Global temperatures reached exceptionally high levels in 2023. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) monitored several key climate indicators throughout the year, reporting on record-breaking conditions such as the hottest month on record and daily global temperature averages briefly surpassing pre-industrial levels by more than 2°C.

Global growth is expected to slow further this year, reflecting the lagged and ongoing effects of tight monetary policy to rein in inflation, restrictive credit conditions, and anemic global trade and investment.

Global economic growth is projected to decline from an estimated 2.7% in 2023 to 2.4% in 2024, according to this report by the United Nations.

This report highlights the socioeconomic contributions of the geothermal sector, including the potential opportunities and benefits that can be enhanced at national and local levels throughout geothermal projects’ development and operation.

The Niti Aayog has proposed a host of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, including extension of the production-linked incentive scheme to vehicles run on liquified natural gas and setting up a demand aggregator, to encourage use of LNG in medium and heavy commercial vehicles.

By 2050, an additional 2.5 billion people will be living in the world’s towns and cities, with almost 50 per cent of that growth taking place in the Commonwealth. Member States, both large and small, are facing the impacts of climate change and rapid urbanization.

According to this new analysis of the top 20 costliest extreme climate disasters over 2023 has revealed a “global postcode lottery stacked against the poor” where the relative economic impact of disasters varies considerably across countries.

Off-grid electricity production from renewables, although largely unrecorded in most countries, is believed to be expanding rapidly. By combining information from surveys, administrative data and desk research, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has attempted to illuminate major trends in off-grid renewable energy deployment.

Sanitation and wastewater treatment are key elements for global human health and aquatic biodiversity. Scenarios showed an improvement of sanitation but unimproved sanitation will not disappear before 2070. Wastewater treatment will also improve but not in all regions of the world.

This report assesses the current literature on how risks and impacts from climate change will affect physical infrastructure important for global trade.