A new report found that global wildfire activity in 2025 was among the lowest of the past two decades by area burned, yet devastating fires still caused major human and economic losses. Researchers also warn that USAID cuts are threatening key disaster datasets used for wildfire monitoring and early warning systems.

EM-DAT — a 30-year-old database of more than 27,000 natural and technological disasters relied upon by climate scientists, governments, and humanitarian organizations worldwide — faces closure after Trump's dismantling of USAID eliminated the 90% of its funding that came from the agency, Carbon Brief reports.

Cuts to USAID have eliminated hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding for biodiversity protection, forcing conservation programs across dozens of countries to halt operations or shut down entirely, The Guardian reports.

U.S. and European officials are growing increasingly worried as hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. energy assistance promised to Ukraine remain unreleased, according to Reuters. As severe winter conditions push the nation's war‑damaged power grid to the brink, authorities fear residents will freeze to death in their own homes if aid is not delivered.

Recent cuts to U.S. foreign assistance will worsen global climate vulnerability, not just humanitarian suffering, according to Foreign Affairs. Reduced development and resilience funding increases long-term climate risk for both vulnerable nations and global stability more broadly.

America’s retreat from global disaster response has seen humanitarian crises deepen, Vox reports. Countries like Afghanistan and Sudan have struggled to fill the gap once covered by U.S. emergency aid.

The loss of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and USAID grants has forced layoffs, patrol cuts, and stalled anti-poaching efforts across Africa.