Here at Climate Home News we tell you what happens inside the air-conditioned boardrooms, government ministries and negotiating halls where people in suits discuss the politics of climate change – but we also like to take a step back and look at the effects their decisions have on the real world. As the year comes to an end, we have made a list of the stories we feel embody that spirit, published during 2024. If you’d like to receive stories like this in your inbox every Friday in 2025, subscribe to our free weekly newsletter. And if you want to stay up to date with our work, follow us on BlueSky, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.
On beaches of Gaza and Tel Aviv, two tales of one heatwave
Germany uses funding to pressure climate groups on Israel-Gaza war
Saudi visa crackdown left heatwave-hit Hajj pilgrims scared to ask for help
Where East African oil pipeline meets sea, displaced farmers bemoan “bad deal” on compensation
Indonesia turns traditional Indigenous land into nickel industrial zone
Greenpeace Africa in disarray as restructuring meets resistance
In Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s net zero vision clashes with legacy of war
World Bank climate funding greens African hotels while fishermen sink
From cyclone to drought, Zimbabwe’s climate victims struggle to adapt
1. On beaches of Gaza and Tel Aviv, two tales of one heatwave
As 2023 became 2024, the biggest international story was Israel’s invasion, and continued bombing of, the Palestinian territory of Gaza after Hamas militants targeted an Israeli music festival, killing more than 1,100 people. That incident unleashed ongoing attacks by Israel that have caused the deaths of more than 46,000 Palestinians.
But larger numbers have died as an indirect result of the war – for example, when many Gazans were left without shelter or cooling during a climate change-fuelled heatwave that struck in April and May.
Our reporter in Gaza, Taghreed Ali, spoke to two fathers in refugee camps who had lost children to the heat – against which the flimsy protection of their nylon tents, where they waved food containers as makeshift fans, was no match.
Just north of there, our reporter in Israel – Jessica Buxbaum – spoke to beachgoers in Tel Aviv. With their homes still intact, their main concerns were the cost of air-conditioning, the threat of power cuts and drooping house plants.
Climate change affects everyone, but it doesn’t affect everyone equally.
Beaches in Gaza (left) and Tel Aviv (right) in May 2024 (Photos: Taghreed Ali and Jessica Buxbaum)
2. Germany uses funding to pressure climate groups on Israel-Gaza war
Many climate activists continued to speak out against the Israeli government’s role in the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza but came under pressure to stay quiet on the issue from one of the Israeli government’s biggest political backers – Germany.
The German government funds many climate campaign groups in the Global South and, we revealed, used this financial
Mer. Dic 25th, 2024
