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- UN News
Flour sacks turned flood barriers: Gaza faces another winter without safe shelter
Displaced families in the Gaza Strip are bracing for severe winter weather inside damaged structures and makeshift tents. Residents are using improvised materials to prevent flooding as the ongoing conflict leaves the population without adequate shelter or protection against the cold.
- UN News
Ukraine: Civilian casualty rates among ‘deadliest’ in years, as energy attacks intensify
UN monitors report that civilian casualties in Ukraine reached exceptionally high levels in September due to intensified Russian strikes. The ongoing escalation, particularly targeting energy infrastructure, has driven humanitarian harm significantly higher than in prior years.
- UN News
AI, green energy and economic transitions risk leaving vulnerable communities behind, UN warns
A new United Nations study cautions that fast-paced global shifts, including green energy transitions, artificial intelligence adoption, and demographic changes, threaten to widen economic disparities. Without targeted interventions, these technological and structural evolutions risk further marginalizing vulnerable populations worldwide instead of benefiting them equally.
- Global Voices
After flood disasters, Nepal needs clear numbers on aid and a reconstruction plan
Following severe flooding, Nepal requires transparent aid distribution and a comprehensive rebuilding strategy to restore destroyed infrastructure and livelihoods. Affected communities face prolonged recovery challenges, making accurate resource tracking essential for effective rehabilitation and long-term humanitarian support.
- UN News
Disasters cost $228 billion in housing losses every year
Global natural disasters cause approximately $228 billion in annual residential property damage. This immense financial burden forces communities worldwide to continuously fund post-crisis housing reconstruction. Addressing these recurring losses is critical for international development and humanitarian agencies seeking to build long-term infrastructure resilience in vulnerable regions.
- Mongabay
As Colombo heats up, passive cooling offers a low-energy solution — but at a cost
- Mongabay
Activists cite ecological, social connections in blocking US border wall construction (commentary)
- Mongabay
Colombia’s new government backs fracking as debate over energy future heats up
- Mongabay
Solar power helps Amazon communities ditch diesel and prepare for El Niño drought
- UN News
UN upholds housing as a human right on World Habitat Day
- Mongabay
Wind turbine taller than the Eiffel Tower aims to boost German electricity production
A developer has completed a 365-meter wind turbine in eastern Germany, surpassing the height of the Eiffel Tower. Located at an existing Lusatia wind park, the massive structure is designed to increase regional electricity generation.
- Mongabay
Renewable energy companies fuel Brazilian data center boom, investigation finds
A recent investigation reveals that renewable energy firms drive most proposals for new data centers in Brazil, accounting for 65 percent of connection requests submitted to the national grid by late 2025. This trend highlights how wind and solar developers are increasingly shaping the country's expanding digital infrastructure and energy markets.
- Global Voices
West-to-east energy, east-to-west computing: The Uyghur costs of China’s digital order
Beijing is leveraging Xinjiang’s natural resources and workforce to fuel national artificial intelligence development. This initiative integrates the region into China's broader digital infrastructure, raising humanitarian concerns regarding regional surveillance and coercive labor practices within the technology sector.
- UN News
From energy crisis to energy transition: How renewables are reshaping energy security
Ongoing Middle Eastern violence is destabilizing global fuel markets and driving up costs worldwide. In response, international stakeholders are accelerating renewable energy adoption to safeguard future energy security.
- Inter Press Service
BRAZIL: ‘Resistance Is Intergenerational, and Art Is How Energy Gets Renewed’
Treesistance partners with Indigenous groups across four Brazilian states to protect forests and preserve culture. In an interview with CIVICUS, executive director Tom Wheeler emphasizes that combining art with traditional knowledge sustains intergenerational environmental activism. Such grassroots initiatives highlight the vital role of local communities in defending the Amazon rainforest.
- Mongabay
Fossil fuel subsidies are the ‘worst energy policy in the world,’ researchers say
- Mongabay
Copper boom fueling energy transition puts Earth’s wildlands at risk
- The Guardian — Global development
‘I spend a bagful of money and don’t fill a bag’: the energy crisis hits Bangladesh
Bangladesh is facing severe electricity shortages and inadequate gas supplies in Dhaka, driven by escalating fuel import costs and disruptions linked to the conflict involving Iran. These energy deficits are forcing residents to alter daily routines and disrupting urban infrastructure, highlighting vulnerabilities in national energy security and urban service delivery.
- Mongabay
Roads, infrastructure prevent tigers from settling in Indian tiger reserve
Despite abundant prey, India's Kawal Tiger Reserve lacks resident big cats due to fragmentation from roads and infrastructure. Located in Telangana, the sanctuary serves as a critical wildlife corridor, making its restoration vital for regional connectivity and endangered species conservation.
- UN News
AI datacentres pose growing threat to electricity systems worldwide
The UN Economic Commission for Europe warns that rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data facilities outpaces global power grid capacity. This surge threatens the stability of worldwide electricity supplies, creating critical challenges for infrastructure planning and energy resilience.
- Mongabay
On renewable energy, it’s time to debunk the ‘transition minerals’ narrative (commentary)
A recent commentary challenges the mainstream green energy narrative, arguing against projections that global mineral production must increase fivefold. The author contends that massively scaling up extractive industries to support renewable infrastructure is fundamentally flawed, raising critical concerns for international development and environmental sustainability efforts.
- Mongabay
Beetle larvae trick bees into feeding and sheltering them by smelling like flowers, study finds
Recent research reveals that European black oil beetle larvae produce floral scents to deceive bees into carrying them to their nests. Once inside the burrows, the larvae consume the hosts' eggs and pollen. This newly discovered chemical mimicry provides unique insights into parasitical survival strategies within insect ecosystems.
- Mongabay
Nepal’s flood disaster puts its hydropower-first strategy, exports to the test
Nepal's strategy to prioritize hydropower for economic development faces new challenges following catastrophic floods on August 26, which originated near the Nepal-China border. The floods disrupted approximately 10% of the country's installed power capacity, highlighting the vulnerabilities of its hydroelectric infrastructure amid increasing climate-related risks.
- Mongabay
Drones helped find people after Nepal floods but the search inside hydropower tunnels is a challenge
In the aftermath of severe flooding in Nepal, drone technology has been utilized by rescue teams to locate missing individuals, including those stranded on hillsides. However, challenges remain in searching for hundreds of workers believed to be trapped in hydropower plant tunnels, highlighting the complexities of disaster response in such scenarios.
- Mongabay
In Ecuador’s Intag Valley, communities build their own micro-hydropower plant
In Ecuador's Intag Valley, 19 families from four communities are collaborating to construct a 300-kilowatt micro-hydropower plant that utilizes the Aguagrún River's natural flow. This run-of-river project aims to provide sustainable electricity without the need for large dams or reservoirs, addressing local energy needs while promoting environmental conservation.
- Mongabay
‘Devastating’ rush for critical minerals has little to do with green energy: Report
A recent report by the Oakland Institute warns that the global scramble for critical minerals severely impacts communities and ecosystems, particularly in Africa. The study challenges the assumption that surging mining activity is primarily driven by green energy demands, raising concerns for international development and resource governance.
- Mongabay
In South Africa, renewable energy latest part of timber industry’s green efforts
South African forestry firm York Timber Holdings recently partnered with a power trader to supply its Jessievale facility with clean electricity. Renewable sources will cover the vast majority of the sawmill's energy needs. This transition highlights a broader commercial trend toward sustainable power adoption within the nation's industrial sector.
- Mongabay
Wind energy surplus fuels unregulated data centers in Brazil’s dry land
Surplus wind energy in Brazil's arid northeast is driving the unannounced development of unregulated data centers. This technology expansion brings high rental costs and noise pollution to local communities, raising concerns over rapid, unmonitored industrial growth in vulnerable rural regions.
- UN News
Middle East: 94 per cent need shelter in Gaza, Israel ramps up demolitions in Lebanon
UN agencies report that ongoing military operations in Gaza have left 94 percent of the population lacking adequate housing. Simultaneously, escalating demolitions in Lebanon worsen regional displacement. These compounding crises severely strain humanitarian response capacities and heighten the vulnerability of affected civilian populations.
- UN News
The clean energy transition needs land. Can it help restore it too?
Expanding clean energy infrastructure requires significant land use, which risks environmental conflict. However, innovative siting and dual-use strategies allow renewable energy projects to simultaneously rehabilitate degraded ecosystems. Integrating ecological restoration into these developments is crucial for meeting global climate targets while preserving natural resources and supporting local communities.
- Mongabay
Despite energy crisis, Bangladesh’s factories are slow to adopt solar power: Study
Despite severe fuel shortages and soaring electricity costs, Bangladesh’s garment industry is slow to install rooftop solar panels. Thousands of factory roofs remain unutilized for renewable energy. Accelerating photovoltaic adoption could alleviate the nation's escalating power crisis and reduce operational expenses for manufacturers.
- Mongabay
Lake Powell hits record low, threatening key water and electricity supply for millions
Lake Powell, the second-largest U.S. reservoir, has dropped to a historic low water level. This milestone intensifies the crisis facing the Colorado River basin. Consequently, critical water and electricity supplies for millions of residents in the region are now severely threatened.
- Inter Press Service
Asia’s Energy Progress Is Great, But Must Pick Up Pace
Across the Asia-Pacific region, electricity access and clean cooking adoption have expanded significantly alongside strong renewable energy growth. However, experts emphasize that national clean-energy transitions must accelerate further to meet broader climate targets and secure sustainable development outcomes across the entire region.
- UN News
Food prices edged up in July amid heatwaves and energy price hikes
Global food commodity prices rose in July due to intense heatwaves and rising energy costs driven by geopolitical tensions. For development and humanitarian practitioners, this slight increase signals renewed pressure on vulnerable food supply chains and heightens the risk of food insecurity in import-dependent regions.
- UN News
Strait of Hormuz disruption hits energy, fertilizer and industrial trade
Recent blockades in the Strait of Hormuz have significantly curtailed international shipments of fuel, agricultural nutrients, and manufacturing supplies. This disruption highlights the fragility of major maritime transit corridors, threatening worldwide supply chains and potentially driving up costs for essential commodities across global markets.
- The Guardian — Global development
‘We count every litre’: how Cuba’s energy crisis sparked a daily struggle for water
Chronic electricity shortages across Cuba have severely disrupted municipal water supplies, leaving millions of residents reliant on manual collection methods for basic daily needs. In Havana, widespread blackouts regularly disable pumping stations, causing prolonged outages that compound humanitarian hardships for vulnerable urban populations.
- Inter Press Service
ALBANIA: ‘The Public Only Learns about These Development Megaprojects Once Construction Machinery Arrives’
- UN News
Critical minerals: The hidden resources powering the clean energy future
- Inter Press Service
Efficiency Becomes the World’s ‘First Fuel’ as Leaders at IEA Conference Chart Course for Cleaner, More Secure Energy Future
Over 600 energy leaders convened in Montreal for the 11th Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency, organized by the International Energy Agency. The conference focused on addressing rising electricity demand and climate challenges, emphasizing the importance of energy efficiency as a critical component in achieving a cleaner and more secure energy future.
- Inter Press Service
Invasive Prickly Pear Turned into Food, Clean Energy Source
An academic collaboration is transforming the invasive prickly pear cactus in Laikipia County, Kenya, into a sustainable food and clean energy source. Initiated in 2017, the project aims to enhance food security and mitigate resource conflicts, providing local communities with new opportunities for development and stability.
- World Health Organization
655 million people still living without electricity underscore urgent need to deliver on universal energy access target
The World Health Organization reports that 655 million people worldwide lack electricity access, while two billion rely on harmful fuels for cooking. This situation highlights the pressing need to achieve universal energy access, particularly as energy security and affordability become critical issues on the global development agenda.
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