The world experienced its hottest day ever recorded on Monday, surpassing a record set just the day before, according to data from the European climate change service. This unprecedented heat comes as countries worldwide, from Japan to Bolivia to the United States, grapple with soaring temperatures.

According to The Associated Press, Copernicus, the European Union's climate monitoring service, released provisional satellite data on Wednesday showing that Monday's global average temperature exceeded Sunday's record by 0.06 degrees Celsius (0.1 degrees Fahrenheit).

Sunday's reign as the hottest day ever recorded on planet earth lasted until...Monday. pic.twitter.com/0IbDYmkG67

— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) July 24, 2024

Climate scientists assert that the world is now as warm as it was 125,000 years ago, attributing this to human-caused climate change. While they cannot definitively state that Monday was the hottest day throughout that period, they note that average temperatures have not reached these levels since long before the development of agriculture.

"We are in an age where weather and climate records are frequently stretched beyond our tolerance levels, resulting in insurmountable loss of lives and livelihoods," said Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

The temperature rise observed in recent decades aligns with projections made by climate scientists regarding the consequences of continued and increased fossil fuel burning by humans.

While 2024 has been exceptionally warm overall, Copernicus reported that this week's record-breaking temperatures were partly driven by an unusually warm Antarctic winter. A similar phenomenon occurred on the southern continent last year when the previous record was set in early July.

Although Copernicus' records only date back to 1940, other global measurements by US and UK government agencies extend to 1880. Considering these data and evidence from tree rings and ice cores, many scientists suggest that last year's record highs were the hottest the planet has experienced in approximately 120,000 years. The first six months of 2024 have now surpassed even those temperatures.

Christiana Figueres, former head of UN climate negotiations, warned of dire consequences if immediate action is not taken. "We all scorch and fry if the world doesn't immediately change course. One-third of global electricity can be produced by solar and wind alone, but targeted national policies have to enable that transformation," she said.

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Search teams combed streets, wrecked buildings, and even the sea Wednesday to look for bodies in a coastal Libyan city where the collapse of two dams unleashed a massive flash flood that killed at least 5,100 people.

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The Mediterranean city of Derna has struggled to get help after Sunday night's deluge washed away most access roads. Aid workers who managed to reach the city described the devastation in its center, with thousands still missing and tens of thousands left homeless.

Video: Drone footage shows scale of destruction in Libya's Derna / Credit: Reuters

"Bodies are everywhere, inside houses, in the streets, at sea. Wherever you go, you find dead men, women, and children," Emad al-Falah, an aid worker from Benghazi, said over the phone from Derna. "Entire families were lost."

Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding Sunday in many towns of eastern Libya, but the worst hit was Derna. Two dams in the mountains above the city collapsed, sending floodwaters roaring down the Wadi Derna River and through the city center, sweeping away entire city blocks.

As much as a quarter of the city has disappeared, emergency officials said.

Waves rose as high as 7 meters (23 feet), Yann Fridez, head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Libya, told broadcaster France24.

Teacher Mohammed Derna said he, his family, and neighbors rushed to the roof of their apartment building, stunned at the volume of water rushing by. It reached the second story of many buildings, he said. They watched people below, including women and children being washed away.

"They were screaming, 'Help, help,'" he said over the phone from a field hospital in Derna. "It was like a Hollywood horror movie."

Derna lies on a narrow coastal plain, under steep mountains. The only two usable roads from the south take a winding route through the mountains.

Collapsed bridges over the river split the city center, further hampering movement.

Search teams went through shattered apartment buildings and retrieved the dead floating offshore in the Mediterranean Sea, al-Falah said.

Ossama Ali, a spokesman for an ambulance center in eastern Libya, said at least 5,100 deaths were recorded in Derna, along with around 100 others elsewhere in eastern Libya. More than 7,000 people in the city were injured.

A spokesman for the eastern Libyan interior ministry put the death tally in Derna at more than 5,300, according to the state-run news agency.

The number of deaths was likely to increase since teams are still collecting bodies, Ali said. At least 9,000 people are missing, but that number could drop as communications are restored.

At least 30,000 people in Derna were displaced by the flooding, the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration said.

The storm hit other areas in eastern Libya, including the towns of Bayda, Susa, and Marj. Rescuers retrieved at least 150 bodies Wednesday from the sea off Bayda, bringing the death tally in the town to about 200, Ali said.

The startling devastation pointed to the storm's intensity, but also Libya's vulnerability. The country is divided by rival governments, one in the east, the other in the west, and the result has been neglect of infrastructure in many areas.

Ahmed Abdalla, a survivor who joined the search-and-rescue effort, said they were putting bodies in the yard of a hospital before taking them for burial in mass graves at Derna's sole intact cemetery.

"The situation is indescribable. Entire families died in this disaster. Some were washed away to the sea," Abdalla said by phone.

Derna is 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Benghazi, where international aid started to arrive on Tuesday.

Neighboring Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia, as well as Turkey, Italy, and the United Arab Emirates, sent rescue teams and aid. The U.K. and German governments sent assistance too, including blankets, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, tents, water filters and generators.

U.S. President Joe Biden also said the United States would send money to relief organizations and coordinate with Libyan authorities and the United Nations to provide additional support.

Authorities transferred hundreds of bodies to morgues in nearby towns. More than 300, including 84 Egyptians, were brought to the morgue in the city of Tobruk, 169 kilometers (105 miles) east of Derna, the local Medical Center reported.

The victims' lists reflected how Libya, despite its turmoil, was always a magnet for workers from around the region because of its oil industry.

More than 70 of Derna's dead hailed from a single southern Egyptian village, el-Sharif. On Wednesday morning, hundreds attended a mass funeral in the village for 64 people.

Rabei Hanafy said his extended family lost 16 men in the flooding, 12 of whom were buried Wednesday. Another funeral for four others was held in a town in the northern Nile Delta.

Among those killed in Libya was the family of Saleh Sariyeh, a Palestinian originally from the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon who had lived in Derna for decades. The 62-year-old, his wife, and two daughters were all killed when their home in Derna was washed away, his nephew Mohammed Sariyeh said.

The four were buried in Derna. Because of ongoing gunbattles in Ein el-Hilweh, the family there could not hold a gathering to receive condolences from friends and neighbors, Mohammed said.

Derna, about 900 kilometers (560 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli, is controlled by the forces of powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter, who is allied with the eastern Libyan government. The rival government in western Libya, based in Tripoli, is allied with other armed groups.

Derna was once a hub for extremist groups in the years of chaos that followed the NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

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A third successive heat wave in Greece pushed temperatures back above 40 C (104 F) across parts of the country Tuesday following more nighttime evacuations from fires that have raged out of control for days.

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The latest evacuations orders were issued on the islands of Corfu and Evia, while a blaze on the island of Rhodes continued to move inland, torching mountainous forest areas, including part of a nature reserve.

Desperate residents, many with wet towels around their necks to stave off the scorching heat, used shovels to beat back flames approaching their homes, while firefighting planes and helicopters resumed water drops at first light.

Authorities said that more than 20,000 people has been involved in successive evacuations on the island, mostly tourists over the weekend, when fire swept through two coastal areas on the southeast of Rhodes.

The European Union has sent 500 firefighters, 100 vehicles and seven planes from 10 member states, while Turkey, Israel, Egypt and other countries have also sent help.

"For the 12th day, under extreme conditions of heat and strong winds, we are fighting nonstop on dozens of forest fire fronts ... The Greek Fire Service has battled more than 500 fires – more than 50 a day," said Vassilis Kikilias, the minister for climate crisis and civil protection.

In Athens, authorities resumed afternoon closing hours at the ancient Acropolis, as part of broader measures to cope with the high heat.

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Scientists in Israel are creating a gene bank from the seeds of local wild crops, some that have survived for thousands of years since the birth of agriculture and that may help farmers deal with a harsher climate in the coming decades.

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In a eucalyptus grove nestled between an industrial zone and a new railroad under construction, botanist Alon Singer collected seeds from a number of plants recently spotted, including a variety of water mint, that will be frozen and stored at the Israel Plant Gene Bank at the Volcani Institute, the national agricultural R&D center.

Singer is combing the country along with other scouts and foragers in search of varieties of wheat, barley and countless other wild crops so their genetic makeup can be saved and studied before they are lost to expanding deserts and urbanization as the climate warms.

Video: COP27: Israel harnessing DNA of bygone wild crops to enhance food supply / Reuters

"The plants here are very unique. They are the ancestors of many of the cultivated plants used today," he said.

Resilient characteristics can be harnessed to genetically modify farmed crops so they better withstand drought or disease.

Sometimes they don't make it in time and a plant of interest falls victim to a new road before its next bloom.

Tens of thousands of types of seeds are stored in the gene bank. It may be smaller than some collections elsewhere in the world but the gene pool here is unique, coming from an area that was part of the Fertile Crescent region known as the birthplace of crop cultivation.

"This is where agriculture started about 10,000 years ago," said Einav Mayzlish-Gati, director of the gene bank. "Species that were domesticated here are still in the wild adapting along the years to the changes in the environment."

The research has already been paying off. For example, the institute has engineered a variety of wheat with an ultra-short lifecycle. It may not be able to compete today, but it could be a saving grace in a hotter climate with reduced growing seasons.

The World Bank warns that global agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Negative effects, it said, are already being felt with hotter temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, and invasive crops and pests.

Agriculture and global warming will be discussed by global leaders in Egypt on Saturday at COP27, the latest edition of the United Nations annual climate change summit.

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Park warden Pedro Muagura sees hope for the future as he picks a ripe handful of cherry red coffee beans from a more resistant variety of coffee trees introduced to communities farming around Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park.

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The prospect of a more reliable harvest from the crop, which thrives in the shade of indigenous trees, has given people living around Gorongosa a longer-term incentive to protect a rainforest that has lost more than 100 hectares of tree cover per year over the past four decades. Gorongosa is still recovering from a civil war that killed about 1 million people between 1977 and 1992. The park, once considered one of Africa's finest, became a conflict site and lost almost all of its wildlife.

Video: Climate-resistant coffee trees could save Mozambique rainforest / Reuters

Population growth and urbanization in surrounding communities undermined restoration efforts as remaining animals were poached and forests cut down for firewood, agriculture and housing. "We realized that if we keep talking as a park, keep talking that we need to do reforestation without having immediate tangible benefits ... (progress) was very slow," Muagura said.

Gorongosa Park's sustainable development department has been studying coffee tree varieties from around the world that are resistant to pests, disease, drought and prolonged rainy seasons. It planted up the variety Muagura was looking at in 2020.

Weather patterns have grown increasingly erratic in Mozambique, where climate shocks including repeated cyclones have offset livelihoods in one of the world's poorest countries. "Sometimes (there is a) very long rainy season, sometimes very short," Muagura said. "We want to try to have species which can cope."

Last year, communities around Gorongosa planted more than 260,000 coffee trees and 20,000 indigenous trees. The park now has 815,000 coffee trees planted over 243 hectares of land. More than 800 small-scale farmers, 40% of who are women, pick the green coffee, dry the beans and sell them.

"I have gained a lot. I am able to send my children to school, and even though sometimes we experience drought with coffee we are always harvesting and having money," said Fatiansa Pauline, who is now permanently employed by the coffee project.

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After the European Union brought its Horizon Europe research and innovation program to Israel, with plans to invest 8.5 billion shekels ($2.6 billion) in it over seven years, EIT Hub Israel – the Israeli branch of the EU Institute of Innovation and Technology – is opening a third Calling2Scale international post acceleration program.

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The program, to be developed in collaboration with Doral Energy, Italian energy firm Alperia, American medical equipment company Integer, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center's IMed hub, and the Bazan Group, seeks to work with Israeli and European startups working in the sectors of health, renewable energy, and alternative fuel and plastics.

The program is intended for startups that have produced a working product/prototype. A total of 16 startups will be selected, and participants will be mentored by entrepreneurs from Israel and Europe, who will advise them on business development, adapting to a post-COVID world, and other issues. The mentoring will include help with marketing and regulation.

The program is scheduled to begin in May and meetings will take place in a hybrid format that combines frontal and online meetings.

EIT Hub Israel Managing Director Adi Barel said, "The Calling2Scale program has so far had two successful programs in Israel. The goal of the program is to share the strengths of Israel and Europe and gather the right resources from around the world to support quality technologies that are evolving in the areas of health, climate and energy.

"The significance and uniqueness of the program that opens the startup application today, lies in our association with leading partners in the industry and the connection to EIT's European partners network of about 3,000 different companies across the continent. Israel's accession to the European Union's 'Horizon Europe' program further strengthens the program," Barel said.

Head of Innovation and Research at the EU Delegation to Israel, Andrea Carignani Di Novoli, said, "The recently signed 'Horizon Europe' agreement between Israel and the EU allows Israeli and European researchers, entrepreneurs and start-ups to continue working together to find solutions to current global challenges – climate change, reducing carbon emissions and streamlining and improving the global health system. The agreement benefits everyone: Israel – which offers a fertile and data-rich environment, clinical trials and their validity, and Europe – which provides a strong market for technologies in the fields of health, climate and energy."

Interested startups can apply here

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The cabinet on Sunday approved an ambitious plan to plant some 450,000 trees in cities to provide more shade and lower temperatures in urban areas as climate change takes hold.

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The goal is to plant the trees by 2040 at an estimated cost of $720 million.

The trees will be planted along 18,640 miles of road, according to a plan presented by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg, and Agriculture Minister Oded Forer.

"The Israeli government has made climate a national goal," Bennett said. "More than 90% of the country's people live in urban localities, and the warmer the climate gets, the harder it will be to move around outside."

"That's why we are preparing to plant about half a million trees along all the roads of the cities we pass through," he explained.

According to Zandberg, cities need more shade, trees and nature-based solutions to deal with climate change.

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"It is time for the government to take a decision that will ensure that urban planning adapts to changing climatic conditions," she said.

According to Forer, the plan "will achieve a dual objective: protecting the environment and improving urban space."

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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With so much going wrong in the world – much of it related to climate change – the climate at least appears right for startups working in the sector, the nonprofit innovation company PLANETech reports.

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Climate-tech is already the focus of receiving worldwide attention from senior tech and investment figures. Bill Gates recently said he estimates that climate-tech would build about 10 companies the size of Google and Amazon, and BlackRock CE, Larry Fink predicted that the next 1,000 unicorns would be climate-tech ventures.

According to PLANETech – a joint venture of Israel Innovation Institute, led by Dr. Jonathan Menuhin, and Consensus Business Group, led by Vincent Tchenguiz – 2021 saw a total $2.2 billion invested in Israeli climate tech startups, 57% higher than previous 2020 record.

At the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in October, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declared that Israel would become a leader in climate innovation.

Two months ago, PLANETech and the Israel Innovation Authority published the first report to map 1,200 climate companies, 637 of which are startups developing climate technologies, whose findings seemed to back up Bennett's prediction.

"By the end of the 2021, the annual investments in Israeli climate tech companies reached $2.2 billion, exceeding last year's fundraising record of $1.4 billion by 57%," said Uriel Klar, Director of PLANETech.

The biggest fundraising rounds for climate startups were secured by the following four companies:

Future Meat, which has raised $347 million for the development of sustainable cultivated meat technology.

Wiliot, which has raised $200 million to improve supply chain footprint via battery-free sensors.

UBQ Materials, which has has raised $170 million to convert waste to climate positive thermoplastic, including an investment from U2 lead singer Bono.

VIA, which has raised $130 million to promote an advanced digital platform for shared transportation.

"In addition to the two investments in Future Meat and UBQ Materials last month, SolarEdge has become the first Israeli company to enter the S&P 500 index and Tomorrow.io is going public on Nasdaq with $1.2B valuation," Klar noted.

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Lead singer of Irish rock band U2 Paul David Hewson, better known as Bono, has invested in Israeli recycling company UBQ Materials that converts waste into a recyclable plastic substitute.

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On Wednesday, UBQ Materials announced a $170 million funding round led by TPG Rise, TPG investment firm's global impact investing platform.

The investment was made through TPG Rise Climate, the firm's dedicated climate investing fund, and The Rise Funds, its longstanding, multi-sector impact investing fund. Bono is on The Rise Funds board of directors.

UBQ Materials turns landfill-destined municipal solid waste, into a climate-positive, cost-competitive, and fully recyclable plastic substitute.

A sustainable replacement to plastic, wood, or concrete, it can be used both on its own and in conjunction with conventional oil-based resins to offset the overall carbon footprint of end-products in industries including construction, automotive, logistics, retail, and even 3D printing.

The investment will fund UBQ's global expansion to meet growing demand, beginning with a large-scale facility in the Netherlands to be operational by the end of 2022. Funds will also go into UBQ's continued research to advance certifications, research, and development of new products.

"As countries and industries converged in Glasgow at COP26, negotiating the urgent benchmarks we must hit in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, this investment could not come at a more apt time," Albert Douer, chairman and co-CEO of UBQ Materials said. "Through the prevention of landfill-related methane emissions and the replacement of carbon-intensive raw materials, UBQ can support governments, brands and major manufacturers in achieving their sustainable development goals."

According to UBQ Materials, over 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste are produced annually around the world, more than 70% of which end up in landfills or is openly dumped. Landfills are the third-largest human source of methane, a greenhouse gas emission 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over 20 years.

"Waste is not the end, it is only the beginning," Jack Bigio, co-founder, and co-CEO of UBQ Materials said. "This financing round enables us to widen the reach of our patented conversion technology and novel material, bringing us closer to a functioning circular economy worldwide."

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett welcomed on Tuesday Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Jerusalem for the 8th trilateral summit of the nations.

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The leaders touched on interests and concerns regarding defense, the economy, and prosperity in the Middle East.

Bennett kicked off the joint remarks, referring to the three nations as "some of the world's oldest cultures, with deep histories and rich heritage."

"This serves as a strong foundation for our shared values of peace, prosperity, and pursuit of freedom."

"Today we come together with one vision – to embrace the future and the opportunity that it holds for our people, our countries, and our region," he added.

Bennett continued to highlight the common threats in the region, including climate change, COVID, and security "in the face of terror."

"We are strengthening our relationships with our friends on all levels. Together, we are stronger. Our meeting today is a testimony of that," he added.

Anastasiades said the three had discussed cooperation against COVID, climate change, and how to be better prepared to face emergency situations.

The premier also noted his support of the recent Abraham Accords.

"We welcome the recent agreement between Israel, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, which manifests the potential of the region as a pioneer in cross-border cooperation," Anastasiades said.

Mitsotakis concluded the summit by noting that relations between Israel and Greece "have never been better."

He voiced appreciation towards Israel for guiding the region on how to best address COVID, while thanking both states for their provided support during Greece's wildfires last summer.

Both the Cypriot and Greece leaders mentioned their disapproval of Turkey's conduct in the Mediterranean region.

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