All articles tagged with #climate action
Indigenous protesters stormed the COP30 summit in Belem, Brazil, demanding land rights and opposing agribusiness, oil exploration, and illegal logging, leading to security clashes and highlighting Indigenous concerns in climate negotiations.
Prince William announced the winners of the 2025 Earthshot Prize in Rio, celebrating innovative projects worldwide that address environmental issues, including protecting the Atlantic Forest, cleaning air in Bogotá, conserving marine life through a global ocean treaty, promoting sustainable fashion in Lagos, and aiding vulnerable communities in Bangladesh, with each winner receiving a £1m grant to scale their initiatives.
The State of Climate Action 2025 report highlights that global efforts to meet the Paris Agreement targets are significantly lagging, with none of the assessed indicators on track to limit warming to 1.5°C by 2030. Despite some progress, such as increased private climate finance and rising electric vehicle sales, critical areas like deforestation, coal phase-out, and climate finance require urgent and substantial acceleration to avoid severe climate impacts.
Shakira and Cardi B headlined the 2025 Global Citizen Festival in Central Park, which attracted 60,000 attendees committed to ending poverty and fighting climate change through activism and music, raising funds for global causes and inspiring collective action.
A study finds that encouraging people to imagine future impacts of climate change on themselves and loved ones is the most effective way to motivate climate action and information sharing, while providing personal carbon footprint info is less effective. The research highlights the importance of future-oriented and personal relevance strategies in overcoming psychological barriers to climate action.
Amazon workers in over 20 countries plan to protest or strike during Black Friday to demand better workers' rights and climate action. The Make Amazon Pay campaign, supported by over 80 unions and activist groups, is organizing the protests, which will occur in major cities worldwide, including the US, UK, Germany, and India. The campaign calls for fair pay, union recognition, and environmental sustainability from Amazon. Despite Amazon's claims of competitive pay and renewable energy use, workers and activists criticize the company's labor practices and environmental impact.
President-elect Donald Trump criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom for his plan to protect the state from potential policy changes under the incoming administration. Newsom, alongside Attorney General Rob Bonta and other Democrats, has called for an emergency session to safeguard California's civil rights, abortion protections, and climate initiatives. Trump accused Newsom of harming California with Democratic policies, citing issues like homelessness and high living costs, and claimed that more people are leaving the state. Newsom has vowed to resist Trump's policies, emphasizing California's readiness to fight.
The past 12 months have been the warmest on record, with global temperatures averaging 1.63°C above pre-industrial levels. UN Secretary-General António Guterres warns of a "highway to climate hell" and urges a 30% cut in fossil fuel production by 2030 to avoid surpassing the critical 1.5°C warming threshold. Despite global agreements, CO2 emissions hit a record high last year, and scientists predict even warmer years ahead. Guterres calls for banning fossil fuel advertising and emphasizes the urgent need for more aggressive climate action.
After leaving the White House, John Kerry plans to continue his work on climate finance, focusing on mobilizing private capital to address climate change. Kerry, who served as the special presidential envoy for climate under the Biden administration, aims to leverage his experience and connections to advance environmental policy and promote climate action on a global scale.
The EU's climate service reports that global warming has exceeded 1.5C for the first time over an entire year, bringing the world closer to breaching the landmark Paris agreement. Urgent action to cut carbon emissions is crucial to slow warming, as temperatures continue to rise at a concerning pace. While the breach of the 1.5C limit is driven by human activities and a natural climate-warming phenomenon, researchers emphasize that humans can still make a difference in controlling the world's warming trajectory through green technologies and reducing emissions.
An international team of scientists has developed a web-based tool to enhance global climate awareness and action by identifying effective messaging themes through experimental research involving nearly 250 researchers and over 59,000 participants from 63 countries. The study tested various climate change messaging interventions and found that while "doom and gloom" messaging was effective at stimulating social media sharing, it decreased support for certain climate actions and policies, particularly among climate-change skeptics. The findings highlight the importance of tailoring climate change messaging to specific audiences and objectives.
Farmer protests in Europe have led to the abandonment of an ambitious bill to reduce chemical pesticide use and softened recommendations on cutting agricultural pollution by the European Union, highlighting the challenge of making farming more climate-friendly. With agriculture accounting for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions, dramatic changes are necessary to meet ambitious climate targets, but farmers argue they are being hit by high costs and unfair competition. The political difficulty of changing farming practices is evident as parliamentary elections approach, with farming being a potent force and marker of European identity.
The European Commission has unveiled a plan to reduce the EU's net greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040, aiming to become the world's first climate-neutral continent. The proposal includes targets for cutting emissions and capturing carbon, but some individual targets related to agriculture were scrapped due to protests from farmers. Environmental groups have expressed concerns about the reliance on carbon capture and the lack of ambition in tackling fossil fuel use and farming emissions.
President Biden has appointed John Podesta, a longtime Democratic strategist and climate aide, to handle international climate policy after John Kerry steps down. Podesta, who has been overseeing the implementation of climate incentives and funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, will continue to lead the rollout of the landmark climate law while taking on the role of international climate envoy. Podesta is well-known in Washington and Democratic circles, having served as chief of staff for former President Bill Clinton and as a climate adviser to former President Barack Obama. Biden's administration has faced criticism for its environmental decisions, but recently received praise for pausing approvals for new exports of liquefied natural gas in response to calls for more climate action.
A coalition of 12 Republican state agriculture commissioners are investigating six large U.S. banks over their involvement in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, expressing concerns that the banks' net-zero commitments could negatively impact American farmers, food availability, and consumer prices. The officials argue that the banks' climate initiatives may lead to impractical and costly changes in farming operations, potentially endangering the country's food security. They have requested information from the banks and are pushing back against what they see as a threat to American agriculture posed by the ESG movement.