CLIMATE-ENERGY-UN-COP24-RUSSIA-PERMAFROST

A woman walks next to a cracked panel apartment building in the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk on November 26, 2018. - Many houses in Yakutsk are made up of concrete panels and stand on stilts which ensure ventilation of the building's underbelly and prevent it from heating the permafrost, the layer of mineral cemented together with water which is stable as long as it stays frozen. Warmer temperatures however can destroy the solid permafrost over the period of the hot summer: as ice melts, the clay or sand simply sink together with anything on top of it, whether it's a road, a house, a lake or precious black earth used in agriculture. (Photo by Mladen ANTONOV / AFP) (Photo credit should read MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP via Getty Images)