% and land and water use by 50%, while reducing deforestation and biodiversity loss. 

📚The UN report ‘From Summits to Systemic Change: Progress in Food Systems Transformation Since UNFSS+2’ highlights that food systems transformation is one of the 6 transitions the Secretary-General has identified for enabling the effective delivery of sustainable, resilient, and innovative high-impact solutions to reach the SDGs by 2030.

📚The 2024 Global Report on Food Crises released on 23 April stresses that nearly 282 million people in 59 countries and territories faced high levels of acute hunger in 2023 – 24 million more than in 2022 and the fifth consecutive year of increasing numbers. More than 36 million under-5-year-old children were acutely malnourished across 32 countries.

📚A research paper published in Science Advances also show that “Food matters: Dietary shifts increase the feasibility of 1.5°C pathways in line with the Paris Agreement”, especially via a transition to healthy diets like the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet, predominantly featuring a wide variety of plant-based foods.

📚“A meta-analysis on global change drivers and the risk of infectious disease” published on 8 May in the Journal Nature, shows that biodiversity loss is by far the greatest driver in increasing the risk of infectious disease outbreaks, followed by climate change, introduction of non-native species and chemical pollution.

📚A report released in June by the International Energy Agency shows that the world now invests almost twice as much in clean energy as it does in fossil fuels. However, there are major imbalances in investment, as emerging markets and developing economies outside China account for only around 15% of global clean energy spending, and investment trends are not aligned with the 1.5°C path.

📚The report series “Economics for Disaster Prevention and Preparedness” developed by the World Bank and the European Commission, published in May, offers data on adaptation financing and tools to help countries take a more strategic approach to boost climate resilience. The reports stress that climate-related disasters cost Europe more than EUR 77 billion last year and that the EU could lose 7% of its GDP to deal with the impacts of climate change by the 2030s.

📚A report released on 3 June by the UK charity Debt Justice shows that debt payments by the 50 countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis have doubled since 2020 and are at their highest level in over 30 years. This is preventing these countries from investing in measures to respond to the climate emergency.