Le 9 février entrera dans l'histoire comme le jour où nous avons arrêté de faire semblant de chercher le frein, pour appuyer ouvertement sur l'accélérateur. #sommetIA

110 milliards, c'est plus que ce que nous avions promis aux pays "du Sud" pour les aider à s'adapter aux effets du changement climatique en 2010 à Copenhague. Promesse non tenue pendant des années.

In 2025, I look forward to more of exactly the same. Here's to a ton of crossborder stories with great partners, to local stories shared with global audiences, to digging up underlooked environmental issues and connecting the dots between different sides of the Mediterranean ⭐️

Overall, 2024 has been exceptionnally diverse and collaborative. My last freelance story this year was written from France and Turkey for @mongabay.bsky.social with Wouter Massink. We look at how European regulations impact the shipbreaking industry in Turkey:

news.mongabay.com/2024/12/ship...

One of the joys of being back in France is that I am now closer than ever to local environmental battles. This story, which takes place very close to my current home, was one of my favorite assignments of 2024:

reporterre.net/Dans-les-Alp...

Starting in the fall, I took a job at a local newspapers in the southern French Alps and started closing in on more local environmental issues, including the impact of global warming on glaciers & the ski industry. ⛷️

In parallel, I was involved in another crossborder project supported by @journalismfund.bsky.social, investigating the upcoming 2026 & 2030 Olympics in the Italian & French Alps 🗻, and their environmental footprint:

reporterre.net/100-ans-de-J...

Throughout the summer and fall, I worked with @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social, @veradelejahotko.bsky.social, Sevilay Nur Saraclar, Gustav Elfving & others on investigating European climate funds for developing countries, with support from @journalismfund.bsky.social :

www.carbonbrief.org/cop29-six-ke...

With a grant from @boelleu.bsky.social, I spent months investigating Saudi Arabia's "green" giga-project Neom and European companies' involvement in this senseless project. Thanks @desmog.bsky.social for publishing a large chunk of it.

www.desmog.com/2024/10/31/h...

Though I couldn't enter Gaza from Egypt, I also tried to articulate how Israel war senselessly cruel strategy against the Palestinian enclave would ruin the land, durably poison the environment, and punish Gazans for generations to come:

vert.eco/articles/len...

In northwestern Syria this time, Abdelmajed Alkarh and I wrote about widespread deforestation during the war for Untold Magazine, to shed light on this environmental tragedy in Syria's most forested regions:

untoldmag.org/syrias-fores...

Keeping an eye on Syria, Solin Muhammed Amin and I also tried to keep Turkey's devastating war against Syrian Kurds in the news, looking at the toxic fallout of illegal, targeted Turkish airstrikes on energy & water infrastructure:

reporterre.net/La-guerre-ou...

For
@mongabay.bsky.social, Abdelmajed Alkarh and I looked at how invasive water hyacinths clogged waterways and destroyed livelihoods in northern Syria and in Egypt's Nile Delta:

news.mongabay.com/2024/05/from...

From Jan to March, I spent three months in Egypt, covering, among other things, the slow death of the Nile. Fieldwork with Nada Arafat, penned by Alex Simon, took us around a breadbasket plagued by rampant pollution and state neglect:

www.synaps.network/en/post/Egyp...

Principale conclusion: avant même de parler des montants, il faut parler de la structure de la finance climat. Opaque, mal définie, décorrélée des besoins voir carrément dévoyée par les bailleurs... Un gros travail reste à faire pour s'assurer que cet argent serve bien le climat.