Children’s Needs Due to Climate Change, Conflict Often Ignored in Negotiations

As the world grapples with ongoing armed conflicts, from Ukraine to Gaza, advocacy for a more proactive approach to understanding and effectively responding to the needs of children affected by both armed conflict and climate-induced crises is growing.

Climate Finance Loans a Disaster for Climate-Burdened African Communities

African environmental activists at the ongoing climate summit (COP29) in Baku have called on climate financiers to stop suffocating poor countries with unbearable loans in the name of financing climate adaptation and mitigation on the continent.

Robust Negotiations Still Needed to Push Rich Countries to Honor Financial Commitments

The irony is that whatever the stakes, finance always features as the “crying onion” at each COP. Hence for the COP29, dubbed the finance COP, no wonder we reach an ocean of tears—especially in view of the current geopolitics, when the world is facing the likelihood of having its historically biggest financial contributor on climate pull out.

Women, Indigenous Communities Must Lead Climate Finance Allocations at COP29—Plan International Global Director

Plan International, a global leader in advocating for children’s rights and gender equality, sees the need for women and Indigenous people to be at the forefront of climate negotiations.

COP29: African Countries Must Wake Up from ‘Distributed Carbon Emission Guilt’ to People-Centered Climate Action

Global warming is no longer just an issue for the environment but a crisis of life itself. Yet, African governments’ climate action strategies, specifically those submitted under the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), remain disproportionately focused on emission reductions—an approach that fails to address the most pressing health needs of African communities. For many Africans, it’s hard to explain why their leaders prioritize reducing emissions, which are rather low and insignificant when the immediate threat of climate change is not their carbon footprint but their vulnerability to its effects.

‘Show Me the Money’—Grenada PM Calls for Climate Justice

"Though I come from a 'no worries' island, climate change is deeply worrisome for us," Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told IPS in an exclusive interview at COP29 currently underway in Baku, Azerbaijan. Asked how his country was recovering from Hurricane Beryl, Mitchell said the island in the last 24 hours “experienced flash flooding and landslides... So, apart from Hurricane Beryl, we are also dealing with other climate catastrophes.”

Progress as Draft Decision Text for COP29 Presidency’s Top Negotiating Priority Released

Three days into the landmark COP29 conference, the co-chairs of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) have arrived at a workable basis for discussion on the summit’s top priority goal—a new climate finance goal. The COP29 Presidency says the draft will, moving forward, “guide conversations around potential landing zones and help identify concerns.”

Seeking COP29 Solutions as Desert Lake Disrupts Harmonious Co-Existence With Indigenous Community

Climate change exacerbates the difficulties already faced by indigenous communities, multiplying their vulnerabilities from political and economic marginalization and loss of land and natural resources. The ongoing climatic carnage is displacing indigenous communities at seven times the rate of the global population.

Make Health Top of Climate Negotiations Agenda—Global Climate & Health Alliance

Climate change and its impact on public health hasn't made the top of the agenda even at a forum like the UN Climate Conference, but is should, say the health community. Understanding the gap, more than 100 organizations from across the international health and climate community came together as the Global Climate and Health Alliance and have called wealthy countries to protect people's health by committing to provide climate finance in the order of a trillion dollars annually, in addition to global action with leadership from the highest emitting countries to end the fossil fuel era.

UNDP’s Sustainable Energy Director Calls For Innovative Financial Solutions for Adaptation, Mitigation

Riad Meddeb, Director of the Sustainable Energy Hub at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), stressed the urgency of finding innovative financial solutions during COP29.

Without Supercharging Adaptation Funding Global Temperatures Could Surge

The Head of Impact Assessment and Adaptation, Henry Neufeldt, UN Environment Programme Copenhagen Climate Centre, has called for increased climate adaptation funding, particularly for developing nations facing significant climate risks.

Climate Justice

 
Climate change continues to pose an existential threat to humanity. Recent science estimates that we may have less than six years left to change course.

UNEP: Nations Must Step Up Adaptation—Starting with Bold Finance Action at COP 29

The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) 2024 Adaptation Gap Report has warned that adaptation actions are not keeping pace with the surging demands of a warming planet. Released ahead of the COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, the report—titled Come Hell and High Water—projected a bleak future where vulnerable communities bear the brunt of climate-induced hardships. 

Mexican Cooperative Promotes Energy Transition on Indigenous Lands

What began as a search for fair prices for indigenous handicrafts in 1985 has evolved into a women's organisation in Mexico that promotes climate justice while advocating for land and environmental rights.

Knife-Edge November: Teetering on the Climate Abyss

Standing high on the vertiginous edge of the future and looking down into a volcanic seething of approaching doom, it is a totally understandable desire to want to close your eyes, walk away and turn on the sports channel. If you have one.

Tanzanian Students Drive Climate Action Through Tree Planting

At Gabimori primary school, located at Nyamagaro ward in Tanzania’s northern Rorya district, a 15-year-old  Florence Sadiki kneels among polyethylene bags, carefully examining the seedlings she and her classmates  have nurtured from tiny sprouts “We’ve planted many trees to make our school look better and to help fight climate change,” she says.

Scientific Research Can Play a Key Role in Unlocking Climate Finance

Climate finance will be at the epicenter of the discussion at the UN Climate Change Conference 2024 (COP29). The focus will be on strengthening the fund and defining the conditions under which the countries of the Global South will be able to access this money. However, little is said about the scientific research that is required to gather the evidence and data to prove the loss and damage caused by the impact of climate change in developing countries.

Without Accelerated Action, We Will Miss the Chance to Limit Warming to 1.5°C, Says UNEP Chief Climate Advisor

Anne Olhoff, Chief Climate Advisor at UNEP, underlined the urgent need for accelerated climate action ahead of COP29 in an exclusive interview with IPS. “The next six years are crucial—without accelerated action, we will miss the chance to limit warming to 1.5°C,” she warned.

UNEP’s 2024 Emissions Gap Report Warns: ‘No More Hot Air, Please’

The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2024 delivered a stark reminder that the world is still far from meeting its climate commitments.

Salt: Bangladesh Communities On the Frontline of Climate Change

Global warming has far-reaching effects, and certain countries, particularly those with low lying coastal regions, are more vulnerable than others. Bangladesh, the largest delta in the world, is at the forefront of the global warming crisis. Its coastal areas are increasingly exposed to rising sea levels, natural disasters, and salinization, all of which have devastating effects on its population.

The Future of Food Security Lies Beyond COP29’s Negotiation Tables

Climate change has thrown our food systems into chaos. Extreme weather events and dramatic climate variations are hammering food production and supply chains across the world. As global leaders gear up for COP29, there’s plenty of buzz about climate action. But can we really expect these slow-moving, bureaucratic negotiations to deliver tangible and swift results to decarbonize and insulate our agri-food systems? Most likely not. But do not despair. While the COP29 talks unfold, crucial climate solutions for transforming food systems are already taking root on the ground.