Climate Change

COP30 in Brazil opens amid deep global divisions on climate commitments. From funding gaps and just transitions to rainforest protection and equity in talks, here are the five key issues shaping the world’s most important climate summit.

A new report by IRENA, the COP28 Presidency, and partners warns that global progress toward tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030 is dangerously off track. Despite record solar growth in 2023, other renewables and efficiency efforts remain far too slow to meet the UAE Consensus targets.

At the opening of the Belém Climate Summit plenary session of COP30, the absence of major powers like the U.S. casts a shadow over global cooperation. As Africa, and Kenya in particular, brace for worsening climate impacts, the lack of leadership threatens vital funding and the continent’s climate resilience ambitions.

Kenya has unveiled a bold new roadmap to safeguard public health from the impacts of climate change. The Kenya Climate Change and Health Strategy (2024–2029), launched by Health CS Hon. Aden Duale in Nairobi, positions the country as a continental leader in uniting climate and health action ahead of COP30 in Brazil.

Africa is stepping up to confront the climate and health emergency with a landmark conference in Nairobi this October. The Pan-African Conference on Environment, Climate Change & Health will unite leaders, scientists, and innovators to transform evidence into action and shape the continent’s unified position ahead of global climate talks.

As Africa faces accelerating threats to its forests and biodiversity, experts at the Africa Regional Centres of Excellence (ArcX) forum are calling for stronger, coordinated action backed by science, technology, and innovation.

Over 60% of the world’s land surface has breached the critical planetary boundary for functional biosphere integrity, signaling severe ecosystem degradation globally, a new study published in One Earth reveals.