BELÉM, BRAZIL – Millions of refugees, people forced to flee, and their hosts are trapped in an increasingly vicious cycle of conflict and climate extremes, according to a new report released on 10 November 2025 by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
The report warns that climate shocks are undermining chances of recovery, increasing humanitarian needs, and amplifying the risks of repeated displacement.
By mid-2025, 117 million people had been displaced by war, violence and persecution. Three in four of them are living in countries facing high-to-extreme exposure to climate-related hazards.
(Beirut) – At least 600 migrant workers employed by Saudi Arabian Baytur Construction Company have not received their salaries for at least eight months, Human Rights Watch on 6 November 2025 said.
(UN News)* — As health emergencies multiply linked to the climate crisis, governments are joining forces with the UN to protect access to clean water, while data indicates that 118 million people in Europe alone live near healthcare facilities lacking basic sanitation.
“Healthcare facilities are where the vulnerable seek healing. Yet, without adequate water, sanitation and hygiene, for too many people, expected care can become inadvertent harm,” said Dr. Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Regional Director for Europe.
Emphasizing that healthcare is “being tested as never before”, Dr. Kluge insisted that bolstering them is an investment in withstanding crises.
— That is how experts are describing the findings of a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report that says that global temperatures are on track to exceed the most ambitious end of the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement.
6 November 2025 — The alarming streak of exceptional temperatures continued in 2025, which is set to be either the second or third warmest year on record, according to the State of the Global Climate Update from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The mean near-surface temperature in January-August 2025 was 1.42 °C ± 0.12 °C above the pre-industrial average, said the WMO report.
(UN News)* — Nearly 100 people in Syria have been abducted or forcibly disappeared since January, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Friday [], calling for greater accountability from the authorities.
IIMP Syria | The issue of missing persons in Syria is one of the most prominent humanitarian challenges resulting from years of conflict.
“Eleven months after the fall of the former government in Syria, we continue to receive worrying reports about dozens of abductions and enforced disappearances,” Spokesperson Thameen Al-Keetan said at a press briefing in Geneva.
Syria is undergoing a political transition following the overthrow of the Assad regime in December 2024 and 13 years of brutal civil war.
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 7 2025 (IPS)* – “Has the world given up fighting climate change?” was a rhetorical question posed recently by the New York Times, perhaps with a degree of sarcasm.
Credit: United Nations
It might look that way, says Christiana Figueres, a founding partner of the nongovernmental organization Global Optimism, “as US president Donald Trump blusters about fossil fuel, Bill Gates prioritizes children’s health over climate protection, and oil and gas companies plan decades of higher production.”
But that’s far from the whole picture, said Figueres, pointing out that the overwhelming majority of the world’s people — 80 to 89%, as Covering Climate Now partner newsrooms have been reporting — want stronger climate action.
(UN News)* — As world leaders gather in Brazil for the COP30 climate summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday ] called for urgent action to drive down global temperatures and keep the 1.5°C goal within reach.
“Every fraction of a degree means more hunger, displacement, and loss – especially for those least responsible. It could push ecosystems past irreversible tipping points, expose billions to unlivable conditions, and amplify threats to peace and security,” Mr. Guterres told leaders in Belém.
Failure to contain global heating amounts to “moral failure and deadly negligence,” he added.
(UN News)* — From Gaza to Ukraine and beyond, conflict has caused widespread death and destruction, but it has also devastated natural resources such as water systems, farmland and forests.
The impacts affect livelihoods, and fuel displacement as well as ongoing instability. Moreover, they can linger even after the fighting has ended.
In Sierra Leone, for example, “when the guns fell silent in 2002 after a decade of conflict, our primary forests and savannahs also fell silent,” deputy foreign minister Francess Piagie Alghali told the UN Security Council on Thursday [].
5 November 2025 — On the eve of the UN climate change negotiations in Brazil, a new report delivers a stark assessment of the planet’s climate and an urgent call to step up global action.
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The 10 New Insights in Climate Sciencehighlights a worrying acceleration in climate change indicators and impacts on health and livelihoods.
It underscores that effective, equitable, and science-informed policy remains the most powerful tool to safeguard both people and the planet.
© UNHCR/Tiksa Negeri
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