In Brazil, however, another old fuel still remains a problem: charcoal, used for everything from powering steel mills to lighting up traditional Brazilian barbecues.

In the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, workers were found in slavery-like conditions, producing charcoal in part using wood illegally harvested from the Cerrado, a fast-vanishing savanna ecosystem less-known than the Amazon but also hugely important for biodiversity and climate protection.

Brazil's steel mills rely on charcoal, much of which is made from native forests, said Roberto Kishinami, energy coordinator at the Rio de Janeiro-based Institute for Climate and Society. In a country that is one of the world's top charcoal producers, that's a big threat to forests, analysts say.

And in India's northeast Assam province, families fleeing more extreme rainfall, flooding and erosion of their land find themselves running out of places to move after repeatedly shifting their homes.

Hemram Pegu, for instance, has been forced to rebuild his home at least eight times in the past decade, moving it a few metres inland every time heavy rains cause the Brahmaputra River to surge into his village of Besemora.

His indigenous Mising community has lived along the river for generations, he said, but they now find its behavior baffling and increasingly erratic. And with no title deeds to prove land ownership, they are running out of new home sites.

Will 2022 be the year climate action speeds up to match the growing threat? Let's hope so - or the alternative could be costly, experts warn.

See you next week!

Laurie

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