Global Forest Loss: Far Off Track From Global Commitments

The Forest Declaration Assessment 2025 warns that global forest loss remains alarmingly high, with little sign of improvement.

World Food Programme Warns of Emergency Levels of Hunger Amid Severe Funding Cuts

In 2025, unprecedented cuts to foreign aid and humanitarian funding have exacerbated global hunger crises, leaving millions without access to food or basic services. Funding shortfalls have forced aid agencies to scale back or suspend lifesaving programs in some of the world’s most food-insecure regions, particularly across the Global South—exacerbating already dire conditions caused by conflict, displacement, economic instability, and climate shocks.

XDR-TB Drug Trial Participants Continue to Celebrate its Success

When Tsholofelo Msimango joined a small trial of a new drug regimen for tuberculosis (TB) treatment a decade ago, she had no idea whether the medicines she was about to be given would help her.

Is the UN “Bloated, Unfocused, Outdated and Ineffective”?

The US hostility towards the UN is threatening to escalate, as a cash-starved world body is struggling for economic survival. Addressing the UN’s Administrative and Budgetary Committee last week. Ambassador Jeff Bartos, U.S. Representative for U.N. Management and Reform said: “President Trump is absolutely right – the United Nations can be an important institution for solving international challenges, but it has strayed far from its original purpose”.

They Have Known Nothing but War—The Plight of Syria’s Out-of-School Children

The war has deprived thousands of Syrian children of their right to education, especially displaced children in makeshift camps. Amidst difficult economic conditions and the inability of many families to afford educational costs, the future of these children is under threat.

With Ceasefire in Effect, Tonnes of Aid Expected to be Delivered into Gaza

After two years of conflict with Israel, Hamas has released the remaining 20 living hostages, while Israel has freed 250 Palestinian prisoners and over 1,700 detainees who have since returned to Gaza. Following a ceasefire agreement that took effect on October 10, Israeli forces are set to withdraw from designated areas within the Gaza Strip as humanitarian organizations mobilize to assist Palestinians in urgent need.

Vanishing Wisdom of the Sundarbans–How climate change erodes centuries of ecological knowledge

Bapi Mondal's morning routine in Bangalore is a world away from his ancestral village, Pakhiralay, in the Sundarbans, West Bengal. He wakes before dawn, navigates heavy traffic, and spends eight long hours molding plastic battery casings. It's not the life his honey-gathering forefathers knew, but factors like extreme storms, rising seas, and deadly soil salinity forced the 40-year-old to abandon centuries of family tradition and travel miles away to work in a concrete suburban factory.

Global South Can Rebalance Climate Agenda in Belém, Says Gambian Negotiator

The Gambia's lead negotiator on mitigation believes that COP30 presents a unique opportunity to rebalance global climate leadership.

Darjeeling’s Wake-Up Call: Expert at IUCN Congress Calls for Agile Climate Finance

As global conservation leaders gather in Abu Dhabi for the IUCN World Conservation Congress, communities in the hills of Darjeeling, thousands of kilometers away, are still counting their losses. In early October, heavy rains triggered deadly landslides that buried homes, blocked key roads, and left several people dead. The destruction has once again exposed how vulnerable India’s mountain regions are to extreme weather.

Parliamentarians Seek Solutions to Protect Children from Digital Abuse

Vulnerable children are being targeted online faster than parliamentarians and law enforcers can act, a conference convened by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA) heard. Yet, with international cooperation and sharing of ideas, lawmakers believe the scourge of online abuse can be addressed.

UN’s Cost-Cutting Mergers Come Under Scrutiny While Search for Locations Worldwide Continues

Faced with a severe liquidity crisis and a hostile Trump administration, the UN continues to merge some of its multiple agencies, and move them out of New York, relocating to Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Perhaps the first two agencies to be merged will be UN Women (created in 2010) and the UN Population Fund (created in 1967), with some staffers moved to Bonn and others to Nairobi.

Science-Informed Policy Action Key to Biodiversity Conservation

Global biodiversity is disappearing at breakneck speed and, in the process, threatening the future of humanity. The loss is not a future threat but a present crisis that Dr. Luthando Dziba, the new Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), believes can be tackled with science-based policy action.

UNGA80: Climate and Health in the Mix of Hope and Despair

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN's body on climate science, has over the years, repeatedly and steadily reported on the science of global warming leading to the changing climate with visible impacts.

Wealthy Nations Urged to Curb Climate Finance Debt For Developing Countries

In recent years, international climate financing has declined sharply, leaving billions of people in developing nations increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and unable to adapt effectively. With major cuts in foreign aid, these communities are expected to face the brunt of the climate crisis, while wealthier nations continue to reap economic benefits.

Two-Thirds of Climate Funding for Global South are Loans as Rich Nations Profiteer from Escalating Climate Crisis

New research by Oxfam and the CARE Climate Justice Centre finds developing countries are now paying more back to wealthy nations for climate finance loans than they receive—for every USD 5 they receive, they are paying USD 7 back, and 65 percent of funding is delivered in the form of loans.

Explainer: COP30’s ‘Granary of Solutions’ Will Be Showroom of World’s Best Climate Fixes

Once a year, the COP presidency or the role held by the Minister of Environment from the host government at a Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting, sets out on an ambitious, year-long journey in hopes of delivering the climate deal of a lifetime.

Belarus Prisoner Release a Diversion, Say Rights Activists

As Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko continues to pardon political prisoners in an apparently increasingly successful attempt to improve diplomatic relations with the US, rights groups have warned the international community must not let itself be ‘tricked’ into thinking repressions in the country are easing.

World War II Era Weapons Still Threatening Lives and Development in the Solomon Islands

Last century the remote Solomon Islands was the stage for some of the most intense battles fought during the Pacific campaign of the Second World War. But while Allied troops departed on the heels of victory, the military forces of both sides left a massive legacy of unexploded ordnance (UXO) which is still scattered across the country and others in the region.

More than 42,000 Gazans Suffer Life-Changing Injuries as Health System Nears Collapse

In recent months, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has sharply deteriorated, with escalating hostilities driving mass civilian displacement and overwhelming the already fragile healthcare system, pushing it to the brink of collapse. UN officials are warning that thousands of civilians have been left with life-altering injuries without treatment.

Weaving Wisdom and Science: Pacific Voices Call for Ocean Protection

In the packed conference hall of the Heritage Hotel, the sound of Pacific voices filled the air—not just through speeches, but in song, rhythm, and poetry. The Dreamcast Theatre Performing Arts group opened the Second Pacific Island Ocean Conference with an evocative performance, reminding leaders and practitioners why they had gathered: to listen. To listen to science. To listen to communities. To listen to the ocean itself.

The Ranch Fighting to Save Nigeria’s Endangered Drill Monkeys

For the past 23 years, Gabriel Oshie has started his mornings at Drill Ranch in the Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary, Boki, Cross River state, southern Nigeria.