This report reveals critical climate challenges, highlighting how rising temperatures are raising the risk of ecosystem collapse and threatening maternal and reproductive well-being. Produced by a global consortium of scientists, this annual report synthesizes key findings from the past 18 months, aiming to inform policy decisions at COP29 and beyond.

It warns of severe climate impacts, including the risk of the Amazon reaching a tipping point, the growing threat of extreme El Niño events, and increased vulnerability of critical infrastructure. Alongside these warnings, however, it offers clear pathways for action by identifying ways to reduce methane emissions, emphasizing the importance of integrating nature-based solutions to strengthen ecosystem resilience, and underlining the potential of Artificial Intelligence tools to enhance infrastructure resilience.

1. Methane levels are surging. Enforceable policies for emission reductions are essential.
2. Reductions in air pollution have implications for mitigation and adaptation given complex aerosol-climate interactions.
3. Increasing heat is making more of the planet uninhabitable.
4. Climate extremes are harming maternal and reproductive well-being.
5. Concerns about El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation with an increasingly warm ocean.
6. Biocultural diversity can bolster the Amazon’s resilience against climate change
7. Critical infrastructure is increasingly exposed to climate hazards, with risk of cascading disruption across interconnected networks.
8. New frameworks for climate-resilient development in cities provide decision-makers with ideas for unlocking co-benefits.
9. Closing governance gaps in the energy transition minerals global value chain is crucial for a just and equitable energy transition.
10. Public’s acceptance of (or resistance to) climate policies crucially depends on perceptions of fairness.