22Jul2026

S20 in 2025 is hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
#S20SouthAfrica   #ASSAf_Official

22Jul2026

S20 in 2025 is hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
#S20SouthAfrica   #ASSAf_Official

S20 South Africa

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CLIMATE CHANGE
15 January 2025

Scientists Decode 2024 Extreme Climate Impacts

Source: https://www.miragenews.com/scientists-decode-2024-extreme-climate-impacts-1391128/

From the persistent droughts in southern Africa and Central America earlier this year to the more recent extreme rainfall in Spain and the deadly Hurricane Helene along the American east coast, 2024 has been marked by climate events that have impacted the lives of billions of people.

In a recent study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, an international team of scientists, led by Prof. Dr. ZHANG Wenxia from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, provided an overview of the characteristics and impacts of the most notable extreme events of the year, including rainfall and flooding, tropical cyclones, and droughts. They also discussed the causes of these events, the role of global warming, and the challenges humanity faces in becoming “climate-resilient.” The research team has been conducting an annual review of global climate extremes since 2022, and this year they identified exceptional rainfall and flooding as significant trends.

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CLIMATE CHANGEG20
13 January 2025

Public development banks need resourcing to mitigate climate challenges

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fire
CLIMATE CHANGE
11 January 2025

Is climate change to blame for the California wildfires?

Source: https://www.news24.com/fin24/climate_future/news/is-climate-change-to-blame-for-the-california-wildfires-20250111

The “Pyrocene” is upon us. At least, that is the theory which was first introduced by fire historian Stephen Pyne in a 2015 essay.

United States Forest Service ecologist Gavin Jones described the Pyrocene in a 2023 interview with The Explorers Journal as the current era in which humans experience greater fire activity than before. The key driver – human activity.

The wildfires currently ripping through suburbs of Los Angeles in California and beyond have claimed at least 11 lives so far as well as more than 30 000 acres of land and more than 10 000 buildings. They are the most destructive wildfires in the history of the state.

 

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CLIMATE CHANGETEMPERATURE
11 January 2025

Earth breached a major climate threshold in 2024 – its hottest ever year

 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfzLLMS5YXA

Earth recorded its hottest year ever in 2024 and it passed a major climate threshold, several monitoring agencies announced Friday. Last year’s global average temperature surpassed the long-term warming limit of 1.5 C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) called for in the 2015 Paris climate pact. The evidence is clear humans are key contributors to the climate crisis. And as Eric Sorensen reports, the question isn’t whether we have the technology to solve the problem – it’s whether we will.

 

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CLIMATE CHANGEG20
13 January 2025

An opportunity to attain economic and climate justice for Africa through G20 in 2025

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/an-opportunity-to-attain-economic-and-climate-justice-for-africa-through-g20-in-2025/ar-BB1rlxBL

By virtue of South Africa being the only African state in the Group of Twenty (G20), our country bears the weighty responsibility of tabling issues that truly matter to our people. Countries and multilaterals in the G20 serve as major trading partners, sources of humanitarian aid, and kingmakers in global trade and geopolitics.

 

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CLIMATE CHANGE
11 January 2025

Is climate change to blame for the California wildfires?

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/11/is-climate-change-to-blame-for-the-california-wildfires

The “Pyrocene” is upon us. At least, that is the theory which was first introduced by fire historian Stephen Pyne in a 2015 essay.

United States Forest Service ecologist Gavin Jones described the Pyrocene in a 2023 interview with The Explorers Journal as the current era in which humans experience greater fire activity than before. The key driver – human activity.

Also read “Is climate change to blame for the California wildfires?”

 

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10jan
CLIMATE CHANGETEMPERATURE
10 January 2025

This is How Scientists Measure Global Temperature

Source: https://science.nasa.gov/earth/measuring_global_temperature/

The global temperature record of the past century shows that  Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. 2024 was the hottest year on record, and the past 10 years have been the warmest in recorded history. Each of the last four decades has been warmer than any decade that preceded it, dating back to 1850.

This global warming has been caused by human activities, primarily the emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, according to the 2023 synthesis report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And we’re seeing the impacts in heat waves, wildfires, intense rainfall, and coastal flooding. 

 

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korea
CLIMATE CHANGE
10 January 2025

“Exceptional” Global Warming Spike Continued in 2024

Source: https://eos.org/articles/exceptional-global-warming-spike-continued-in-2024

More than 3 billion people experienced their hottest year ever in 2024 because of anthropogenic climate change. The world is speeding toward its 1.5°C warming target.

Global average temperatures in 2024 were the hottest on record, surpassing the previous record set in 2023 by a clear margin. In three global temperature assessments released on 10 January, climate scientists reported that temperatures across the world rose faster than expected, reaching 1.46°C–1.62°C above the preindustrial baseline.

“The long-term trends are very, very clear,” Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told reporters at a 10 January briefing. “It’s warming more over the land than it is over the ocean. It’s warming more in the Northern Hemisphere, where there’s more land, than in the Southern Hemisphere, where there is less. And it’s warming most of all in the Arctic regions.”

 

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video
CLIMATE CHANGE
10 January 2025

2024 first year to pass 1.5C global warming limit

Source: https://youtu.be/SdOaNELFmQY?si=Tx-hcfP5pQLuf-sS

The planet has moved a major step closer to warming more than 1.5C, new data shows, despite world leaders vowing a decade ago they would try to avoid this. The European Copernicus climate service said on Friday that 2024 was the first calendar year to pass the 1.5C threshold, as well as being the world’s hottest year on record. This does not mean the international 1.5C target has been broken, because that refers to a long-term average over decades. But does bring us nearer to doing so, as fossil fuel emissions continue to heat the atmosphere.

 

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CLIMATE CHANGE
10 January 2025

2024: An active year of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters

Source: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2024-active-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) has updated its 2024 Billion-dollar disaster analysis. In 2024, there were 27 individual weather and climate disasters with at least $1 billion in damages, trailing only the record-setting 28 events analyzed in 2023. These disasters caused at least 568 direct or indirect fatalities, which is the eighth-highest for these billion-dollar disasters over the last 45 years (1980-2024). The cost was approximately $182.7 billion.

This total places 2024 as the fourth-costliest on record, trailing 2017 ($395.9 billion), 2005 ($268.5 billion) and 2022 ($183.6 billion). Adding the 27 events of 2024 to the record that begins in 1980, the U.S. has sustained 403 weather and climate disasters for which the individual damage costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. The cumulative cost for these 403 events exceeds $2.915 trillion.

 

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