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	Climate Change is an Existential Threat to Humanity by International Court of Justice, agencies   The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, issued its advisory opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change, read out by the President of the Court, Judge Iwasawa Yuji, on Wednesday.   The UN’s principal judicial body ruled that States have an obligation to protect the environment from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and act with due diligence and cooperation to fulfill this obligation.   This includes the obligation under the Paris Agreement on climate change to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.   The Court further ruled that if States breach these obligations, they incur legal responsibility and may be required to cease the wrongful conduct, offer guarantees of non-repetition and make full reparation depending on the circumstances.   UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the historic decision. "This is a victory for our planet, for climate justice and for the power of young people to make a difference," he said. “The world must respond.”   The case was “unlike any that have previously come before the court,” President of the International Court of Justice Judge Yuji Iwasawa said while reading the court’s unanimous advisory opinion outlining the legal obligations of United Nations member states with regard to climate change.   This case was not simply a “legal problem” but “concerned an existential problem of planetary proportions that imperils all forms of life and the very health of our planet,” Iwasawa said.   “A complete solution to this daunting and self-inflicted problem requires the contribution of all fields of human knowledge, whether law, science, economics or any other; above all, a lasting and satisfactory solution requires human will and wisdom at the individual social and political levels to change our habits and current way of life to secure a future for ourselves and those who are yet to come”.   "Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system … may constitute an internationally wrongful act," court president Yuji Iwasawa said. "The legal consequences resulting from the commission of an internationally wrongful act may include … full reparations to injured states in the form of restitution, compensation and satisfaction."   The court added that a "sufficient direct and certain causal nexus" had to be shown "between the wrongful act and the injury".   The Court used Member States’ commitments to both environmental and human rights treaties to justify this decision. UN Member States are parties to a variety of environmental treaties, including ozone layer treaties, the Biodiversity Convention, the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement and many more, which oblige them to protect the environment for people worldwide and for future generations.   The right to “a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is a precondition for the enjoyment of many human rights,” since Member States are parties to numerous human rights treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they are required to guarantee the enjoyment of such rights by addressing climate change.   In September 2021, the Pacific Island State of Vanuatu announced that it would seek an advisory opinion from the Court on climate change. This initiative was inspired by the youth group Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, which underscored the need to act to address climate change, particularly in small island States.   After the country gaind the support of other UN Member States, the UN General Assembly, on 29 March 2023, adopted a resolution requesting an advisory opinion from the ICJ on two questions: (1) What are the obligations of States under international law to ensure the protection of the environment? and (2) What are the legal consequences for States under these obligations when they cause harm to the environment?   The ICJ ruling was welcomed by Ralph Regenvanu, Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology & Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment and Disaster Management for the Republic of Vanuatu.   “Today’s ruling is a landmark opinion that confirms what we, vulnerable nations have been saying, and we’ve known for so long, that states do have legal obligations to act on climate change, and these obligations are guaranteed by international law. They’re guaranteed by human rights law, and they’re grounded in the duty to protect our environment, which we heard the court referred to so much,” Regenvanu said.   Mr Regenvanu hailed the court's decision as a "landmark milestone". "It's a very important course correction in this critically important time," he said. "Even as fossil fuel expansion continues under the US's influence, along with the loss of climate finance and technology transfer, and the lack of climate ambition following the US's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, major polluters, past and present, cannot continue to act with impunity and treat developing countries as sacrifice zones to further feed corporate greed."   Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, legal counsel for Vanuatu’s ICJ case, said the opinion meant that the “era where fossil fuel producers can freely produce and can argue that their climate policies are a matter of discretion—they’re free to decide on the climate policies—that era is over. We have entered an era of accountability, in which states can be held to account for their current emissions if they’re excessive but also for what they have failed to do in the past.”   Vishal Prasad, the director of Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change and one of the students who initiated the case, said the advisory opinion would play a major role in holding polluters accountable.   "The ICJ's decision brings us closer to a world where governments can no longer turn a blind eye to their legal responsibilities," he said. "It affirms a simple truth of climate justice: those who did the least to fuel this crisis deserve protection, reparations, and a future."   ICJ president Yuji Iwasawa said the climate "must be protected for present and future generations" and the adverse effect of a warming planet "may significantly impair the enjoyment of certain human rights, including the right to life".   The detailed ICJ advisory opinion dealt with obligations of states under various climate conventions and treaties and humanitarian law. The court concluded that in terms of the climate agreements, state parties:   To the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have an obligation to adopt measures with a view to contributing to the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.   Have additional obligations to take the lead in combating climate change by limiting their greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing their greenhouse gas sinks and reservoirs.   To the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, have a duty to cooperate with each other in order to achieve the underlying objective of the convention. To the Kyoto Protocol must comply with applicable provisions of the protocol.   To the Paris Agreement have an obligation to act with due diligence in taking measures in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities capable of making an adequate contribution to achieving the temperature goal set out in the agreement.   To the Paris Agreement have an obligation to prepare, communicate and maintain successive and progressive, nationally determined contributions, which, when taken together, are capable of achieving the temperature goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.   State parties to the Paris agreement have an obligation to pursue measures which are capable of achieving the objectives set out in their successive nationally determined contributions.   State parties to the Paris agreement have obligations of adaptation and cooperation, including through technology and financial transfers, which must be performed in good faith.   In addition, the court was of the opinion that customary international law sets forth obligations for states to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.   These obligations include the following:   States have a duty to prevent significant harm to the environment by acting with due diligence and to use all means at their disposal to prevent activities carried out within their jurisdiction or control from causing significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.   States have a duty to cooperate with each other in good faith to prevent significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment, which requires sustained and continuous forms of cooperation by states when taking measures to prevent such harm.   State parties to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the ozone layer and to the protocol and to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete ozone layer and its Kigali amendment, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in those countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa, have obligations under these treaties to ensure the protection of the climate system and other parts of the environment from anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.   State parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea have an obligation to adopt measures to protect and preserve the marine environment, including from the adverse effects of climate change, and to cooperate in good faith.   However, the court did not end there; it was of the opinion that states have obligations under international human rights law and are required to take “measures to protect the climate system and other parts of the environment.”   The court said a clean, healthy and sustainable environment was a precondition for exercising many human rights, such as the right to life, the right to health, the right to an adequate standard of living, including access to water, food and housing.   * ICJ Summary: Obligation of States in respect of climate change (7pp): http://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/187/187-20250723-pre-01-00-en.pdf   * ICJ complete advisory: Obligation of States in respect of climate change (140pp): http://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/187/187-20250723-adv-01-00-en.pdf   http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165475 http://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1t/k1tey5ro2w http://www.icj-cij.org/case/187/press-releases http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/turk-hails-landmark-icj-ruling-affirming-states-human-rights-obligations http://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/institute-responds-to-international-court-of-justice-advisory-opinion/ http://www.ciel.org/news/icj-climate-opinion-ends-fossil-fuel-impunity/ http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?14459466/ICJ-advisory-opinion-climate-change http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/07/global-international-court-of-justices-landmark-opinion-bolsters-fight-for-climate-justice-and-accountability/ http://blog.ucs.org/delta-merner/five-reasons-why-the-icj-climate-advisory-opinion-matters/ http://www.clientearth.org/latest/press-office/press-releases/world-s-highest-court-confirms-countries-must-act-to-avert-climate-catastrophe-in-a-once-in-a-generation-legal-decision/   http://earth.org/landmark-moment-for-climate-justice-reactions-pour-in-after-icj-delivers-historic-opinion-on-states-climate-change-obligations/ http://www.dw.com/en/worlds-top-court-says-healthy-environment-is-a-human-right/a-73373617 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/23/healthy-environment-is-a-human-right-top-un-court-rules http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/07/climate-change-existential-threat-to-humanity-says-icj/ http://www.ciel.org/project-update/advancing-climate-justice-at-the-icj/   http://www.sei.org/about-sei/press-room/production-gap-report-2025-press-release-2 http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/johan-rockstrom-addresses-heads-of-state-during-united-nations-general-assembly-201cfailure-is-not-inevitable-it-is-a-choice201d http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/seven-of-nine-planetary-boundaries-now-breached-2013-ocean-acidification-joins-the-danger-zone http://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/ http://news.exeter.ac.uk/research/new-reality-as-world-reaches-first-climate-tipping-point/ http://global-tipping-points.org/ http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv2906 http://forestdeclaration.org/resources/forest-declaration-assessment-2025/ http://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/banks-make-26-billion-in-a-decade-of-financing-deforesting-companies/ http://www.ipbes.net/nexus/media-release http://livingplanet.panda.org/   http://climateandhealthalliance.org/press-releases/cross-cutting-report-reveals-devastating-global-health-impacts-of-fossil-fuels-thru-production-life-cycle-across-human-lifespan http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/ec12gc27-general-comment-no-27-2025-economic-social http://www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for-input/2025/call-inputs-fossil-fuel-based-economy-and-human-rights http://globalcommonsalliance.org/news/new-research-reveals-path-to-prosperity-for-planet-and-people-if-earths-critical-resources-are-better-shared/ http://earth4all.life/news/causing-environmental-damage-should-be-a-criminal-offence-say-72-of-people-in-g20-countries-surveyed/   http://www.carbonbrief.org/un-five-reasons-why-switching-to-renewables-is-smart-economics http://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2025/06/banking-climate-chaos-global-banks-backslide-climate-commitments-amid-surge-fossil http://fossilfueltreaty.org/news http://clubmadrid.org/taxing-polluter-profits-a-call-for-fair-climate-finance/ http://views-voices.oxfam.org.uk/2025/06/who-should-pay-for-climate-damage-polluters-tax http://taxjustice.net/reports/reclaiming-tax-sovereignty-to-transform-global-climate-finance/ http://climatenetwork.org/2025/06/25/tax-justice-the-missing-element-on-the-road-to-belem/ http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/international-cooperation-on-fossil-fuel-levies-could-raise-billions-for-climate-finance http://tinyurl.com/mtnrb4s8 http://tinyurl.com/4knuumjp http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/75582/global-survey-finds-8-out-of-10-people-support-taxing-oil-and-gas-corporations-to-pay-for-climate-damages/   http://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/luciano-lliuya-v-rwe-a-major-step-forward-for-climate-justice/ http://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publication/global-trends-in-climate-change-litigation-2025-snapshot/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/06/de-fossilising-economies-key-course-correction-climate-change-and-human http://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g25/070/22/pdf/g2507022.pdf http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/07/un-experts-hail-landmark-inter-american-court-opinion-states-extensive http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/climatechange/2025/07/15/the-right-to-a-healthy-environment-as-a-catalyst-for-urgent-and-ambitious-climate-action-at-the-iacthr/ http://climate.law.columbia.edu/   http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/pace-of-warming-has-doubled-since-1980s http://www.savethechildren.net/news/climate-change-icj-ruling-landmark-win-children http://www.rightsoffuturegenerations.org/the-principles http://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session57/advance-versions/A-HRC-57-30-AEV.pdf http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/crccgc26-general-comment-no-26-2023-childrens-rights http://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/human-rights-climate-change-and-the-role-of-geneva/ http://www.idea.int/stockholm-series-of-public-lectures-climate-change-democracy http://www.ohchr.org/en/meeting-summaries/2025/10/day-one-forum-human-rights-democracy-and-rule-law-climate-emergency-wake http://www.ohchr.org/en/meeting-summaries/2025/10/day-two-forum-human-rights-democracy-and-rule-law-human-rights-democracy   We are putting the stability of the entire life support system on Earth at risk, by Johan Rockstrom - Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)   Scientists announce that 7 of 9 key 'planetary boundaries' have been crossed. (AFP)   A team of global scientists issued a new report this week, highlighting that seven out of nine of key "planetary boundaries" have been crossed.   Humans are gambling with the very stability of Earth’s life support systems, scientists warned, cautioning that ocean acidity is yet another key planetary threshold to be breached.   The team of global scientists assessed that seven of nine so-called “planetary boundaries” – processes that regulate Earth’s stability, resilience and ability to sustain life – had now been crossed.   Climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, freshwater depletion, overuse of agricultural fertilisers, and the release of artificial chemicals and plastics into the environment were all already exceeded.   In their new report, the scientists said all seven were “showing trends of increasing pressure – suggesting further deterioration and destabilisation of planetary health in the near future".   Destructive and polluting activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, are driving these further into risky territory and increasingly interacting with each other.   “We are putting the stability of the entire life support system on Earth at risk,” said Johan Rockstrom, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), at a press conference to launch the research.   “We are moving even further away from the safe operating space, risking destabilising our Earth and with an increasing risk growing year by year,” said Levke Caesar, co-lead of Planetary Boundaries Science at PIK.   Many of the causes of deterioration are interlinked, showing both the wide-ranging impact of human activities but also avenues for action.   The use of fossil fuels is a key example, driving climate change as well as fuelling plastic pollution and the rise in ocean acidification. The world’s seas are estimated to have absorbed roughly 30 percent of the excess carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from the burning of oil, gas and coal.   This alters the pH of the ocean, affecting the ability of organisms such as corals, shellfish and some forms of plankton to form shells and skeletons. Scientists said there was already evidence of shell damage, particularly for marine animals in polar and coastal regions.   “What we see in the data is no longer abstract. It is showing up in the world around us right now,” said Caesar.   One positive in this year’s dire report is that aerosol emissions have fallen, despite the continued scourge of severe particulate pollution in some regions. The final boundary – ozone depletion – remains within safe bounds, which scientists said demonstrates the success of global co-operation to restrict ozone-depleting pollutants.   Scientists have quantified safe boundaries for these interlocking facets of the Earth system, which feed off and amplify each other. For climate change, for example, the threshold is linked to the concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere.   This hovered close to 280 parts per million (ppm) for at least 10,000 years prior to the Industrial Revolution, and researchers suggest the boundary is 350 ppm. Concentrations in 2025 are 423 ppm.   The assessment of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems is even more perilous. “Nature’s safety net is unravelling: extinctions and loss of natural productivity are far above safe levels, and there is no sign of improvement,” the report states.   24 Sep. 2025   Johan Rockstrom, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) address to heads of state at the United Nations General Assembly:   "It’s now 10 years since the world in Paris entered a legally-binding agreement to avoid dangerous climate change. Since then, science has become overwhelmingly clear: allowing long-term global warming to exceed 1.5°C constitutes danger.   And yet, greenhouse gas emissions continue rising and in 2024 annual global temperature change was pushed beyond 1.5°C for the first time on our watch. This is a deep concern. An even deeper concern is that warming appears to be accelerating, outpacing emissions.   The long-term average warming is now between 1.3 and 1.4°C. We are on a path to breach the 1.5°C multi-decadal boundary within the next 5-10 years. Here, we must admit failure.   Failure to protect peoples and nations from unmanageable impacts of human-induced climate change.   But we don’t have to keep failing. Returning to below 1.5°C by the end of the century must remain the obligation for all international efforts to limit dangerous climate change.   Extreme heat, fires, droughts, water scarcity, flooding and soil degradation, reinforced by us, are already impacting the lives of billions of people around the world. Beyond 1.5°C, these dangers will become increasingly unmanageable. Every tenth of a degree of avoided warming saves lives and livelihoods – this is not the time for resignation.   Beyond 1.5°C there is also a real risk of crossing tipping points. The most recent science concludes we are therefore dangerously close to triggering fundamental and irreversible changes.   If we make the right choices going forward, there are still ‘overshoot’ pathways that could bring temperatures back below 1.5°C by the end of this century. Such a narrow escape remains possible, but it will be extremely challenging. It requires deep and rapid reduction of all greenhouse gases, involving the near complete transition – starting now – away from fossil fuels.   We also know that cutting emissions won’t be enough. We need to massively scale up carbon dioxide removal (through natural processes). For each 0.1°C of planetary cooling, 200 billion tons need to be removed from the atmosphere.   But even if this succeeds, we fail, unless we safeguard the world’s most powerful carbon sink and cooling system - a healthy planet.   If we don’t return to the "safe operating space” of the nine Planetary Boundaries that regulate Earth’s stability, (including biodiversity, pollutants, land, nutrients and the ocean) a safe climate will be out of reach – irrespective of our mitigation efforts.   Don’t be fooled: we are currently following a path that will take us to 3°C in just 75 years.   An existential threat we have not experienced in the last 3 million years, and there is no guarantee that efforts to cool our planet will succeed.   My message today: science is clear – we have a planetary crisis on our watch. And we do have scalable solutions for phasing out fossil fuels, efficient resource use and transformation to healthy and sustainable food. Pathways that make us all winners. The window to a manageable climate future is still open, but only just. Failure is not inevitable. It is a choice".   http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/11/point-of-no-return-hothouse-earth-global-heating-climate-tipping-points http://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(25)00391-4 http://global-tipping-points.org/ http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/significant-acceleration-of-global-warming-since-2015 http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/johan-rockstrom-addresses-heads-of-state-during-united-nations-general-assembly-201cfailure-is-not-inevitable-it-is-a-choice201d http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/seven-of-nine-planetary-boundaries-now-breached-2013-ocean-acidification-joins-the-danger-zone http://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/ http://news.exeter.ac.uk/research/new-reality-as-world-reaches-first-climate-tipping-point http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv2906 http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/development-cannot-be-achieved-dying-planet-un-committee-issues-new-guidance http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/ec12gc27-general-comment-no-27-2025-economic-social http://www.solargeoeng.org/african-ministers-call-for-a-non-use-agreement-on-solar-geoengineering http://www.ciel.org/geoengineering-biodiversity-risks/ http://climateandhealthalliance.org/press-releases/cross-cutting-report-reveals-devastating-global-health-impacts-of-fossil-fuels-thru-production-life-cycle-across-human-lifespan http://forestdeclaration.org/resources/forest-declaration-assessment-2025/ http://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/forests/banks-make-26-billion-in-a-decade-of-financing-deforesting-companies/ Visit the related web page
	We must save as many lives as we can by United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs   June 2025   By the end of May 2025, over 300 million people around the world were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection. In the first months of the year, conflicts and violence intensified in multiple countries—deepening needs and driving many people to the brink of death—while natural disasters wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people.   Multiple crises were characterized by systematic violations of international humanitarian law, including mass atrocities, with catastrophic consequences for civilians.   Forced displacement—primarily driven by conflict—reached its highest ever levels. The number of people forced to flee persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order rose in 2024, reaching a record 123.2 million people, or one in 67 people globally.   This included 83.4 million people who remained internally displaced within their own country as a consequence of conflicts and natural disasters, a 12 per cent increase compared to 2023.   In 2025, refugees continued to flee crises—particularly Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar and Sudan—and internal displacement rose rapidly.   In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) , hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were repeatedly forcibly displaced and confined into ever-shrinking spaces. Haiti is seeing record levels of displacement due to violence, with nearly 1.3 million people now internally displaced, a 24 per cent increase since December 2024.   In the DRC, the M23 offensive in the east of the country, beginning in January 2025, displaced over a million people. In Burkina Faso, over 60,000 people were internally displaced in April alone and in Colombia, over 50,000 people were displaced in just two weeks due to the Catatumbo crisis.   With every displacement, urgent shelter needs arise. Shelter is a foundation for survival—without it, people remain exposed to violence, disease, and exploitation. Despite 40 per cent of IDPs globally still residing in displacement sites, the support provided to these locations is minimal.   The global food security crisis escalated dramatically, with 295.3 million people facing high acute food insecurity. Conflict and/or insecurity was responsible for Catastrophic food insecurity (Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) 5) in Haiti, Mali, OPT, South Sudan and Sudan, as well as famine in 10 locations in Sudan and famine-risk across all of Gaza, OPT.   Conflict also caused food insecurity to significantly deteriorate in Myanmar, Nigeria and Sudan, and drove malnutrition crises in Mali, OPT (Gaza), Sudan and Yemen.   Sexual violence was rampant, particularly against women and girls. In the DRC, it was estimated that a child is raped every half hour; in Haiti, there was a tenfold increase in sexual violence against children between 2023 and 2024; in Sudan, the scale and brutality of sexual violence escalated, and around 12.1 million people—nearly one in four, most of them women and girls—are now at risk of gender-based violence.   The horrifying toll of war on children continued to mount, with 50,000 children reportedly killed or injured in Gaza, OPT between October 2023 and May 2025, and April 2025 marking the deadliest month for children in Ukraine in nearly three years. In Colombia, more than 46,000 children and adolescents in the Catatumbo region are facing alarming risks, including fear of forced recruitment into non-State armed groups due to escalating conflict in 2025.   Attacks against health care disrupted vital and life-saving care for millions of people throughout the first months of 2025, with over 500 attacks recorded—over 300 of which involved the use of heavy weapons—across 13 countries and territories.   The use of explosive weapons in urban areas caused devastating harm for civilians and impacted services essential for their survival, including in Myanmar, OPT, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. It is estimated that some 50 million people suffer the horrific consequences of urban warfare worldwide.   Climate and geological crises: Two major natural disasters occurred in the first half of 2025. On 28 March 2025, two earthquakes struck central Myanmar, killing 3,800 people, injuring 51,000, destroying thousands of homes and disrupting communications, water access and electricity supply. The disaster exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation in the country where, prior to the earthquake, nearly 20 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance.   Meanwhile, in Mozambique, Tropical Cyclone Dikeldi made landfall on 13 January 2025, just a month after Tropical Cyclone Chido on 15 December 2024. The two cyclones impacted 700,000 people and destroyed approximately 150,000 homes, as well as hundreds of schools and health facilities.   The risk of major emergencies continues to rise due to the global climate crisis, with 2024 now confirmed as the warmest year on record, while 2015 to 2024 are all in the ‘Top Ten’. And the future is bleak: there is an 80 per cent chance that at least one year between 2025 and 2029 will be hotter than 2024.   Underfunding: millions of people’s lives are hanging in the balance as services, programmes and organizations shut down   At the end of 2024, humanitarian action was already underfunded and under attack. Today, the situation is unimaginably worse: humanitarians are having to dramatically cut assistance and protection for people in crisis as funding plummets, while themselves facing increasing attacks.   In the first five months of 2025, multiple major donors reduced funding, triggering a seismic contraction in global humanitarian action.   The United States of America—which funded 45 per cent of the global humanitarian appeal in 2024—announced a suspension and subsequent termination of many humanitarian contracts, with sudden and widespread consequences around the globe.   This came on top of reductions announced or instituted by other major donors, including Germany and the United Kingdom, and on the back of a reduction in humanitarian aid from 2023 to 2024.   At least 79 million people in crisis will no longer be targeted for assistance as a result and this is likely a significant underestimate.   Cuts in food rations and emergency assistance are jeopardizing the lives and wellbeing of people facing acute food insecurity.   The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that it may reach more than 16 million people less (21 per cent) with emergency food assistance in 2025 compared to the 80 million people assisted in 2024. Already, prior to 2025, financing for food, cash and emergency agriculture was well below what was required, from Haiti to Mali and South Sudan.   In Bangladesh, one million Rohingya refugees who rely on food assistance will see their monthly food rations halved without additional funding. In Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), one in every three (60 out of 180) community kitchens had to close in just days. In Sudan, additional funding is urgently needed to procure and distribute seeds, without which, many farmers may miss this critical planting window. In Haiti, which has just entered the Atlantic Hurricane Season and where food insecurity is rampant, WFP, for the first time ever, has no prepositioned food stocks, nor the cash liquidity to mount a swift humanitarian response in the case of a hurricane.   Malnourished children face heightened risk of severe malnutrition and death. Disruptions to nutrition support and services due to global funding cuts are expected to affect 14 million children, including more than 2.4 million who are already suffering severe acute malnutrition and at imminent risk of death.   In Afghanistan, 298 nutrition sites closed, depriving 80,000 acutely malnourished children, pregnant women, and new mothers of treatment posing a serious risk of increased mortality.   Maternal and infant mortality may rise, as sexual and reproductive healthcare services are cut in countries where risks are already the highest. Funding cuts have led to facility closures, loss of health workers and disruptions to supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria—all leading causes of maternal deaths. Severe funding cuts are reducing support for midwives in crisis settings, jeopardizing the health and lives of pregnant women and newborns in some of the most fragile places on earth.   Children are losing access to their future, as access to education diminishes. More than 1.8 million children will miss out on learning due to aid cuts impacting just one NGO’s education programmes in over 20 countries.   Lack of shelter is leaving millions of people exposed to the elements and violence. In some of the world’s biggest crises—including Sudan and DRC—distribution of emergency shelters is at risk of being cut. In Chad, Colombia and Uganda, families face protracted displacement with no shelter assistance on the horizon.   Around the world, budget cuts are forcing humanitarian partners to reduce operations, presence and services. At least 12,000 humanitarian staff contracts have been cut and at least 22 organizations have had to completely close their offices in the relevant countries. National NGOs have reported the highest proportion of terminations.   Separately, almost half (47 per cent) of women-led organizations surveyed are expecting to shut down within six months, if current funding levels persist, and almost three-quarters (72 per cent) report having been forced to lay off staff.   Funding cuts have also affected humanitarian programmes for persons with disabilities, with 81 per cent reporting an impact on the delivery of assistance to address basic needs and 95 per cent reporting an impact on work to address barriers faced by persons with disabilities to access humanitarian assistance.   The risk of preventable disease and mortality has risen as health and water, sanitation and hygiene services (WASH) are curtailed.   In Syria, hospitals serving over 200,000 people in Deir ez-Zor are at risk of closing in May 2025 and over 170 health facilities in the north-west of the country risk running out of funds. In Somalia, over a quarter of one NGO’s health and nutrition facilities will stop services in June 2025, affecting at least 55,000 children.   In the DRC, 100,000 children are projected to miss out on measles vaccination in 2026 alone. In Afghanistan, approximately 420 health facilities have closed, denying three million people access to primary health care. In Sudan, through the South Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan, nearly 190,000 refugees and host households in White Nile, Kordofan and parts of Darfur risk losing access to WASH services, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks, malnutrition and protection violations, particularly for women and children.   Funding cuts for women-led organizations have hit gender-based violence prevention and protection efforts hardest. In the DRC, underfunding—combined with an upsurge in violence—means that 250,000 children will miss out on GBV prevention. In Yemen, funding suspensions have already forced 22 safe spaces to close, denying services and support to women and girls.   Services for refugees are being jeopardized. In Rwanda, under the DRC regional refugee plan, cash assistance for food decreased by 50 per cent. In Uganda, vulnerable refugees (82 per cent of the settlement refugee population) have had their food rations reduced to approximately a quarter of the full amount. In Lebanon, tens of thousands of vulnerable families risk being left without cash assistance to meet their basic needs. In Hungary, under the Ukraine Refugee Response Plan, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will not enroll any new refugees with severe disabilities into the cash support programme.   As of 10 June 2025, only 12 per cent of funding required under the 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview has been received. Without urgent additional support and financial backing, humanitarian partners will be unable to reach even people with the most life-threatening needs.   And yet, this devastating underfunding of humanitarian action comes amid an exponential rise in military expenditure. In 2024, military expenditure reached over $2.7 trillion in 2024; more than 100 times the amount galvanized for humanitarian appeals globally.   June 2025   The cruel math of aid cuts, by Tom Fletcher - United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator:   "Unpredendented funding cuts have left us with no other option than to further reduce the number of people we are hoping to save. Six months after ruthlessly prioritizing those in the direst need, we are left with the cruel math of doing less with less – even as the world around us remains on fire.   Make no mistake: our appeal for less money does not mean that there are less needs. Quite the contrary. What has changed is that funding for our work has been decimated, even as more lives are shattered by wars and disasters, and as our own staff are killed, injured, and detained just for trying to save lives.   What has changed is that more people in positions of power are choosing to finance wars instead of aiding people bearing their brunt; retreating from their obligations under international law instead of upholding them; allowing the worst violations to continue instead of holding perpetrators accountable; repressing women and girls instead of empowering them.   Yet, people who have next to nothing open their doors to those fleeing crises; women who have survived atrocities—support their own communities; aid providers who, through sheer determination, courage and care, reach people in even the most dangerous and challenging crises.   We are calling on the global community—Governments and businesses to help us deliver assistance to those who need our support the most.   This funding appeal reflects our collective response to the most devastating funding cuts that our sector has ever seen. It is a focused account of where the needs are most urgent, where we can make the most difference, to save as many lives as we can with the resources that we have.   It is a call to action, not a plea for charity—it’s an appeal for responsibility, solidarity, and a future built on humanity. Inaction is not inevitable. It is a choice—and one we can refuse to make. The stakes could not be higher".   http://humanitarianaction.info/ Visit the related web page
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