Climate change has a disproportionate impact on communities which depend on the natural environment for their day-to-day needs. In Eritrea, it's estimated about 80% of the population are subsistence farmers, mainly growing sorghum, maize and teff. Such subsistence farmers are especially vulnerable to shifting weather patterns that can devastate food production and livelihoods.

During the past few years, Eritrea, like the rest of the Horn of Africa, has experienced fluctuating weather patterns exacerbated by the ocean warming trend, El Niño. Rains fell unexpectedly in Eritrea in October last year resulting in the government advising farmers to reap early.

"Had they not reacted, or reacted based on the traditional harvest, they would probably lose their harvest," says Peter Smerdon with the World Food Programme. While El Niño is a complex and naturally occurring event, scientific research suggests that global warming could be making this cyclical event occur more frequently and intensely.

Most of the world’s scientific communities agree that long-term significant changes in the earth’s climate system have occurred and are occurring more rapidly than in the past. Continued emissions into the earth’s atmosphere are projected to cause further warming, impacting Africa in the form of increased temperatures and greater seasonal rainfall variability with more frequent extremes.

"People in wealthier countries should be worried about the effects of climate change in the Horn of Africa," says Challiss McDonough from the World Food Programme "Climate change is one of the main drivers of global hunger, second only to conflict, so, for donor countries, investing in climate and disaster risk reduction makes economic sense."

Pictured on the local Eritrean 5-Nakfa banknote, the sycamore tree has significant symbolism in Eritrea. Elders used to gather under these huge, hundred-year-old trees to discuss important community issues and laws. Many trees were cut down during colonization and war. Those that remain now have to contend with the effects of climate change.

"One impact of climate change in a coastal region is rising sea levels that impact lives along the coast and increases the likelihood of flooding or flood-related disaster such as high tides that could wash out a crop," Smerdon says. "Also, salt-water intrusion due to climate change can increase erosion and increase salinity of soils and thereby damage soil content and fertility of land."

Eritrea’s stunning coastline includes coral reefs, offering a potential boon for tourism – if they survive in their present state. "Until a few years ago, this piece of sea was full of corals, but then last year they all died,” an Eritrean diver tells DW. "The temperature of the sea was too high." At the same time, local fisherman rely on the ocean's resources to trade in fish and shells.

The weather pattern changes in Eritrea are evident elsewhere. "While working in Central America, East Africa, and the Middle East, I’ve always talked to elder people, especially those in agriculture, and the message from them is consistent," says Sam Wood with Save the Children in Ethiopia. "Weather patterns are becoming less predictable and when rain comes, it is too much or too little.”

"Why study, if our future is being destroyed?" This sign features a sentiment shared by increasing numbers of German students, who have joined young people worldwide in using Friday school strikes to call for action on climate change. The movement was inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began her protests alone in front of the Swedish parliament in August 2018.

With the 2015 Paris climate accord, nearly all of the world's countries committed to limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), by 2100. The hope is that this target will prevent the worst effects of climate disasters. Concerned by the dire predictions from climate scientists, more and more people have called for immediate action.

Despite urgent warnings, politicians have dragged their heels on important climate decisions. It's become clear that Germany will miss its targets for 2020. Climate protection was an important factor in the European elections in late May, with the Greens winning more than 20% of the vote in Germany alone, more than double previous results. Among 18-24-year-olds, 34% backed the party.

Germany's climate movement is fighting on many fronts. In recent years, activists have fought to preserve Hambach Forest in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, building treehouses to prevent the old-growth forest from being felled to make way for the mining of lignite, or brown coal. Energy giant RWE has launched legal action, and police have cleared the camp several times.

In September 2018, a few days after the camp was removed again, a court ruling suspended the clearing of the forest until late 2020, after a lawsuit by environmental group BUND. RWE has argued that the forest has to be cut in order to ensure the coal necessary for Germany's electricity supply. Around 50,000 activists celebrated the victory.

Protests organized by groups such as Ende Gelände have increasingly been making headlines. Thousands of young activists have come out to staged events, blocking railway tracks used to deliver coal to power plants near Cologne and occupying huge coal excavators, as seen here in the open-pit mine in the east German town of Welzow in 2016.

In January 2019, after seven months of negotiations, a coal commission set up by the federal government to work out Germany's plans to phase out coal power released its findings. It recommended that Germany should continue coal mining until 2038, at the latest —far too late for the country to meet the targets of the 2015 Paris climate accord.

An increasing number of young people in Germany are demanding that the government find a way to meet the 1.5-degree target. The emerging Fridays for Future movement has been getting support from longtime environmentalists, teachers, academics and parents. They have called for all German coal-fired power plants to be shut down by 2030, and for renewable energy initiatives to be vastly expanded.