Africa Wants Health to Be at the Center of Adaptation Finance

With the COP30 Presidency prioritizing health at the United Nations climate summit in Belém, African leaders are calling for finance to be channeled towards improving the health systems of developing countries.

Rising Heat, Rising Risk: Regional Policy Actions

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’

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

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

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

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.

The AI Revolution – A Way Forward

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing our world. It has helped a few companies in developed countries set record-breaking profits. Last month, Nvidia, a leading US AI company, hit a market value of USD 5 trillion.

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

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

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

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.

Public Health Besieged by Industry Interference

The 183 Parties to the global health treaty, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will convene in Geneva from 17 - 22 November with one objective - to strengthen their efforts to arrest the No.1 preventable cause of disease and 7 million deaths annually – tobacco use.

The World Social Summit in Doha: Time to Act

Qatar hosted the Second World Summit for Social Development from 4–6 November. According to the United Nations, more than 40 Heads of State and Government, 230 ministers and senior officials, and nearly 14,000 attendees took part. Beyond plenaries and roundtables, more than 250 “solution sessions” identified practical ways to advance universal rights to food, housing, decent work, social protection or social security, education, health, care systems and other public services, international labor standards, and the fight against poverty and inequality.

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

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.

US Stands Alone Defying UN Vote on Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

The US took another step backward --to break ranks with the United Nations-- when it voted against a draft resolution calling for the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The negative vote followed an announcement by President Trump last month that the US plans to resume nuclear testing after a 33-year hiatus. The US stood alone on the UN vote, which was supported by almost all member States in the General Assembly's First Committee.

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

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.

The Top Climate Leaders Are Now in The Global South

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.

COP30: The Age of Irrationality in Climate Policy

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

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.

World Must Pay to Make America Great Again

US President Trump’s economic strategy for his second term aims to get the rest of the world, especially its wealthy allies with greater means, to pay more to help strengthen the US economy.

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

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.

Turning Indigenous Territories From ‘Sacrifice’ Zones to Thriving Forest Ecosystems

A report by the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities (GATC) and Earth Insight paints a stark picture of how extractive industries, deforestation, and climate change are converging to endanger the world’s last intact tropical forests and the Indigenous Peoples who protect them.

Brazil’s Biofuels Push Undermines Environmental Integrity at COP30

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