After the controversial lifting of a six-year moratorium or temporary ban on logging activities in public and community forests by the Kenyan government in July 2023, trucks ferrying tree logs are frequently seen on major highways in total disregard of environmental concerns.
With global temperatures continuing to break records and every global indicator of the health of the natural world
showing decline, the need to quickly move away from fossil fuels and environmentally destructive practices has never been more apparent. But as has often been pointed out, how this ‘green transition’ is achieved matters.
Renewable energy and climate change activists have challenged African heads of state to take a united stance to safeguard essential mineral resources, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other parts of the continent, which are selfishly exploited by foreign miners with disregard for poverty-stricken local communities.
Almost everything seems new or under construction in the southern Brazilian city of Hortolandia, from its wide avenues and cable-stayed bridge to its large buildings and riverside parks.
On Christmas Day in 2022, 27-year-old Thabani Dlodlo’s eight-year-old son drowned in a flooded pit dug up by quarry miners in the vicinity of Pumula North, a high-density suburb in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city.
As if that was not enough, just a week after New Year’s Day the following year, Dlodlo’s neighbor, 36-year-old Sethule Hlengiwe, also lost her six-year-old daughter after she drowned in another pit flooded with rainwater near her home in Bulawayo.
Ibrahim Basheer plunges into the sea and disappears. He remains gone for a couple of minutes before resurfacing for a deep breath of air, repeating this for the next half an hour. When he finally climbs aboard his boat, the net sack around his neck is filled with mussels—his catch for that diving trip. He rests for a short while before diving into the sea again—needing one more such trip to fill the basket he has brought along.
A hush had fallen over Mbarali District, but it was not the quiet of peace—it was the silence of uncertainty.
Just months ago, the rolling plains were gripped by fear as government-backed rangers, dressed in olive green fatigues, roamed through villages, seizing cattle, torching homes, and forcing entire communities to the wobbly edge of survival. The REGROW project, a USD 150 million initiative funded by the World Bank to expand Ruaha National Park (RUNAPA), had promised tourism growth and environmental conservation. What it delivered was a brutal campaign of state-sanctioned land grabbing under the guise of protecting nature.
Nearly one in 11 people in the world and one in five people in Africa go hungry every day, a crisis primarily driven by chronic inequality, climate change, conflict and economic instability. At the current pace, hunger and extreme poverty rates show little sign of drastically receding by 2030.
At night, when the world lights up, large swathes of Africa remain cloaked in darkness—a stark reminder of the continent’s lack of reliable access to electricity.
Over the past few years, climate shocks have become more frequent and have devastated economies and agriculture systems, exacerbating widespread malnutrition and hunger. It has become increasingly apparent that the utilization of sustainable agriculture practices and disaster risk management systems are crucial to fulfill growing needs as natural resources continue to dwindle.
This January, Mexico has embarked on a new industrial path for the next six years, where the viability of its energy component faces fundamental challenges that put it at risk.
The United Nations declared 2025 as the
International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation to promote awareness about the role of glaciers, snow and ice. The climate system and global hydrological cycle are dependent on accumulated water in solid form as glaciers, snow and ice. Because of the global temperature rise and its impact on the Earth’s cryosphere, socio-economic and environmental effects are being observed.
Access to energy is essential for sustainable development, but for many rural communities, it’s still out of reach. In Angola, according to the 2019-2020 agricultural census, most rural villages
lack access to electricity.
As the cool morning breeze sweeps across the Indian Ocean beach in Tanzania’s Pemba archipelago, Salma Mahmoud Ali begins her day. With her brightly coloured Kikoi cinched tightly around her waist and a dark blue scarf framing her face, she walks barefoot toward her salt ponds. The humid air hangs, but Ali wades through ankle-deep water with courage.
"It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." Charles Dickens is more relevant today than ever.
The wealthy and powerful are meeting again this year in glamorous Davos, at an invitation-only event. They arrive in chartered aircraft and private jets to speak about our warming climate, among other global concerns.
Nature is taking the stand as courtrooms worldwide become battlegrounds for Earth’s rights. The rise in climate litigation shows how the environment can take centre stage as a plaintiff, demanding justice and accountability, benefiting us all.
Climate change is one of the most serious global threats to the future of the world’s population. Its impact extends far and wide, from the economy to governance to the very health and well-being of society.
Over 570 million people live in the world’s 32 Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), spanning across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. These nations face unique and complex development challenges. Their lack of direct access to the sea, geographical isolation, limited infrastructure, and difficulty integrating into global trade and value chains hinder sustainable development and progress.
Securing new financing for global good has become more challenging than ever. Negotiations at the recently-concluded COP16 on Nature and Biodiversity failed to reach an agreement on establishing a fund to support the implementation of the Framework for Nature agreed in 2022 under the
Montreal-Kunming agreement.
In December 2024, Vanuatu experienced yet another harrowing reminder of its vulnerability to disasters—a powerful 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific nation’s capital, Port Vila, leaving 14 dead, over 200 injured, and thousands more affected.
Nature is at a tipping point. With human activity having pushed up to 1 million plant and animal species close to extinction, securing sustainable development and halting global biodiversity collapse is no longer just an option but a requisite for human wellbeing.