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Explainer: Why COP29 Baku Outcome is a Bad Deal for Poor, Vulnerable Nations
Joyce Chimbi
The culmination of bitter, difficult, and challenging climate negotiations concluded with an announcement from the COP29 Presidency of Azerbaijan of the "agreement of the Baku Finance Goal—a new commitment to channel USD1.3 trillion of climate finance to the developing world each year by 2035." ... MORE > >
Can Pay, Won’t Pay—COP29 Outcome Far from Promised Historic Deal of a Lifetime
Joyce Chimbi
They say it is taboo to talk about money. But this is exactly what developing countries came for: to haggle and push for the climate finance deal of a lifetime, as the climate crisis is, for them, a matter of life and death. Wealthy nations also came for their own deal of a lifetime—to hoist the ... MORE > >
Migration Remittances: Pursuit of Greener Pastures Opens Door for Climate Financing
Joyce Chimbi
COP29 delegates have elaborated on how Africa’s dependency on agriculture is becoming increasingly untenable amidst alarming levels of global warming, wrecking havoc on the sector. Coastal communities, pastoralists, and those in the drylands are in the thick of the climate chaos. Options for ... MORE > >
UN's OCHA Calls to Correct the Imbalance in Climate Finance Allocation
Umar Manzoor Shah
As climate-induced disasters continue to wreak havoc worldwide, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a UN body specializing in emergency response, has issued a clarion call for an ambitious and fair global climate finance goal at COP29. Greg Puley, Head of the Climate ... MORE > >
Where Is Mental Health in Global Climate Negotiations?
Tanka Dhakal
The mental health impacts of climate change are not widely discussed, but increasing evidence shows how climate change is affecting mental health and raising the risk of new mental health challenges. Experts say that existing systems are not equipped to cope with the current and additional ... MORE > >
Science Ignored, Promises Delayed: Bangladesh’s Environment Minister Expresses Dismay Over COP29 Outcomes
Umar Manzoor Shah
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh and as Minister of Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change, urged the global and regional leaders to prioritize ambitious, evidence-based climate targets in the climate negotiations. Hasan, in an exclusive interview with ... MORE > >
Brazil Vows to Make COP30 a Catalyst for Climate Action and Biodiversity Celebration
Umar Manzoor Shah
As Brazil gears up to host COP30 in Belém next year, Moisés Savian, the country's Secretary of Land Governance, Territorial and Socio Environmental Development, outlined the event's significance in showcasing Brazil's environmental policies and fostering global collaboration. In an interview ... MORE > >
Embedding Education into Climate Finance Will Deliver Desired Learning, Climate Action Outcomes
Joyce Chimbi
Education is under threat as multiple crises push children out of school and into harms way. COP29 Baku could break historical barriers that hold back education from playing a unique, critical role to accelerate the ambition of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, ... MORE > >
Pakistan’s Climate Minister Pitches for ‘Climate Diplomacy’ at COP29
Umar Manzoor Shah
Romina Khurshid Alam, the Coordinator to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Climate Change, praised the resilience of the people of her country in the face of climate disasters and has put her faith into diplomacy to achieve climate justice. Speaking to IPS against the backdrop of a rising ... MORE > >
Don’t Lock Us Out of Negotiating Table—Indigenous Communities
Joyce Chimbi
Delegates representing Indigenous people’s rights have taken issue with the ongoing COP29 negotiations, calling for Parties to include text and language that promote Indigenous rights to be explicitly referenced in the consensus and outcome documents. Faced by multiple, complex challenges, they ... MORE > >
Mercury Pollution: A Global Threat to Oceans and Communities
Aishwarya Bajpai
Mercury pollution from burning coal is contaminating our oceans and seafood, threatening global health. Dr. Amina Schartup, a marine chemist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has spent nearly 20 years studying the mercury cycle. Her research sheds light on how this heavy metal, ... MORE > >
Explainer: Taxes on Cryptocurrencies and Plastics To Boost Climate Finance
Margaret López
The global climate aid fund is not the only option discussed at the World Climate Change Conference (COP29). Imposing a new tax on cryptocurrencies and the plastics industry could help close the money gap needed to address the impacts of climate change, especially in the countries of the Global ... MORE > >
Survival at Stake: Caribbean Calls For Just, Fair Financing For Small Island States at COP
Aishwarya Bajpai
Communities living in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) pay the price of climate change in lives, livelihoods, and stunted sustainable development.  Representatives from Caribbean islands have repeatedly expressed this ongoing concern at COP29. Dr. Colin A. Young, Executive Director of ... MORE > >
Methane Mitigation at COP-29—Pathways to Climate Action
Umar Manzoor Shah
Methane emissions have emerged as a focal point of discussion as global leaders congregate at COP29 in Baku to tackle the escalating climate crisis. In an exclusive interview with IPS, Roland Kupers, a lead architect at the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) International Methane ... MORE > >
Children's Needs Due to Climate Change, Conflict Often Ignored in Negotiations
Tanka Dhakal
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. A paper published in 2023 confirmed the ... MORE > >
Breakthroughs, Setbacks in COP29's First Week of Ambitious Pursuit of Climate Consensus
Joyce Chimbi
It has been a high-profile packed agenda in Baku, Azerbaijan, marked by milestone events designed to complete the first enhanced transparency framework and the new collective quantified goal on finance, among other top priority matters. Besides the Conference of the Parties (COP 29) session, ... MORE > >
Robust Negotiations Still Needed to Push Rich Countries to Honor Financial Commitments
Aishwarya Bajpai
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 ... MORE > >
Building Resilience: Spotlight on Poorest, Rural Communities Amid COP29 Competing Priorities
Joyce Chimbi
Life in remote, marginal areas, drylands and deserts is increasingly becoming difficult because rural people are in the crosshairs of an unprecedented climate onslaught. A substantial number of lives and livelihoods are on the line, as nearly half of the world's population, 3.3 billion, lives in ... MORE > >
COP29 Negotiators Urged to Define Financial Path to Education for Climate-Affected Children
Joyce Chimbi
Directly destroying schools and learning materials, climate shocks are increasingly taking away the right to education. A staggering 400 million students globally experienced school closures from extreme weather since 2022. As COP29 negotiations deepen, defining a sustainable financial path to ... MORE > >
‘Show Me the Money’—Grenada PM Calls for Climate Justice
Aishwarya Bajpai
"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 ... MORE > >
UNDP's Sustainable Energy Director Calls For Innovative Financial Solutions for Adaptation, Mitigation
Umar Manzoor Shah
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. Meddeb was speaking to IPS in an exclusive interview at the conference. He said the negotiations were expected to ... MORE > >
Cryosphere Crisis: Scientists Warn of Devastating Global Impacts Without Urgent Climate Action
Tanka Dhakal
Scientists warn of vastly higher impacts on billions of people’s livelihood and cost to the global economy by the accelerating losses in the world’s snow and ice regions, aka the cryosphere. Over 50 leading cryosphere scientists released an annual report on the status of the world’s ice stores ... MORE > >
Without Supercharging Adaptation Funding Global Temperatures Could Surge
Umar Manzoor Shah
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. UNEP’s latest report reveals an acute adaptation finance ... MORE > >
Knife-Edge November: Teetering on the Climate Abyss
Farhana Haque Rahman
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. Farhana Haque RahmanPut the air-con on too. Last year ... MORE > >
Without Accelerated Action, We Will Miss the Chance to Limit Warming to 1.5°C, Says UNEP Chief Climate Advisor
Umar Manzoor Shah
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. Olhoff stressed ... MORE > >
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