In Iraq, climate change is adding stress to an already precarious situation. Weak public services,  growing unemployment, fossil fuel-related environmental and health hazards, and other factors have generated high levels of social vulnerability and contributed to recent protests. In the top post for May, Dylan O’Driscoll and Shivan Fazil write about how, against this fragile backdrop, insecurity is heightened by increasingly deadly flash floods and more frequent dust storms that pose a public health threat.

In the second top post for May, Claire Hubley highlights the challenges still faced by women who do not want children, including social stigmatization and lack of access to voluntary family planning. Women in Low- and Middle-Income countries especially face pressures to have children and depend on male partners for access to reproductive health.

Gender equity is also the focus of last month’s third top post, a Revisiting Backdraft contribution in which Marisa Ensor looks at the disproportionate impact of conflict and climate on women and urges a broader approach to addressing the gender-climate-security triple nexus. By moving beyond a narrow focus on women’s protection and participation, Ensor writes, we can instead advance a transformative agenda that tackles structural gender disparities and increases women’s access to activism, resources, and capacity-building.

In the fourth top post for May, Jeremy Wallace draws attention to a consequence of the Ukraine war that has received relatively less media coverage: China’s weakening climate commitments. Though China remains a global leader in renewable energy generation, Wallace shows how a combination of special deals with Russia and higher energy prices have led the country to purchase more Russian oil and increase investments in coal power—a sobering development in the midst of our worsening climate crisis.

The fifth top post last month explored yet another set of Backdraft challenges within the renewable energy transition—how the increased demand for green hydrogen fuel could threaten water resources in South Africa’s already-parched platinum belt. Tokollo Matsabu exposes the environmental and social risks of platinum mining in South Africa and identifies some key ways they could be avoided.

1. Why Climate Change Will Exacerbate Inequalities and Grievances in Iraq by Dylan O’Driscoll & Shivan Fazil
2. Addressing the Global Stigma of Being Childfree by Claire Hubley
3. The Risks of Gender-blind Climate Action by Marisa O. Ensor
4. The Ukraine War’s Shadow on China’s Road to Decarbonization by Jeremy L. Wallace
5. The “Fuel of the Future” and Water Insecurity in South Africa’s Platinum Belt by Tokollo Matsabu