“Sometimes the best way to grasp a concept,” says Chris Folayan, co-founder and executive officer of
Luma Learn, “is to learn it in your native language.”
Funding cuts from the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe have left a funding gap in climate change programmes across Africa.
Decades ago, a little girl was born in a place called Cleveland, Ohio, in the heart of the United States of America. Born to a woman from the deep South, the place of Martin Luther King, her mother left her ancestral lands for the economic opportunities in the north.
“I am the founder of the ‘I Lead Climate Action Initiative,’ which is a Pan-African movement that carries out grassroots-based climate action to address the climate crisis in Africa. We advocate for the restoration of Lake Chad, the world’s largest environmental crisis through research and engagement,” says Adenike Titilope Oladosu.
Even as their rights face growing threats, women across the globe are driving progress. From courtrooms to communities, women’s leadership is shaping peace, justice and development—often against the odds. In the face of conflict, exclusion and inequality, we continue to see powerful stories of hope, resilience and change. We are inspired by women who mediate local disputes, push for new laws and champion the rights of survivors, holding communities together.
Brazilian Indigenous leader and environmentalist Cacique Raoni Metuktire appealed for support for Indigenous peoples and their land. From the podium of the Peoples’ Summit, Cacique Raoni warned negotiators at the UN climate conference in Belém that without recognizing Indigenous peoples’ land rights, there will be no climate justice.
Immaculata Casimero, a leader of the Wapichan Women’s Movement, remembers the beauty of the mountains that are cultural sites to her indigenous community in Guyana.
Mutirão first entered the global climate discourse in Ambassador André Corrêa do Lago’s first letter to the world, which was sent in March 2025 as part of his COP30 presidency.
In the scorching heat and humidity, Canru Pataxo marched with his one-year-old son firmly held in his arms.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
Concerned scientists at the UN climate conference in Belém are appealing for collective action to combat climate change-related misinformation and disinformation.
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.
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.
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.
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.