Hope springs eternal in award-winning photos showcasing nature’s resilience

From wildfire-scorched forests to algae-choked lakes, humans are leaving increasingly indelible marks on nature.Carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are pushing global warming towards and beyond the 1.5°C limit, resulting in ever worsening weather extremes.Mass consumption is strewing coastlines with waste and polluting waterways with chemicals.Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, and the European Environment Agency’s (EEA) latest state of the environment report found more than 80 per cent of protected habitats in poor or bad condition.With the UN’s COP31 summit now in full swing, world leaders are coming together to get climate action back on track. Hot on the heels of the COP17 biodiversity talks, which ended on 31 October with a new roadmap but a UN report showing the world is falling behind on its 2030 nature goals, the intersection between nature and climate has been thrown into the spotlight.It’s a relationship Europeans were invited to explore for this year’s EEA ‘Resilient by Nature’ photo competition.Photographers from 35 countries set out to capture nature in states of harmony, disruption or renewal. From almost 2,800 entries, an external jury chose a winner in each category, as well as awarding a youth prize. The images were also put to a public online vote for the public choice award.