New @csis.org report out this week on water insecurity in the #MENA ! Hope the chapter on #Syria (building on my fieldwork during the 2020-2023 drought) will be somewhat useful to policymakers and humanitarians intervening in the local water and agricultural sectors. 👇 www.csis.org/analysis/thi...
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.
Je résume: on a trouvé 110 milliards à investir dans de nouveaux giga-projets énergivores, gourmands en eau, en minéraux, etc.... pile au moment où on est censé réduire drastiquement notre consommation d'énergie pour sauver le climat. #SommetIA
For Turkey Recap, Wouter Massink and I dive into the world's #1 destination for used European mega-ships: the shores of Aliağa, Turkey 🇹🇷 , whose workers are fighting for recognition and compensation of their occupational diseases linked to asbestos exposure 👇
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:
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:
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:
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.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
I started 2024 in my home country, France, after a 5000km cycling journey back from my former home in northern Iraq 🚴♀️ Here's to a year of environmental reporting around the Mediterranean and to the colleagues, friends and editors who made it possible🧵🍃
#Climat et #ski: à rebours des clichés, les communes de 🗻 ne se voilent pas la face sur la fin du modèle "tout-ski". Certaines tournent déjà la page: reportage au #GrandPuy dans les Alpes du Sud pour @vertlemedia.bsky.social sur cette transition difficile: 👇 vert.eco/articles/fac...
Latest story for @mongabay.bsky.social follows end-of-life European cruise ships, military vessels & oil rigs in Aliağa, one of the world's largest shipbreaking hotspots, and how this industry impacts the Mediterranean.🌊🛳️ 👇 news.mongabay.com/2024/12/ship...
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.
