The Klamath River Dam removal, slated for early 2024, is a significant milestone in the journey towards bringing back healthy rivers in the United States. This action will restore nearly 300 miles of river habitat in the Klamath and its tributaries across Southern Oregon and Northern California, allowing salmon, a critical source of economic and nutritional value for the local communities, to return. As the world’s largest dam removal and river restoration project in history, this project will have lasting impacts on the health of this river and represents an opportunity for building momentum to continue global river protection and restoration.

Is water important in climate policy? It seems obvious. Water has a well-established link as the medium of most negative climate impacts. Yet when it comes to addressing the climate crisis, the answer depends very much on who you ask.

On a crisp autumn morning, the Yellow Hill Community Center in western North Carolina buzzed with excitement as more than 120 Cherokees and their allies shared conversations, laughter, and a hearty breakfast. They had descended upon the center in the Qualla Boundary on October 19, 2022 to mark the second annual Honor Long Man Day in the homelands of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).

In the run up to COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, the first summit of its kind to be hosted in the region, water is rising on the agenda, and for good reason. In a new essay for the Wilson Center, Global Fellow Peter Schwartzstein explores how governments across the Middle East are approaching a world with less water – and to what effect. Drawing on a decade of environmental reportage from the Middle East, Schwartzstein sketches out how, why, and with what consequences states have adopted often dramatically divergent strategies.

The summer of 2022 has been a season of climatic extremes across the globe, including record-breaking heatwaves and droughts in both the United States and Europe. But even these unprecedented extreme weather events pale in comparison with China’s heatwave from hell. For more than two months, a huge swath of the world’s most populous nation has been baking under temperatures of up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit. According to state media, this extreme heatwave affects an area of over 500,000 square miles, equivalent to more than twice the size of Texas. In terms of duration, intensity, and area affected, it is almost certainly the most severe heatwave ever recorded anywhere in the world.

Hydropower is the largest source of low-carbon electricity in the world today. And its benefits are needed more than ever. The International Energy Agency estimates that we will need to double the amount of installed hydropower capacity—which stands today at around 1360 gigawatts worldwide—in order to limit the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.