Page 3 - Climate Change

Big Tech's Climate Strategists Feeling Strain of AI Power Needs

One of Trump's biggest moves against renewables was to use massive tax bill he signed in July to strip away clean energy incentives created through his predecessor Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act

India unfolds priorities in Belem but yet to show its climate cards

2025 was among the 3 hottest years on record, accompanied by a record-breaking glacier loss, lowest Arctic sea ice on record and record increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from 2023-24

Climate finance is within reach as COP30 eyes stronger commitment

Recent studies have estimated climate finance requirements of EMDEs at $1-4 trillion per year up to 2030, which is seen as daunting, leading to even less action than might have been possible

What is the COP30 climate summit, and why does it matter this year?

World leaders are meeting in Brazil's Amazon city of Belem for COP30, the 30th UN climate summit, to discuss how to curb global warming and act on past promises to cut fossil fuel use

COP30 starts with call for faster action, more togetherness, but without US

UN climate negotiations were expected to begin on Monday at a meeting on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon, with leaders pushing for urgency, cooperation and acceleration after more than 30 years fighting to curb global warming by drastically reducing the carbon pollution that causes it. Andre Correa do Lago, president of this year's conference, known as COP30, emphasised that negotiators engage in mutirao, a Brazilian word derived from an Indigenous word that refers to a group uniting to work on a shared task. Either we decide to change by choice, together, or we will be imposed change by tragedy, Lago wrote in his letter to negotiators on Sunday. We can change. But we must do it together. Complicating the calls for togetherness is the United States. The Trump administration did not send high-level negotiators to the talks and is withdrawing for the second time from the 10-year-old Paris Agreement, which is being celebrated as a partial achievement here in Belem. The United States

The Baku to Belem road map has a crucial hurdle: The missing leaders

The reluctance of developed nations like the UK to foot the climate bill and the US withdrawal among key challenges to mobilise $1.3 trillion by 2035

The obstacle course at Belem: COP30 agenda faces multiple headwinds

This much was evident when it became clear that only a third of countries, ahead of the summit, submitted updates detailing how they would cut the emission of greenhouse gases

Best of BS Opinion: India must reform QCO regime to meet global standards

Today's Best of BS Opinion analyses India's Quality Control Order overreach, dim prospects for COP30, Ajay Shah on Trump's tariff shock, and Jordan Ellenberg's review of The Great Math War

The world faces action and inaction against climate: What will win?

For the first time, renewable energy has overtaken coal as the primary source of electricity in the first six months of 2025

Datanomics: As COP30 nears, why India is set to miss 2030 emission target

As COP30 begins in Brazil, new data shows India's emissions rising faster than its 2030 targets - though still far below major economies on a per capita basis

Countries at COP30 endorse new fund to pay nations for preserving forests

World leaders gathered at the COP30 Leaders' Summit in Belm, Brazil, to launch the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a landmark global initiative aimed at channelling large-scale finance into the protection of tropical forests. The Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) is designed to reward countries for keeping their forests standing rather than waiting for them to be cut down or degraded. According to the launch statement, it has been endorsed by 53 countries. The host country, Brazil, described the move on Thursday as a turning point in global environmental finance and one of the most important deliverables of this year's UN climate conference. It creates a system of regular, performance-based payments to tropical forest nations that successfully maintain their forest cover, verified through monitoring tools such as satellites. The goal is to shift the financial incentives in favour of conservation and to recognise the immense ecosystem services provided by tropical forests

Nations look to India's energy transition experience for lessons: Ghosh

Arunabha Ghosh, founder & CEO of Delhi-based think tank CEEW, speaks about his role as an envoy for South Asian nations at the Conference of Parties

30 years of climate talks: Progress, pitfalls and a planet in peril

Global greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 34% since 1995

As world leaders enter climate talks, people in poverty have most at stake

When summer heat comes to the Arara neighbourhood in northern Rio, it lingers, baking the red brick and concrete that make up many of the buildings long after the sun has gone down. Luis Cassiano, who's lived here more than 30 years, says he's getting worried as heat waves become more frequent and fierce. In poor areas such as Arara, those who can afford air conditioning Cassiano is one can't always count on it because of frequent power outages on an overloaded system. Cassiano gets some relief from the green roof he installed about a decade ago, which can keep his house up to 15 degrees Celsius (about 27 degrees Fahrenheit) cooler than his neighbour's, but he still struggles to stay comfortable. The sun in the summer nowadays is scary, Cassiano said. As world leaders come to Brazil for climate talks, people like Cassiano are the ones with the most at stake. Poor communities are often more vulnerable to hazards like extreme heat and supersized storms and less likely to have the ..

Kshema General Insurance to receive $20 million capital infusion from GCF

The capital received will be utilised to expand Kshema's offerings to reach a wider number of uninsured farmers and their crops, strengthening its underwriting capacity.

Heat could kill 46 people per hour in South Asia by 2045, study finds

A study in the journal Tropical Medicine and Health projects that climate change could double South Asia's annual heat-related deaths to nearly 400,000 by 2045, with India and Pakistan most at risk

COP30 Brasil: India seeks green dollars as Gates mutes climate doom

As COP30 heads to Belem, India aims to push finance and tech for the Global South - but will it bring real capital or just more promises and targets?

One person dies from extreme heat every minute worldwide: Lancet report

The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change reveals a 63 per cent rise in heat-related deaths since the 1990s, warning that humanity is edging towards survival limits

Heat-related deaths: Every minute, one person dies from heat

The world is heating, but it is not just the planet that’s burning. Every minute, somewhere on Earth, someone dies from heat

Indians faced nearly 20 heatwave days in 2024 on average: Lancet report

People in India each experienced nearly 20 heatwave days in 2024 on average, of which about six-and-a-half days would not be expected were it not for climate change, according to a new global report published by The Lancet journal. Estimates suggest that an exposure to heat in 2024 resulted in a loss of 247 billion potential labour hours per year -- a record high of nearly 420 hours per person -- and 124 per cent more than that during 1990-1999. The agriculture sector accounted for 66 per cent, and construction sector for 20 per cent of the losses in 2024, according to the '2025 Report of The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change'. A reduced capacity of labour due to the extreme heat is associated with a potential loss of income of USD 194 billion in 2024, it said. An international team of 128 experts from 71 academic institutions and UN agencies, led by University College London, were involved in producing the ninth edition of the report. Published ahead of the 30th UN ..