The Widening Chasm: A World Doubling Down on Fossil Fuels

Wazzup Pilipinas!? 

Ten years after the historic Paris Agreement, a new report reveals a stark and alarming truth: governments around the world are collectively planning to produce more fossil fuels than ever before, putting global climate ambitions at increasing risk. The 2025 Production Gap Report uncovers a deepening divide between nations' climate commitments and their actions, highlighting how the world is veering further off track from its goal of limiting global warming.

The report, a collaboration of leading research and academic institutions, profiles 20 major fossil-fuel-producing countries that are responsible for about 80% of global fossil fuel production. The findings are a powerful indictment of the world's collective failure to transition away from coal, oil, and gas, and they arrive as countries prepare to submit their third round of national climate commitments (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.

The Production Gap Is Growing, Not Shrinking

The central finding of the report is the widening production gap—the discrepancy between the fossil fuel production planned by governments and the levels required to meet the Paris Agreement's temperature targets. The numbers are staggering:

By 2030, governments' planned production is projected to exceed the levels consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 ∘C by more than 120%. This represents a significant increase from the 110% gap identified in the 2023 report.

The gap for a 2 ∘C-consistent pathway has also grown, now standing at 77% (up from 69% in 2023).

This near-term increase is largely driven by expanded government plans for coal and gas production. Planned coal production for 2030 is 7% higher than projected in 2023, while planned gas production is 5% higher. Looking further ahead, governments' planned production of oil and gas continues to increase to 2050, while coal production, although projected to decline after 2030, does so too slowly to meet climate goals.

The consequences of this delay are profound. Every year that the world fails to curb fossil fuel production, it becomes harder and more expensive to achieve climate goals. The report warns that the cumulative fossil fuel production over the 2020s is likely to be "substantially higher" than what is consistent with Paris-aligned pathways. This means that even if the world manages to reduce production to appropriate levels by 2030, the total amount of coal, oil, and gas extracted this decade will still be too high.

A Global Bet Against the Clean Energy Transition

The report highlights that most of the profiled countries continue to support fossil fuel production at levels inconsistent with their own net zero ambitions. This is often driven by a mix of political and economic factors, such as concerns over energy security and economic development.

China, the world's largest coal producer, is deploying renewables at an unprecedented rate, but its near-term coal production plans have increased due to industry pressure and grid reliability concerns.

The United States, the largest producer of both oil and gas, has seen a new government reverse domestic climate policies and promote new leasing and drilling for oil and gas.

Russia plans to increase coal production until 2050 and gas production to 2050, largely to serve markets in Asia.

India projects growing domestic coal demand to the mid-2040s and continues to view coal-fired power as crucial for economic development.

Brazil and Nigeria are among several countries planning significant increases in oil and gas production, with governments promoting gas as a "transition fuel" but lacking clear plans to transition away from it.

All countries profiled continue to provide substantial financial and policy support for fossil fuel production, with the fiscal cost of these subsidies remaining near an all-time high. This support, ranging from tax incentives to direct investments in infrastructure, encourages the very activities that undermine global climate goals.

Glimmers of Hope and a Call to Action

Despite the grim findings, the report also points to some positive developments. A few major fossil-fuel-producing countries, though not the majority, have started to align their production plans with national and international climate goals.

Six of the 20 profiled countries are now developing scenarios for domestic fossil fuel production that align with net zero targets, an increase from four in 2023.

Countries like Colombia and Brazil have launched energy transition roadmaps and programs aimed at phasing out fossil fuels and supporting affected communities.

International cooperation remains a focus for many countries, with most donor nations (except for the U.S.) remaining committed to Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs).

The message is clear: achieving climate goals requires "deliberate, coordinated policies to ensure a just transition away from fossil fuels". As governments submit their new NDCs, they must reverse the trend of expanding fossil fuel production and integrate plans for reducing it within their wider energy transition efforts.

In a powerful foreword, Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, describes the report as both "a warning and a guide." She concludes, "Renewables will inevitably crowd out fossil fuels completely, but we need deliberate action now to close the gap on time. What we need now is courage and solidarity to move forward at great speed with the just transition".

The Knights in Shining Armor of Paris: A Filipino Explorer’s Journey Through History

Wazzup Pilipinas!? 

In a city celebrated for romance, art, and fine cuisine, one Filipino adventurer sought something different—not the Eiffel Tower’s glittering lights, nor the serene halls of the Louvre, but the cold steel and battle-scarred echoes of Europe’s medieval past.

The "Pinoy Explorer" journeyed to Paris with a singular mission: to find knights in shining armor—not the storybook saviors of damsels in distress, but the iron-clad warriors who once thundered across muddy fields, wielding swords, axes, and maces in the name of God, country, and conquest.

He found them at the Musée de l'Armée, Paris’ legendary Army Museum, where history is preserved not in ink and parchment, but in steel and scars.

Where War Meets Memory

The museum itself is a colossal chronicle of France’s martial past—from defeats at Alesia in 52 BC, to Agincourt in 1415, to Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Yet within its vaulted halls lies more than defeat; it holds the legacy of survival, strategy, and resilience.

It is also where Napoleon Bonaparte rests eternally—the general whose mere presence on the battlefield was said to add the strength of 40,000 men to his army. His story looms over the museum like a shadow of ambition and destiny.

But his heart was not drawn to cannons and tanks, nor even Napoleon’s stuffed horse. Instead, he wandered into a realm forged by fire and blood—the medieval armory, home to over 2,500 artifacts of Europe’s most violent yet romanticized age.

Echoes of Iron and Valor

Here, he encountered the Great Helm, forged from steel to withstand the crushing blows of war. Dented and scarred, it bore silent testimony to a battlefield where its wearer once stood—perhaps cold, rain-soaked, and staring across the churned mud at enemies charging to meet him in brutal combat.

“This is no replica, no stage prop,” he reflected.

“Each dent is history, each scar a survival.”

Among the gleaming rows stood breastplates polished to perfection, gorgets that once protected the throats of kings, barded armor crafted for horses, and exotic curiosities—like flanged maces with hidden pistols built into the hilt, inventions centuries ahead of their time, foreshadowing the mechanized warfare that would one day render knights obsolete.

The End of the Age of Knights

As he moved deeper into the museum, he found himself in a hall dedicated to jousting helmets—towering, faceless masks that transformed men into human machines of war. Yet for all their imposing grandeur, the illusion faltered.

Because behind each visor, beneath each suit of armor, there was always a man.

A man who felt fear before battle.

A man who swung a sword not as a fantasy hero, but as a survivor in the bloodiest way possible—up close, with hacking steel, amidst screams, mud, and fire.

It was this realization that struck him most deeply: that Knights in Shining Armor were not legends, but living men—warriors who bore steel for those who could not.

History’s Gift to the Present

For two days, he immersed himself in this gallery of iron and memory. Each artifact was a portal to another time, where ideals of honor, loyalty, and courage were tested under the weight of armor and the shadow of death.

And though the age of knights has ended—vanquished by muskets and machineguns—their legacy remains. Not as fairy-tale figures, but as reminders of humanity’s unending struggle to balance war with honor, strength with sacrifice.

A Filipino’s Reflection in Paris

From the heart of Europe, The Pinoy Explorer offers this story not just as a travelogue, but as a call to appreciate history—not the sanitized myths, but the raw truths hidden behind artifacts, scars, and steel.

Because to understand the knights of yesterday is to understand our own battles today: the causes we fight for, the values we protect, and the courage it takes to stand, armored or not, against the storms of life.

In Paris, the Pino Explorer did not just find knights in shining armor.

He found the men who once wore them—and the timeless spirit they carried.

From Drought to Deluge: WMO Warns the World’s Water Cycle is Spinning Out of Control

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The planet’s most essential resource—water—is spiraling into crisis. In its newly released State of Global Water Resources 2024 report, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) paints a harrowing picture of a world caught between extremes: parched by relentless droughts in some regions, drowned by catastrophic floods in others.

For the sixth straight year, only about one-third of the world’s river basins experienced “normal” water conditions. The rest were caught in violent swings—too much or too little—reflecting what scientists now describe as an increasingly erratic hydrological cycle.

“This is no longer a distant warning—it’s our present reality,” declared WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo. “Water sustains our societies, powers our economies, and anchors our ecosystems. Yet our water resources are under mounting pressure, and extreme hazards are striking harder and more often. Without data, we are flying blind.”

A World in Flux: Rivers, Lakes, and Groundwater in Turmoil

Across the globe, the natural order of rivers and lakes is breaking down. Once predictable flows have turned volatile:

South America’s Amazon, Orinoco, Paraná, and São Francisco rivers ran at much-below-normal discharge, prolonging the devastating drought that has withered forests, farmlands, and livelihoods.

In stark contrast, West Africa’s Niger, Volta, and Lake Chad basins swelled with floods, leaving thousands dead and millions displaced.

Central Europe, Pakistan, Northern India, and North-Eastern China all faced above-normal river discharge, testing urban defenses and rural resilience alike.

Groundwater—humanity’s silent lifeline—fared little better. Of the 37,406 wells monitored across 47 countries, only 38% showed normal levels. Over-extraction continues to drain reserves faster than they can recharge, threatening communities and ecosystems that depend on these unseen reservoirs.

Glaciers Melting Into Memory

Perhaps the most chilling revelation: every glaciated region on Earth lost ice in 2024—the third consecutive year of such widespread retreat.

The numbers stagger: 450 gigatons of ice vanished, equivalent to a seven-kilometer cube of frozen water, enough to fill 180 million Olympic swimming pools. That melt alone raised global sea levels by 1.2 millimeters in a single year, inching coastal populations closer to disaster.

In Scandinavia, Svalbard, and North Asia, glaciers endured record-breaking mass loss. Nearer the equator, Colombia’s ice fields shrank by 5% in 2024 alone—a pace that could erase entire tropical glaciers within a generation.

A Deadly Ledger of Extremes

The report catalogues an alarming roll call of devastation:

Africa’s tropical zone: 2,500 lives lost, 4 million displaced amid relentless floods.

Europe: its most widespread flooding since 2013, with one-third of rivers breaching critical thresholds.

Asia-Pacific: record-breaking rainfall and cyclones killed more than 1,000 people.

Brazil: south drowned in floods claiming 183 lives, while the north languished in drought that gripped 59% of its territory.

Each statistic hides a human tragedy—families uprooted, harvests ruined, entire communities left clinging to survival.

A Call for Urgent Action

The WMO warns that today’s crisis is tomorrow’s catastrophe if monitoring, cooperation, and accountability lag. Already, 3.6 billion people face inadequate access to water for at least one month each year. That figure could swell to over 5 billion by 2050—a reality that would undermine economies, erode stability, and imperil the global pursuit of Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation.

“Reliable, science-based information is more important than ever before,” Saulo emphasized. “We cannot manage what we do not measure. Continued investment and global collaboration in monitoring and data sharing are vital to closing dangerous gaps.”

The report urges countries to step up participation in WMO initiatives such as the Global Hydrological Status and Outlook System (HydroSOS) and the Hydrological Observing System (WHOS), harnessing satellite data and local monitoring to better understand and respond to water cycle disruptions.

The Bottom Line

The WMO’s findings are a stark reminder that water is both life’s giver and destroyer. From the glaciers that once fed rivers to the aquifers beneath our feet, the world’s water balance is unraveling. Left unchecked, the consequences will cascade through food systems, economies, and ecosystems alike.

The choice, experts warn, is clear: invest now in science, data, and cooperation—or pay later in crises that no levee, no dam, and no emergency aid can contain.