Climate Change

Rising Heat, Rising Risk: Regional Policy Actions

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
The year 2024 was the hottest on record globally. In Asia and the Pacific, Bangladesh was the worst-hit country, with about 33 million people affected by lower crop yields that destabilized food systems, along with extensive school closures and many cases of heatstroke and related diseases. Children, the elderly and outdoor low-wage earners in poor and densely populated urban areas suffered the most, as they generally had less access to cooling systems or to water supplies and adequate healthcare. India, too, was badly affected, with around 700 heat-related deaths mostly in informal settlements.

‘This People’s March for Climate is For My Son’s Future’

By Tanka Dhakal
In the scorching heat and humidity, Canru Pataxo marched with his one-year-old son firmly held in his arms.

Shepherded by Anxious Security in Humidity-fueled Heat, Activists Plead for Climate Justice

By Tanka Dhakal
Farmer and climate activist from Nigeria, Melody Areola, is beating the heat in Belém and voicing farmers’ rights in climate discussions. As the UN Climate Conference, COP30, in Brazil approaches the end of its first week, activists like Melody are making their voices louder.

‘Just Transition Must Make Climate Work for People Living its Consequences’

By Joyce Chimbi
An open letter by more than 1,000 organizations from 106 countries, including trade unions, Indigenous leaders, feminist and youth movements, Afro-descendants, peasant groups, environmental advocates, disability networks and community organizations, to all States Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is calling for a people-centered Just Transition.

Belém’s Hunger, Poverty Declaration Places World’s Most Vulnerable Populations at Centre of Global Climate Policy

By Joyce Chimbi
A young woman at COP30 speaks about retracing her father’s footsteps. At only 16, her father and her grandfather were among the first families displaced by an unfolding climatic crisis of erratic weather and worsening climate conditions that goes on to date from their ancestral village in Sundarbans. Nearly 60 years later, she is on a mission to reclaim her ancestral lands.

As COP30 Takes Place, Can Africa Draw Lessons from Brazil on How It Develops Its Livestock Sector?

By Appolinaire Djikeng
As the world gathers in Brazil for the UN climate talks, the country’s livestock sector - one of the largest in the world - is understandably in the spotlight.

Latin America: a Test Case for Aligning Climate Action, Food Security and Social Sustainability

By Caroline Delgado
The urgency of linking climate action with social and wider environmental priorities is clear. Climate change, environmental degradation and violent conflict are often deeply connected and even mutually reinforcing. At the same time, climate action can either support or undermine efforts to improve social justice and halt environmental degradation.

We’re All in the Same Storm, Different Boats, Says Young Activist With Disability

By Tanka Dhakal
At the UN Climate Conference venue in Belém, young activist João Victor da Costa da Silva is trying to make his case heard by negotiators. The 16-year-old Da Silva has a specific request for the parties: the needs of young people with disabilities should be addressed through the lens of climate justice.

Brazil is Breathing Life into Climate Commitments—Human Rights Lawyer

By Joyce Chimbi
Binaifer Nowrojee, a human rights lawyer and the president of the Open Society Foundations (OSF), has lauded the Brazilian government “for significant steps taken to breathe life into the climate commitments.”

Poor Countries Welcome Loss and Damage Fund’s Call for Requests, Warn It Falls Short of Needs

By Farai Shawn Matiashe
Least Developed Countries have hailed the debut call for proposals for the Loss and Damage Fund, which was launched on 11 November at the United Nations climate summit known as COP30 in Belem, Brazil.

Demonstrators Face-Off With Security as COP30 Activism Intensifies

By Joyce Chimbi
In a departure from the past three COPs, in Egypt, Dubai and Azerbaijan, there have been increasingly intense demonstrations from activists at the COP30 venue in Belém, the capital of the northern Brazilian state of Pará.

Hollow Promises or Hope?
COP30 Brazil – Moment of Truth for the Planet

By James Alix Michel
COP30 Brazil, though shadowed by the absence of many world leaders, remains a pivotal milestone in the global fight against climate change, tasked with building on the Paris Agreement’s momentum. Yet the glaring lack of commitment, coupled with withdrawals from the accord, casts a grim shadow over the future. The planet continues to warm, and scientists warn that current targets may not prevent a catastrophic temperature spike. While the summit’s focus on implementation not just new promises—is a welcome shift, it’s clear: words alone won’t cool the Earth.

Indigenous Knowledge Holders Want to Be Acknowledged

By Tanka Dhakal
Generational lived experiences are key to confronting and living with a changing climate, say Indigenous knowledge holders and activists at the UN Climate Conference (COP30). As the first COP to be held in the Amazon region, in Belém, representatives of Indigenous communities reiterated the importance of generationally transferred knowledge and skills to adapt to and mitigate the threats posed by climate change.

A Tale of Two Cities – Belém, Nairobi and Why Global Tax Justice Must be at Center of Climate Crisis Response

By Ian Gary
The climate crisis is getting worse and requires fundamental changes to societies, economies, and our global financial architecture in response. While extreme economic inequality is on the rise – the world's billionaires now hold more wealth in the world than every country except the U.S. and China – the impacts of climate change are also unequally felt, with the poor in the Global South and North most at risk.

COP30’s Crossroads: To Accelerate Implementation or Make More Promises?

By Joyce Chimbi
“Devastating climate damages are happening already, from Hurricane Melissa hitting the Caribbean, Super Typhoons smashing Vietnam and the Philippines to a tornado ripping through Southern Brazil,” said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, on the eve of COP30 in the Amazonian City of Belém. “This is why COP must achieve three things: It must send a clear signal: nations are fully on board for climate cooperation—that means agreeing to strong outcomes on all the key issues.”

The Top Climate Leaders Are Now in The Global South

By Erik Solheim
When world leaders now gather in Belém, Brazil for the UN climate conference, expectations will be modest. Few believe the meeting will produce any breakthroughs. The United States is retreating from climate engagement. Europe is distracted. The UN is struggling to keep relevant in the 21st century.

‘We Want a Place at the Negotiation Table’ — Indigenous Leader

By Tanka Dhakal
Indigenous leaders from across the Amazon region are calling on climate negotiators to base climate initiatives on the recognition of the land rights of affected Indigenous communities. From the COP30 venue in Belém, these leaders are demanding full participation in the design and implementation of proposed projects.

COP30: The Age of Irrationality in Climate Policy

By Pedro Barata
I have been working on climate policy since the late 1990s. I was in the room when Europe’s early carbon market discussions were shaping the architecture that would eventually underpin the Kyoto Protocol.

In the Heart of the Amazon: COP 30 and the Fate of the Planet

By Asoka Bandarage
My recent visit to Brazil coincided partly with the Conference of the Parties (COP) 30, the 30th United Nations Climate Conference in Belém. Although I did not attend COP 30, I was very fortunate to visit the Amazon.

The Silent War Before COP30: How Corporations Are Weaponising the Law to Muzzle Climate Defenders

By Bibbi Abruzzini and Lucia Torres (Forus) and Jake Wieczorek (Hivos)
As the world prepares for the next COP30 summit, a quieter battle is raging in courtrooms. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) are the fossil-fuel industry’s new favourite weapon, turning justice systems into instruments of intimidation.

Brazil’s Biofuels Push Undermines Environmental Integrity at COP30

By Cian Delaney
President Prabowo Subianto welcomed his counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil to Jakarta recently to strengthen ties between the fast-growing economies.
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