Researchers estimate that 50,391 people died from heat in 854 European urban areas during the summer of 2026, the highest toll since 2000 in the areas studied. About two-thirds of the deaths are attributed to human-induced climate change. The figure is almost double the roughly 29,000 estimated for summer 2022 and the 28,000 for 2003. The analysis, led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Imperial College London, covered cities in 27 EU countries plus the UK, Norway and Switzerland. One heat wave from 17 June to 1 July, when temperatures ran 5.3C above normal, accounted for about a third of the deaths.
The World Meteorological Organization forecasts a seasonal average sea surface temperature anomaly of about +3.8C in the central and eastern tropical Pacific for November to January, the highest since records began and well above the +2.6C peak of 2015-16. It puts the likelihood of El Nino persisting through February 2027 at near 100%. The forecast follows UNEP's Emissions Gap Report 2026, which says holding warming to 1.5C without overshoot is no longer possible and calls for an 18% cut in emissions by 2030 against a 2025 baseline.
The UN biodiversity summit in Yerevan closed on 30 October with a deal that keeps the Kunming-Montreal framework moving and sets up the first formal global review of progress toward its 2030 targets. Finance day produced $60 million in pledges to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund, and donors added about $500 million to the Global Environment Facility and the GBFF. Total commitments to the facility's ninth replenishment now sit near $4.4 billion. Campaigners say that is a fraction of an estimated $700 billion annual shortfall, most of it harmful subsidies rather than missing grants.
A fresh assessment of national climate plans finds they now promise only half the emission cuts the UN expected a year ago. The pledges put 2035 emissions just 6 percent below 2019 levels, against 12 percent projected last year, and leave the world on track for 2.1C to 3.2C of warming. The United States exit from the Paris Agreement and weaker pledges from several large emitters are behind the gap. The figures land three weeks before COP31 opens in Antalya, Turkey, where trade and adaptation finance are already contested.
A UN report released in Yerevan on 29 October finds that 252 million hectares of ecosystems across 149 countries are being restored, an area the size of Argentina or Algeria, creating more than one million green jobs. It is the largest documented restoration effort to date, but the pace must roughly triple to reach the one billion hectares countries have promised by 2030. Most of the work, 232 million hectares, is on land, against 11 million in inland waters and 5.7 million in marine and coastal areas. The report, Nature's comeback, was produced by UNEP, FAO and the Convention on Biological Diversity secretariat.
President Donald Trump said at a Texas rally that his administration is terminating a Biden-era rule aimed at cutting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling. He said the change would save $45 billion and unlock 210 million barrels of oil, about ten days of US consumption. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin had previewed the move, including elimination of the Super Emitter Program that forces operators to repair large leaks found by satellites, and looser standards for small wells. Methane accounts for roughly a third of greenhouse gas emissions. It is the latest step in a wider rollback of climate policy.
An oil spill from a tanker damaged near the Strait of Hormuz is spreading along the northern coast of the United Arab Emirates, forcing beach closures in Umm Al Quwain and Sharjah. Satellite images from the EU's Copernicus network dated October 24 show the slick widening toward shore. The ship matches the location and size of Gem No.2, which was hit between October 9 and 10 during a surge of vessel strikes. The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment says containment work is under way. Researchers at Sharjah Marine Science Research Centre say an impact on marine life is inevitable but too early to measure.
The United Nations Environment Programme said in its 2026 Emissions Gap Report that the chance of holding global warming to 1.5C without overshooting has been lost. The report, titled The Point of Return, projects about 2.8C of warming under current policies and 2.6C if every national pledge is delivered, both higher than last year because the United States left the Paris Agreement and historical emissions estimates were revised up. It sets out a lowest-overshoot path peaking at 1.7-1.8C and returning below 1.5C by 2100, which would need emissions to fall about 5.7% a year for a decade and coal use to drop 90% by 2050.
Record heat across Europe this summer caused 50,391 deaths in 854 cities, and 32,619 of those are attributed to the extra heat produced by burning coal, oil and gas, according to a study in the journal Nature Health. That is 71% higher than the previous deadliest summer, 2022, when the same researchers counted 29,480 deaths. More than half of those who died were 85 or older, but more than 800 were between 20 and 44. Italy, France, Spain and Germany recorded the highest tolls. The authors say their figures are underestimates. The authors say the real toll is higher because the count leaves out May.
About 294,000 people in Nepal live in areas of extreme flood risk, according to a study published in Scientific Reports, including 108,000 downstream of glacial lakes that could fail without warning. The research was completed before August's disaster on the Bhote Koshi river, when a rock and ice avalanche off Langtang Lirung sent a debris flow about 120 miles downstream, killing at least 1,455 people and leaving 5,285 missing. The authors found that built-up area within 50 vertical metres of riverbanks grew about 46 percent between 2016 and 2023, driven by tourism, trade routes and hydropower investment.