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New Zealand is facing another bout of severe weather as a cold front unleashes torrential rain and damaging winds across the country. The northern regions of both the North and South Islands are at heightened risk of flooding and landslides, prompting urgent warnings from the national weather bureau. In response to worsening conditions, the Nelson Tasman region has declared a state of emergency for the second time in just two months. With rivers already swollen from previous rainfall, authorities fear the saturated ground could lead to sudden overflows and dangerous mudslides. Wind gusts of up to 120 kph have been forecast in exposed areas, accompanied by the threat of severe thunderstorms. As the storm system intensifies, emergency services are on high alert, and local officials are...

Continuous heavy rainfall has led to a dramatic rise in the River Ganga’s water levels, submerging Varanasi’s iconic ghats and riverside temples. The situation has disrupted daily life, with blocked roads and rising floodwaters becoming an annual ordeal for residents. Local voices like Sonu Sahani highlight a familiar pattern each day brings the water a step higher, leaving little time to adapt. “This happens every monsoon. Roads get blocked, and everything stalls,” he told sources. Neighbouring districts such as Prayagraj are facing similar conditions, with ghats also going underwater. The Indian Meteorological Department has warned that heavy rain will likely continue in West Uttar Pradesh and other parts of North India, heightening concerns of prolonged flooding.   &nbs...

A catastrophic flash flood in Texas Hill Country has claimed over 100 lives and left dozens missing many of them children at summer camps making it one of the deadliest in US history. Triggered by a rare overnight storm that dumped up to 18 inches of rain, the Guadalupe River surged by 26 feet in just 45 minutes, sweeping away homes, bridges, and lives. Despite early alerts from the National Weather Service, many residents received no effective warnings. Camps had no sirens, and phone alerts went unnoticed during the night. The event has drawn sharp attention to global shortcomings in early warning systems and disaster preparedness. Flash floods are the deadliest form of flooding globally, accounting for 85% of flood-related deaths and killing over 5,000 people annually. Their speed ...

A deadly flood that tore through Nepal’s Bhote Koshi River this week has left at least nine dead and more than two dozen missing, with the disaster traced to the sudden drainage of a supraglacial lake in Tibet, China. The event is the latest in a growing pattern of climate-driven hazards impacting the fragile Hindu Kush Himalaya region. Among the missing are 19 people in Nepal, including six Chinese workers stationed at the Beijing-supported Inland Container Depot. The flood also destroyed the vital 'Friendship Bridge' linking Nepal and China. Across the border in Tibet, 11 people are reported missing, according to Chinese state media. Experts from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) warn that these events are becoming alarmingly frequent, driven by ...

In a troubling revelation Byrnihat a small industrial town on the Assam-Meghalaya border, has been declared the world’s most polluted city in 2024 by Swiss air monitoring agency IQAir. Once a sleepy outpost, Byrnihat has rapidly transformed into a major industrial and logistics hub but this economic surge has come at a severe environmental and health cost. According to IQAir, Byrnihat recorded an average PM2.5 level of 128.2 micrograms per cubic meter last year over 25 times the World Health Organization’s safe limit. The town surpassed even Delhi, long known for its dangerous air quality, and now wears the unfortunate crown of global pollution capital. A Town Choking on Progress Over the past three decades, Byrnihat proximity to the coal-rich hills of Meghalaya and the urban center...

Global climate finance reached a record high of $1.9 trillion in 2023, marking a 15% increase from the previous year, according to the latest Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2025 report by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI). While this surge signals growing urgency around climate action, the report warns that major gaps and systemic risks continue to threaten progress. Between 2018 and 2023, climate finance grew at an annual rate of 19%, with a sharper increase of 26% seen from 2021 to 2023. However, even at this pace, global investment is still far below the $6.3 trillion needed annually from 2024 to 2030 to limit the most severe impacts of climate change. The majority of climate finance in 2023 about 94% or $1.78 trillion was directed towards mitigation efforts. Energy systems...

A worrying surge in glacial-origin floods is being observed across the Hindu Kush Himalayas, according to new findings from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Scientists say that events known as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) sudden releases of water from lakes formed by melting glaciers are becoming alarmingly frequent in the region. Once rare, such events are now escalating fast. In the early 2000s, GLOFs in the region were expected once every five to ten years. Yet in just the last two months May and June 2025 ICIMOD has documented three: in Nepal’s Limi Valley, Afghanistan’s Andorab Valley, and Pakistan’s Chitral and Hunza regions. “The acceleration of these types of events is completely unprecedented in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. W...

As wildfires rage more frequently across the western United States, the fallout from earlier disasters in Los Angeles reveals a deeper crisis: the growing tendency to privatise climate risks is leaving many victims without reliable protection. In the aftermath of destructive fires in early 2025, affected residents are now mired in bureaucratic confusion, stuck between insurance firms, federal agencies, and state offices with little clarity or support. This breakdown isn’t just administrative. As Prakash Kashwan argues in a recent analysis, it reflects a broader failure to redefine the relationship between private capital and public responsibility in an era of escalating climate disasters. A fragile system under strain Wildfires, floods, and hurricanes are now redrawing the boundarie...

  The Financial Stability Board (FSB) a powerful global regulator overseeing financial systems, is facing internal discord just weeks ahead of presenting its climate progress report to the G20. The tension stems from widening disagreements among member central banks and finance ministries over how climate change should be integrated into financial stability frameworks. As devastating floods in Texas highlight the rising cost of climate-related disasters, the FSB finds itself caught in a storm of its own. The organization has been forced to revise parts of its climate objectives report after member nations raised concerns about the scope and urgency of its recommendations. These revisions expose a growing divide on whether and how aggressively financial policy should confront cli...

A powerful economic opportunity is emerging at the intersection of artificial intelligence and climate resilience in the Middle East. According to a new report by PwC, the region could unlock a staggering $232 billion in additional GDP by 2035 if countries act decisively to integrate AI and accelerate environmental reforms. Currently valued at $3.57 trillion, the Middle East’s GDP could surge to $4.68 trillion over the next decade with bold moves on digital transformation and sustainability. Countries like Saudi Arabia are already charting this path, making major investments in AI research and climate-friendly initiatives. In fact, Saudi Arabia now ranks 15th globally in AI research output, with more than 29,000 published works. One of the region most ambitious tech investments is Pr...