Wildfires, droughts, floods, heat waves, warming seas and melting ice it was a year dominated by stories of the unfolding climate crisis.

The science is telling us loud and clear that we have very limited time to tackle the global climate breakdown. But what will 2020 bring? As 2019 bows out with a whimper as far as meaningful international action is concerned, we look at five environmental stories likely to dominate the headlines in the new year as we start to understand more about the crisis we face and how to extract ourselves from it.

1. Air pollution: the silent emergency