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COP30 Belém Amazônia (DAY 03) - PCOP Daily Press Briefing. Credit: Rafa Neddermeyer/COP30 Brasil Amazônia

By Joyce Chimbi
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 17 2025 (IPS)

COP30 negotiations are midway. So far, talks about historic agreements are moving forward, backward, or stalling, depending on who you ask. The most pressing issues on the table are finances, adaptation, fossil fuel phase-outs, and climate justice.

Wide-ranging and ambitious promises across these issues are not translating smoothly into action. On the first day of COP30, the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage [established at COP27 and operationalized at COP28] launched the call for funding requests for its startup phase.

From December 15, 2025, developing countries will have six months to request funding for projects and programs of between USD 5 and 20 million. The entire kitty has USD 250 million, which compares poorly to what is needed. On matters of loss and damage, developing countries needed USD 395 billion in 2025 alone.

The issue of finance is not a sticking point in itself at COP30, but has been identified as the thread that connects all other thematic areas as encapsulated in the ‘Baku to Belém Roadmap.’  When COP29 in Baku failed to deliver an ambitious climate finance package deal, this roadmap was added on at the last minute to build on the USD300 billion per year in financing agreed upon in Baku.

But this roadmap is not a singular goal to be achieved; it is about coming together to ‘scale up climate finance in the short and long term to ensure that annual climate financing climbs from USD 300 billion to at least USD 1.3 trillion a year by 2035. The roadmap is about increasing finance across all climate funds, be it for preventing, reducing or adapting to climate change.

Climate finance discussions have focused on mobilizing new funding sources, including innovative mechanisms like the proposed Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF). Brazil has defined oceans and forests as the twin priority areas for discussion at COP30.

TFFF is a Brazil-led initiative that aims to mobilize nearly USD 125 billion for tropical forest conservation. It is a radical new solution to combat deforestation.

Brazil has, however, been left ‘surprised’ the UK would not be joining Germany, Norway and other nations towards contributing to the TFFF funds, despite the UK having helped design the tropical forest conservation initiative.

COP30 is determined to build a bridge between promises and performance, words and actions, and there are multiple sticking points in the development of this bridge. In other words, it’s a ‘COP of implementation.’

Unlike the emotive issues of fossil fuel phase-outs and finances that defined recent COPs, COP30 seems to be where the rubber meets the road. After all is said and done, with the agreements to move away from fossil fuels, the Loss and Damage Fund, and the calls for climate adaptation financing, the technical details of how these promises become actions are the sticking point.

For fossil fuels, those whose economies are not dependent on oil, gas, or coal want an immediate transition. Those that depend on fossil fuels are asking for time to find a pathway that helps the transition as they seek alternatives to cushion their economies. This is one of the most contentious climate mitigation issues.

But still all is not lost; there seems to be notable movement in this direction, in 2024 alone, more than USD 2.2 trillion was put into renewable energy—which is more than the GDP of over 180 countries.

Amidst fragile and fragmented geopolitics, COP30 is multilateralism under test. Leaders of China, the US, Russia and India are absent. Some say this is symbolic and could derail climate talks, but many observers say taking this as a sign that political support for international climate initiatives is waning is misleading.

Some observers from the natural-resource-rich African continent say the developing world simply needs to start conducting the climate business differently, particularly in how they trade with the global North over their natural resources.

To be clear, what defines this COP is not necessarily finance, adaptation, fossil fuels or even climate justice; for many, this is a COP implementation. The ongoing negotiations face challenges in translating ambitious promises into action.

Brazil has already launched the COP30 Circle of Finance Ministers—a key initiative under the COP30 presidency to support the development of the Baku to Belém roadmap. This circle will be a platform for regular consultations throughout 2025.

Another first in the history of COPs is that the Asset Owners Summit is included in the official COP agenda. Asset owners representing approximately USD 10 trillion met in Belém in the first week of the COP to work with climate scientists, multilateral development banks, and governments to meet the climate’s financial needs.

A major point of discussion is how to shift from loans to other forms of finance, with a focus on increasing funding for adaptation and ensuring transparency. Climate finance loans remain an unresolved issue.

For developing nations, developed nations whose industrial revolution is responsible for altering the climate system have a moral obligation to climate finance on terms and conditions that take into account that developing nations are the victims. Developed nations, on the other hand, see climate finance loans as a business opportunity—for every five dollars received in climate finance loans, they repay seven dollars.

Activism has been a defining issue at COP30, as has been the increased participation and visibility of indigenous people. It is a step in the right direction when 15 national governments, including Brazil, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Tanzania, the United Kingdom and Germany, and one sub-national government have formally announced their support for the Intergovernmental Land Tenure Commitment, a landmark global agreement to secure and strengthen the land tenure rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities on 160 million hectares in tropical forest countries.

As to how COP30 pans out, the next few days will be critical as the UN Climate Summit nears its conclusion.

IPS UN Bureau Report

This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

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Excerpt:

COP30 is determined to build a bridge between promises and performance, words and actions, and there are multiple sticking points in the development of this bridge. In other words, it’s a 'COP of implementation.'

Brazilian Indigenous leader and environmentalist Cacique Raoni Metuktire (center) during the closing ceremony of the Peoples’ Summit in Belem on November 16, 2025. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

By Tanka Dhakal
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 17 2025 (IPS)

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.

“It is getting warmer and warmer. And a big change is going on with the earth. Air is harder to breathe; this is only the beginning,” he said on Sunday while addressing representatives of the global climate justice movement at the Peoples’ Summit. “If we don’t act now, there will be very big consequences for everyone.”

Indigenous people and civil activists from around the world took part in the Peoples’ Summit. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

While Belém city is hosting world leaders, government officials, scientists, policymakers, activists, and more than 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists to decide the future course of global climate action, the Peoples’ Summit gathered frontline voices.

About nine kilometers from the COP30 venue, at the grounds of the Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA-Federal University of Pará), activists engaged in diverse dialogue for five days and issued the “Declaration of the Peoples’ Summit Towards COP30” in the presence of Indigenous leaders like Raoni, which was handed over to the COP presidency.

The Declaration states that the capitalist mode of production is the main cause of the growing climate crisis. It claims that today’s environmental problems are “a consequence of the relations of production, circulation, and disposal of goods, under the logic and domination of financial capital and large capitalist corporations.” It demands the participation and leadership of people in constructing climate solutions, recognizing ancestral knowledge.

 

Artists performing indigenous folklore during the closing event of the Peoples’ summit. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

Sebastián Ordoñez Muñoz, associated with War on Want, a UK-based organization and part of the political commission of the Peoples’ Summit, said the political declaration constructed through the summit process reflects peoples’ demands and proposals. “It has our solutions, people’s solutions,” he said. He explained that crafting the declaration was a convergence of diverse voices, uniting around clarity on what needs to happen to address the climate crisis.

“It is an expression of the autonomy of people’s movements coming together, converging to develop clear proposals that are based on the real solutions happening on the ground-in the territories, in the forests, in the seas, in the rivers, and so on,” he added. “It’s important to hand it over because we need to make sure that our voices are represented there [at COP]. Any space that we have inside the COP has always been through struggle.”

As a space for community members to come together and deliver the public’s point of view, Peoples’ Summits have been organized as parallel conferences of the COP. It did not take place during the last three COPs. But in Brazil, civil society is actively making its case.

The Peoples’ Summit attracted a large number of Indigenous leaders and community members, whereas at COP their access is limited. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

“We need to continue making our voices heard there, but also not to beg-to state that we have the solutions and that we must be listened to, because none of these answers, none of these solutions are possible without the communities themselves,” Ordoñez Muñoz told IPS News from the Peoples’ Summit ground. “I think it’s a statement and a road map. Where do we go from here?”

Unlike COP30, the Peoples’ Summit attracted diverse groups of community members and civil society leaders. The COP venue follows the process of negotiations, while the summit emphasizes collaboration to find solutions and celebrate unity. It blends discussion with Indigenous folklore and music to bring stories of community.

“If you go into the COP summit, it’s so stale. It’s so sterile. It’s so monotonous. So homogeneous. So corporate,” Ordoñez Muñoz said. “Over here, what we have is the complete opposite. We have such diversity-differences in voice, vocabulary, language, and struggles.”

He added that the COP process is moving in one direction, unjust in nature, and reproducing many of the dynamics that led to the crisis in the first place.

“Over here, we’re all moving together. We have unity.”

This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

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This is a COP of implementation. I do not want to see more texts that pile up on promises. But what we need is to detail what has already been promised. I want much more emphasis on adaptation because we have been too occupied with mitigation. —Carlos Lopes, Special Envoy for Africa, COP30 Presidency

As an Indigenous woman, I would like to see more of us at the negotiating table. Because you cannot be deciding about our life, about where we live, at the national level or even at the global level. There should be inclusion of all voices at the ground level. —Immaculata Casimero, a leader of the Wapichan Women’s Movement

With 80 percent of climate finance going to developed nations and just USD 5.5 billion, or 0.8 percent of climate finance, going to small-scale farmers and micro or small agri-food enterprises globally, rice farmer Mohd Yaseen Khan fears erratic weather will ruin him.

Fishermen on the banks of the river Yamuna, surrounded by clouds of toxic foam on the water surface. Credit: Raunaq Singh Chopra / Climate Visuals

By Joyce Chimbi
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 17 2025 (IPS)

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.

“The Brazilian culture inherited from Brazilian native indigenous peoples the concept of ‘Mutirão’ or Motirô in the Tupi-Guarani language.

“It refers to a community coming together to work on a shared task, whether harvesting, building, or supporting one another,” he wrote.

As a nation of football, he assured the world that the global community can win the climate fight by “virada,” which means “fighting back to turn the game around when defeat seems almost certain.” Delegates say the COP30 Mutirão approach, inspired by the Brazilian tradition of communities working together to solve shared problems, is fit for purpose amidst escalating climate crises.

Importantly, Brazil has framed the ocean as an emerging priority. The Mutirão approach for COP30’s oceans plan is a collaborative, action-oriented strategy emphasizing the ocean’s role in climate change, moving from negotiation to implementation.

The plan is called Mutirão Azul, or the Blue Collective Effort, and integrates solutions for oceans, cities, water, and infrastructure, encouraging participation from governments, businesses, and communities to achieve tangible oceanic climate actions and commitments. The Mutirão spirit will now embody international efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

“I research physical oceanography and energy in the climate system. And what we would like to see out of this COP (Conference of Parties) is more focus on blue climate solutions,” says Kerstin Bergentz from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego.

The Mutirão approach for COP30’s oceans plan is a collaborative, action-orientedstrategy emphasizing the ocean’s role in climate change. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

She told IPS that if the world were to “implement all of the blue climate solutions that are out there, including protecting mangroves, restoring wetlands, investing in blue carbon in all shapes and sizes, and marine carbon dioxide removal, these blue climate solutions have the potential to provide 35 percent of the CO₂ emission reductions that we need to see by 2050 in order to meet our target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”

“Unfortunately, climate funding for ocean projects or ocean-based solutions is less than 1 percent at the moment. And so, what we would like to see is more focus on the ocean because the future is not just green—it is also blue.”

Anya Stajner, also from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, told IPS that the ocean makes up “over two-thirds of our planet and it should no longer be a side conversation during these negotiations. The ocean is an important climate control. It absorbs up to 90 percent of the excess heat in the atmosphere, keeping our Earth 55 degrees cooler than it would be otherwise.”

Ocean currents, often referred to as the “great ocean conveyor belt,” transport warm water from the tropics toward the poles and cold water back toward the equator. This circulation helps distribute heat around the planet, moderating regional climates; without it, temperatures would be far more extreme.

“Some students at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have done an analysis to see how often the ocean is mentioned in Nationally Determined Contributions—a country’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impact of climate change.”

Blue NDCs refer to Nationally Determined Contributions that integrate ocean-based climate solutions. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS

“They found that while that number of mentions has risen and become more meaningful in the past five years, it is still not central enough to discussion.”

The Belém climate talks could turn the tide. The Brazilian Presidency’s appointment of Marinez Scherer as a Special Envoy for Oceans and the adoption of the Mutirão approach are bringing the ocean closer to the epicenter of global climate negotiations and diplomacy.

At COP30, the ocean is being increasingly positioned as a partner in mitigation and adaptation toward the protection of vulnerable coastal and island communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.

Ocean financing at COP30 is a major focus, aiming to secure predictable, accessible, and targeted funding for ocean-based climate solutions and the sustainable blue economy.

Key goals include creating dedicated finance windows, integrating ocean health into national climate plans or Blue NDCs, and mobilizing public and private investment for ocean-based mitigation, adaptation, and science.

Blue NDCs are Nationally Determined Contributions that explicitly integrate ocean-based climate solutions. This emerged from the Blue NDC Challenge, an initiative launched by Brazil and France at the UN ocean Conference in Nice in June 2025, to urge countries to include ocean-focused climate actions in their national climate plans ahead of COP30. Said actions range from restoring coastal ecosystems and adapting maritime industries to promoting ocean-based renewable energy.

Eleven countries have already committed to the Blue NDC Challenge, including Brazil, France, Australia, Chile, Fiji, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Palau, the Republic of Seychelles and the United Kingdom. Blue or green, NDCs are important because they are the core mechanism for countries to set and meet climate goals under the Paris Agreement. These countries have explicitly placed the ocean resource in their climate impact plan.

NDCs are the vehicles through which international commitments translate to national actions. Overall, as of the official opening of COP30 in Belem on November 10, 2025, more than 100 countries, representing at least 70 percent of global emissions, had tabled new NDCs. Among the G20—the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters—12 had tabled their new NDCs.

Blue NDCs in particular facilitate the integration of the ocean into national climate goals, supporting initiatives like the Mangrove Breakthrough and strengthening ocean governance through frameworks like the BBNJ Agreement.

Like the Paris Agreement, the BBNJ Agreement is a legally binding international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction or the high seas. Adopted in 2023, the BBNJ or the High Seas treaty will enter into force in early 2026 after reaching 60 ratifications.

At COP30, the High Seas Treaty is the most concrete ocean-related item on the table, and Brazil has committed to ratifying it by the end of this year. Overall, the treaty establishes a global framework for issues such as area-based management tools, including marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, and equitable benefit-sharing from marine genetic resources.

“The High Seas Treaty is a win for multilateralism because it allows governments to work together to protect more of the oceans that go beyond our exclusive economic zones,” Stajner stressed.

“There has been a lot of talk at the last decades of COPs and we have plans and now it’s about pushing those plans forward. And I think the High Seas Treaty is an example of how that is moving forward.”

“And so, this COP is all about action and implementation for the ocean.”

This feature is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

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Excerpt:

If the world were to implement all of the blue climate solutions, including protecting mangroves, restoring wetlands, investing in blue carbon in all shapes and sizes, and marine carbon dioxide removal, it would result in a 35 percent reduction of the CO₂ emissions. —Ocean scientist Kerstin Bergentz

Credit: R_Tee / shutterstock.com

By Ambika Vishwanath and Treesa Shaju
Nov 17 2025 (IPS)

 
Emerging research on the nexus between climate, peace and security (CPS) supports the integration of climate adaptation and mitigation methods to advance sustainable peace. While climate change itself may not be the direct cause of conflict, its cascading effects such as resource scarcity, displacement, and economic stress could become focal points of tension. Although these links remain debated, meaningful responses could have delayed stabilizing effects. Locally driven responses become essential in addressing climate change as a security concern, to mitigate future cycles of conflict. A nuanced CPS framing can support smarter climate action while enhancing security at multiple levels. India’s scalable local models, Germany’s technical expertise, and Australia’s Pacific engagement pose an opportunity for the three countries to collaborate on advancing integrated CPS approaches.

How is this playing out in the Indo-Pacific?

The Indo-Pacific, one of the fastest growing regions from an economic, trade and development standpoint, is facing some of the most complex challenges arising from climate change and geopolitical developments. These are compounded by non-traditional security issues such as rising food, water and health insecurities, the intensity of which often eclipses traditional security concerns for regional policy makers. The COP27 Presidency initiative “Climate Responses for Sustaining Peace” (CRSP), spearheaded a pivot from a climate security nexus towards a climate and peacebuilding nexus that becomes useful to adapt for the Indo-Pacific region. The dichotomy of need, approach and security response provides countries a new potential for innovative engagement across the region.

Innovative approaches require acknowledging that current development models and business as usual will no longer be sustainable. As risks and challenges intensify with global repercussions, new partners must step-up with skills, knowledge and resources for ground up, contextual transformation. Germany, India and Australia have very different historical contexts and regional approaches, yet these growing global powers must respond proactively and in a coordinated manner.

Beyond solely relying on existing multilateral institutions, it is pragmatic to explore new configurations that address gaps left by larger organizations. Smaller groupings working with local actors can deliver ground-up solutions that states can sustain beyond donor cycles/political changes. They are also better equipped to pursue integrated approaches while working towards larger strategic balance and security concerns.

As one of the oldest and largest partners in the region, Australia has committed to being a principled and reliable partner to countries in the Pacific as well as the wider Indian Ocean region. Its 2024 National Defence Strategy, International Development Policy and remarks by senior leadership over the last few years suggest a strong commitment to relationships, with a global security agenda that is (debatably) climate-forward, ranging from disaster response to renewable energy. As a founding member of the India Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), it remains the largest donor with deep ties and networks despite a chequered legacy.

India positions itself as the primary security provider for the Indian Ocean region, evolving from a regionally focused Neighbourhood First Policy to a more comprehensive Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) initiative. It is a founding member of the International Solar Alliance which focuses on climate positive solutions especially for LDCs and SIDS. While India has had a longer history in the Indian Ocean, its engagement with the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) has steadily increased through grants, lines of credit, concessional loans, humanitarian assistance, capacity building, and technical assistance in areas like Health, IT, education, and community development. India’s development cooperation is guided by the principles of South-South cooperation, anchored on low-cost development solutions and non-conditional aid.

While Germany’s engagement in the region has been more recent in comparison, it brings technical knowledge and capacity in climate adaptation, ecosystem-based solutions, and capacity-building initiatives. German universities and research organizations are engaged in developing cutting edge climate tech solutions, which can be contextualised with regional partner countries. For example, the ‘Ensuring climate-resilient access to water and sanitation’ project strengthened rural water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) systems by integrating modern climate-resilient technologies.

Unlikely partners make for innovative engagement

Though minilateral cooperation has tended to proceed ad hoc or with a strict focus on blue economy or marine pollution issues, it offers a nuanced approach to balance traditional security concerns and emerging climate related risks and challenges. While many trilateral and quadrilateral efforts exist, a more efficient streamlining of projects, knowledge and resources can benefit small island countries in the Indian and Pacific Ocean that are often overwhelmed by attention. Many current efforts consume valuable resources while primarily functioning as discussion forums with limited tangible impact on ground. While Germany, India and Australia might seem like unlikely partners, their unique and complementary skills and resources can implement a more nuanced CPS agenda with partners across the Indo-Pacific. Their potential lies in addressing overlooked areas such as smaller projects, research, financing options and capacity building.

One way to begin collaboration is by establishing a trilateral technical cooperation track with the Pacific Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Hub, a coordinated regional support mechanism for PICs to implement and finance their climate commitments. While Germany and Australia are already among the key financiers, this track could leverage Australia’s regional presence and expertise while Germany and India could offer institutional support on low grade technology, low-cost project design merging modern technology with traditional knowledge. The track could commence with scaled down water security related projects, a key area of concern for many Pacific nations.

Another possibility is expanding the India–Australia Centre of Excellence for Disaster Management to include Germany-based Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) that specializes in technology such as AI for Pandemics and Disaster Risk Reduction. Together, they could jointly develop, and pilot dual-use disaster risk resilience technologies and capacity-building programs tailored for the Indo-Pacific region.

While both India and Germany have ongoing capacity constraints, their technical knowledge can complement Australia’s operations in the Pacific. Ignoring these opportunities risks leaving the region trapped in reactive cycles of crisis management, without solutions that are locally owned and sustainable. Innovative approaches that focus on filling the gaps can address the complex ways in which CPS linkages play out. Moving forward, strategic coordination among partners will be essential to translating these approaches into sustained regional impact.

Related articles:
Reconstructing the China–India Climate Diplomacy
The Case for a Climate-First Maritime Reframing of the Indian Ocean Region
The Indus Water Treaty Suspension: A Wake-Up Call for Asia–Pacific Unity?
Left Behind: Why Afghanistan Cannot Tackle Climate Change Alone

Ambika Vishwanath is the Founder Director of Kubernein Initiative and a Principal Research Fellow at La Trobe Asia. She is a geopolitical expert and works at the intersection of emerging security challenges, climate security, and foreign policy.

Treesa Shaju is a Programme Associate at Kubernein Initiative with an interest in the intersection of gender, foreign policy and conflict. She is a 2023 Women of Colour Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS) fellow..

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished from the original with their permission

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A girl walking to collect water for her family in Sindh Province, Pakistan. Heatwave posed social impact on vulnerable groups such as women and girls. Credit: UNICEF/Saiyna Bashir
 
The Ninth Session of the ESCAP Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction is scheduled to take place from 26 to 28 November 2025 at the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok.

By Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
BANGKOK, Thailand, Nov 17 2025 (IPS)

The year 2024 was the hottest on record globally. In Asia and the Pacific, Bangladesh was the worst-hit country, with about 33 million people affected by lower crop yields that destabilized food systems, along with extensive school closures and many cases of heatstroke and related diseases. Children, the elderly and outdoor low-wage earners in poor and densely populated urban areas suffered the most, as they generally had less access to cooling systems or to water supplies and adequate healthcare. India, too, was badly affected, with around 700 heat-related deaths mostly in informal settlements.

Higher-income areas usually lie in cooler, greener neighbourhoods, so the hottest districts are often the poorest – adding to social inequality. In the city of Bandung, Indonesia, for example, a study shows that there can be temperature differences of up to 7°C between the hottest and coolest parts of town.

Future prospects for the region will depend critically on the progress of climate change. Under a high-emissions scenario, we project that extreme heat will be more frequent, intense and widespread — what were once occasional events will become seasonal or even year-round phenomena. Rising temperatures also affect other parts of the Earth’s ecosystem – notably glacial melt.

Warming in the Arctic can influence weather, precipitation and glacial behaviour across Central and South Asia. Globally, this century, glaciers have lost about 5 per cent of their volume. By 2060, under a high-emissions scenario, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mongolia, Myanmar, Türkiye and Uzbekistan could lose more than 70 per cent of their glacier mass. These phenomena also add to sea-level rise, raising existential risks for some countries in the Pacific.

To tackle these challenges, countries will meet this week at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific to consider opportunities to integrate heat risk into early warning systems and development planning.

The key priority is to move from reactive heat risk management to long-term, science-informed strategies. Policy actions are needed at local, national, regional and global levels. This is the International Year of Glacial Preservation, which offers a critical opportunity for collective action.

At the local level, nature-based solutions such as trees lining streets, urban parks, green roofs and wetland conservation help lower urban temperatures. These measures can increase shade, promote evapotranspiration and act as heat sinks, reducing heat island effects. Vegetation and tree canopies can reduce peak summer temperatures by up to 5°C.

While effects vary by vegetation type and density, green roofs and walls in Singapore, for example, have been shown to reduce surface temperatures by up to 17°C and ambient air temperatures by as much as 5°C.

Countries in Asia and the Pacific can significantly reduce heat-related illness, mortality and disruptions to livelihoods by building heat-ready, multi-hazard early warning systems. Expanding heat-health warning systems in just 57 countries could save approximately 100,000 lives each year.

To support countries, ESCAP plans to scale-up climate-responsive and inclusive social protection schemes that include technical support for heat-specific social protection provisions that ensure heat readiness, along with income and non-income support, especially for the poor living in densely populated urban areas.

Additionally, recognizing the benefits of nature-based solutions, our efforts can strengthen collaboration among national governments, municipalities and local communities to create green, cooling cross-border corridors.

These passages can chill the air, reduce surface temperatures and provide buffers against desertification, land degradation, drought and sand and dust storms.

Finally, we must push the use of innovative space solutions to strengthen heat preparedness in early warning systems. Despite the proven benefits of early warning systems, coverage remains incomplete. Only 54 per cent of global meteorological services issue warnings for extreme temperatures, and even fewer provide alerts for heatwaves or thermal stress.

In Nepal, for example, a community survey revealed that about three-quarters of respondents from vulnerable groups had not received any heat alerts.

ESCAP can leverage existing cooperation to share Earth observation data and technical expertise for mapping and monitoring heat exposure and city vulnerability to urban heat island effects. This information enables greater precision in forecasting and quantifying heat risk, as well as for issuing timely heat alerts.

The Asia-Pacific region has considerable experience in managing cascading disasters. But the rising threat of extreme heat adds a new level of urgency. Every country needs to act now to meet the scale of this evolving disaster risk landscape and to turbocharge regional cooperation. ESCAP stands ready to support countries in these endeavours – as we prepare for an ever-hotter world.

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Excerpt:

Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP

Canru Pataxo with his toddler son at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

By Tanka Dhakal
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 15 2025 (IPS)

In the scorching heat and humidity, Canru Pataxo marched with his one-year-old son firmly held in his arms.

Pataxo was one of the thousands of Indigenous people and activists who protested in Belém on Saturday to express their anger and pressure world leaders. He attended the protest in the host city of the UN Climate Conference with his son, as it was his child’s future that he was fighting for.

“The importance of having my son here is to show him that I need to protect the future,” he said while trying to protect his son’s face from the sun. “He is my future; he is the future of my people.”

Pataxo is indigenous to the world’s biggest carbon-capturing forest, the Amazon. While world leaders and negotiators decide the future of climate action from COP30 negotiation rooms, people on the front line of climate change impacts and activists marched to pressure negotiators to act now.

“I believe that much more still needs to be done. The conference is not yet enough to guarantee my son’s future,” Pataxo said. “His future still depends on what countries do for our environment.”

The climate negotiations are heading toward their final week. Indigenous communities and climate activists demand climate justice for people, not for corporations. After COP26 in Glasgow, the host city also saw the largest march by the people. Armed with placards and symbols of a burning Earth, they denounced  fossil fuel industries, government inaction, and corporate lobbying.

“I think that’s what’s exciting about this COP, that civil disobedience is allowed,” said Timi Moloto, a climate activist from South Africa. “It’s vital that we don’t put limits on how Indigenous people achieve our liberation.”

In a recent Emissions Gap Report, the UN Environment Program warned that the world is on track to exceed the 1.5°C temperature mark within the next decade and called for urgent action.

Indigenous people in traditional attire at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

Thousands of people marched at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil, demanding climate action. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

Protesters at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil, in symbolic costumes depicting pollution caused by fossil fuel. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

A young activist chanting at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

An Indigenous participant with elaborate feather headdresses at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

People walked several kilometers during the People’s March for Climate, held in the COP30 host city Belém, Brazil, without thinking about the heat. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

Fossil fuel phaseout is one of the major demands by the activist community at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil, but at the COP more than 1600 fossil fuel lobbyists are participating. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

A group of Indigenous people at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

A protester wearing a mask at the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

This photo essay is published with the support of Open Society Foundations.

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Excerpt:

Thousands, including a young father and his toddler, took to the streets for the People’s March for Climate held in the COP30 host city, Belém, Brazil. The march represents a halfway mark in the climate negotiations.

Melody Areola from Nigeria leads a protest at COP30 in Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

By Tanka Dhakal
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 14 2025 (IPS)

Farmer and climate activist from Nigeria, Melody Areola, is beating the heat in Belém and voicing farmers’ rights in climate discussions. As the UN Climate Conference, COP30, in Brazil approaches the end of its first week, activists like Melody are making their voices louder.

Ignoring the humidity-fueled heat on Wednesday evening, she chanted slogans and addressed the crowd of activists and participants. “No Farmer, No Food,” she said loudly, with the group echoing her chants.

“Every international agreement should be about and centered around people,” she says.

Indigenous activists want recognition of their land. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

Activists voice concerns about the planet at COP30. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

Palestinian rights activist says there can be no climate justice without Palestinian liberation. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

 

Protests at the gate inconvenienced delegates. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

Activists hail from various parts of the world, yet they consistently convey the same message: the foundation of a just transition cannot be based on lies and false solutions. They are calling out fossil fuel industries and demanding climate justice with human rights, food security based on local knowledge, and support for locally based solutions.

“Just transition relies on real solutions from people on the ground,” said Nona Chai, Program Coordinator at the Just Transition Alliance. “We need to move away from fossil fuels and industrial agriculture.”

After a few years of constrained protests at COPs, Belém is preparing for a large protest on Saturday.

In the Blue Zone’s main hallway, a group of youth activists staged a silent protest on Wednesday. With their mouths taped they carried placards with slogans such as ‘Adaptation Justice Now,’ ‘We Demand Public Grants-Based Adaptation Finance Now,’ and ‘Public Property, No Trespassing.’

Faith-based protest groups demonstrated with long blue cloths as a “River of Hope” to showcase the cry of the earth. “It’s a moral call for action to the leaders here,” said Laura Morales of the Laudato Si’ Movement.

Ana Sanchez, a community organizer, is actively participating in different protests and connecting climate justice to the Palestinian cause.

“There cannot be climate justice without Palestinian liberation,” she said. “Carbon emissions from bombs dropped in Gaza are greater than the annual emissions of 100 countries. We need to connect climate justice with Palestinian liberation.”

Silent protest for adaptation justice. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

Security is increasingly tight at COP30 in Brazil. Credit: Tanka Dhakal/IPS

In Belém, day by day, protests from Indigenous communities are growing. They are demanding recognition of their land and knowledge as a system of climate adaptation. This morning (Friday, Nov 14), a group of Indigenous people blocked the main entrance for some time while protesting silently.

While their protest was peaceful, a breach of the premises by protestors earlier in the week meant the UNFCCC sent out a message of reassurance.

“Please be aware there is a peaceful demonstration taking place at the front entrance to the Blue Zone. There is no danger.”

And with each new protest, security is more and more visible. With riot gear and shields, they stand guard as many of the more than 56,000 accredited delegates take selfies in front of the venue.
IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

Activists hail from various parts of the world, yet they consistently convey the same message: the foundation of a just transition cannot be based on lies and false solutions.

We have seen stalled climate action, widening inequality, and people left behind. At COP27, the establishment of the Just Transition Work Programme was a crucial step toward putting justice at the heart of climate action. But words alone cannot hold back the tide. —Open letter on Just Transition

If we do not have our land and healthy territory, we do not have healthy food, and without food we do not survive. Food must become a centerpiece in the global climate discourse, and it is not just about any food, but healthy food that aligns with our ancestry and local traditions and spirituality. —Juliana Kerexu Mirim Mariano, activist

Integration of crop-livestock systems in Urubici, State of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Credit: Ivan Cheremisin's/Unsplash

By Appolinaire Djikeng
NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 14 2025 (IPS)

As the world gathers in Brazil for the UN climate talks, the country’s livestock sector – one of the largest in the world – is understandably in the spotlight.

Livestock are a significant contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil (and around the world) and have been linked to deforestation, but these animals represent so much more than that to so many, especially in the Global South.

Brazil accounts for approximately 20 per cent of global beef exports. The livestock sector is a major contributor to the country’s economy – responsible for 8.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and roughly nine million jobs.

For 1.3 billion people worldwide, livestock is a lifeline: a protector of livelihoods, guardian of nutrition, cornerstone of tradition, and potential pathway out of poverty. For the majority and especially pastoralists, reducing herd sizes is not an easy, or frankly viable, option.

COP30 is supposed to bring people from vastly different contexts together, to find solutions that work for everyone, as well as funding to enable it to happen. This year’s host offers special lessons for Africa’s livestock sector, as Brazil’s livestock sector was not always so productive and efficient.

Brazilian policies and investments have seen livestock productivity rise 61 per cent in the past two decades, while pasture land use and emissions intensity – that is, the emissions per unit of meat, milk or eggs produced – have gone down.

The key to this success has been avoiding uniform prescriptions and instead adopting regionally adapted and context-specific approaches.

For example, high-yield tropical grasses like Brachiaria have become central to boosting productivity across the country’s Cerrado region, improving cattle health and overall performance, and reducing costs. In southern Brazil, where smaller farms are more common, the integration of crop-livestock systems have increased land efficiency, promoted biodiversity, and diversified farm incomes. Mineral supplements and high-energy feeds have had the biggest impact in the Southeast of Brazil, where there are large feedlots.

Much like Brazil thirty years ago, many of today’s developing countries struggle to produce meat, milk and eggs efficiently. Poor quality feed, animal health, and genetics mean animals take much longer to reach slaughter weight or milk volume. Even if herd sizes are smaller, the emissions per unit of product can be 16 times higher.

The impact is that hunger and poverty are prevalent in these countries and, in some, still rising. Micronutrient deficiency – a result of insufficient animal-source food consumption – is also widespread among children, which has a devastating effect on health and economic development (contributing to annual GDP losses up to 16 per cent).

This is why at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) we are researching science-based interventions that raise productivity and cut emissions intensity. For example, MaziwaPlus is an animal health-oriented project focused on Mastitis, a disease in dairy cows responsible for milk yield losses of up to 25 per cent. With Scotland’s Rural College we are also working on highly digestible forages, which could result in 20 per cent methane emissions reductions. EnviroCow is another productivity-oriented initiative, trying to identify livestock that remain productive despite environmental challenges.

And ILRI’s work does not stop at research. The Institute also connects evidence with policy and practice, as seen in Kenya’s recent submission to the UNFCCC’s Sharm el-Sheikh portal, which cites participatory rangeland management approaches developed by ILRI and partners.

Unlocking these benefits at the global level will require reframing the worldwide sustainability discussion around livestock – seeing it as a solution to be invested in, rather than a problem to be swept under the rug.

For example, climate finance should start rewarding reductions in emissions intensity (not just absolute emissions), so that countries improving productivity and lowering emissions per litre of milk or kilo of meat are supported. Moreover, the world needs to invest far more than the 0.2 per cent of climate finance currently put towards livestock research and innovation (and even less to developing solutions in low- and middle-income countries).

Most importantly, livestock should be embedded in national climate plans. Livestock should be recognised as more than a source of emissions, and as an important solution for climate resilience, food security, and adaptation – especially in developing countries and regions where they are the backbone of rural economies.

But as COP30 concludes, the conversation cannot end there.

This year’s conference must be a moment when the world recognises that livestock, managed well, are an important part of a more pragmatic global strategy which both protects the planet and raises the welfare of its people.

The timing could not be more fitting as next year will begin the UN-declared International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. Rangelands cover over half of the Earth’s land surface, store vast amounts of carbon, and support hundreds of millions of pastoralist livestock keepers, yet barely feature in most national climate plans.

If we choose to recognise and act on the potential of rangelands and pastoralists, they can become one of the great success stories of climate and development – driven by science, stewardship, and local knowledge.

Professor Appolinaire Djikeng is the Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Credit: UNICEF/Gema Espinoza Delgado

By Caroline Delgado
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Nov 14 2025 (IPS)

The urgency of linking climate action with social and wider environmental priorities is clear. Climate change, environmental degradation and violent conflict are often deeply connected and even mutually reinforcing. At the same time, climate action can either support or undermine efforts to improve social justice and halt environmental degradation.

These connections are nowhere more visible than in global food systems, where environmental pressures, social inequality and economic shocks converge. And Latin America, where COP30 is taking place, could be central to the solution.

Climate change, violent conflict and economic crises are major drivers of food insecurity, while food production itself contributes to more than one-third of global emissions and accelerates biodiversity loss through land use change.

Despite steady growth in agricultural production over the past two decades, hunger persists: in 2024, around 8 per cent of the world’s population faced hunger, many of them small-scale farmers in crisis-affected regions.

Latin America’s paradox: ecological abundance amid social and environmental fragility

Latin America embodies the contradictions at the core of the global climate and development agenda: vast ecological resources and food production capacity coexist with significant inequality, environmental degradation, and social unrest.

Its ecosystems regulate carbon and water cycles essential to planetary stability and the region is the world’s largest provider of ecosystem services. Latin America also holds the greatest per capita availability of agricultural land and water, making it both the world’s largest net food exporter and a carbon sink.

Yet these assets face mounting pressure from deforestation, land-use change, and extractive industries. The degradation of forests, soils, and watersheds not only accelerates emissions and biodiversity loss but also deepens local grievances over land, livelihoods, and access to resources. This, in turn, heightens the risk of social tension and violence in a region marked by extreme inequality, widespread violence, and the world’s highest number of environmental conflicts.

Unequal land distribution and the expansion of extractive and agricultural frontiers perpetuate a cycle of degradation and displacement. Environmental decline erodes resilience to droughts, floods, and other climate impacts, undermines food security and increases competition over dwindling resources.

Climate change exacerbates these challenges: extreme weather events reduce crop yields and fuel migration, while the destruction of ecosystems diminishes the capacity of nature to buffer against future shocks.

Many of the region’s environmental conflicts stem from disputes over territory, water, and the impacts of large-scale projects that privilege short-term, growth over sustainable livelihoods. Criminal networks and weak governance exacerbate instability through illegal mining, logging, and land grabs, whereas violence against environmental defenders deepens distrust in state institutions.

Agriculture and governance at the crossroads

The agricultural sector lies at the centre of this nexus. It is a cornerstone of Latin America’s economy and a major source of global food supply. Agricultural exports grew 1.7 times between 2010 and 2023, generating a trade surplus of US$161 billion. Production and trade are projected to expand further by 2031.

Yet, if expansion continues to rely in deforestation and exclusion, it risks deepening insecurity, fuelling new conflict and ecological collapse. Without inclusive governance and environmental safeguards, economic growth will remain fragile and unsustainable.

Breaking these cycles requires an integrated approach that links governance, environmental justice, and sustainable land use. Strengthening land governance, protecting environmental defenders and supporting small-scale and Indigenous producers are essential to building resilience.

Secure land rights and respect for collective territories reinforce local autonomy and reduce pressures for extractive expansion. Protecting defenders safeguards those facing repression and violence in resource conflicts, while inclusive, locally rooted development pathways sustain livelihoods and reflect diverse worldviews for many rural populations, to which land is not only a resource but also a cultural identity.

Promising developments

The Escazú agreement provides a framework for embedding these principles in practice. Entering into force in 2021 and ratified so far by 18 Latin American countries, it is the region’s first legally binding treaty on environmental governance. Its three pillars – access to information, public participation, and justice for environmental defenders- make it not only an environmental agreement but also a democratic one.

By strengthening transparency and participation, Escazú promotes accountability and peaceful resource governance, helping to prevent the very conflicts that undermine climate resilience.

However, its transformative potential remains uneven. The majority of the region’s countries have yet to ratify it, whereas implementation in those that have is hampered by limited technical capacity, weak crisis response mechanisms, and, in some cases, a lack of political will. These obstacles, compounded by democratic backsliding in parts of the region and the declining global prioritisation of environmental issues, threatens to blunt its impact.

Yet, fully realising the promise of Escazú could provide the region with a solid foundation for more equitable resilient, and sustainable, food systems built rooted in transparency, inclusion, and accountability.

As COP 30 unfolds, Latin America’s experience offers a critical lesson to the world: climate action cannot succeed without social justice, transparency, and peace. The region’s experience shows that safeguarding ecosystems and empowering those who defend them are inseparable from ensuring food security and global stability.

Building resilient food systems and sustainable economies depends on empowering those who defend the land and ensuring that environmental governance benefits both people and the planet.

Dr Caroline Delgado is Director of the Food, Peace and Security Programme at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Deodat Maharaj
GEBZE, Türkiye, Nov 14 2025 (IPS)

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.

Nvidia, together with the other six technology companies known as the Magnificent Seven, reached a market capitalisation of USD22 trillion. This value easily eclipses the combined GDP of the world’s 44 Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Small Island Developing States and Landlocked Developing Countries.

These businesses continue to make massive investments in this transformational technology. Not only are investments being made in AI for the future, but benefits are also already being reaped as it accelerates global commerce and rapidly transforms markets.

According to the World Economic Forum, AI is streamlining supply chains, optimising production, and enabling data-driven trade decisions, giving companies a big competitive edge in global markets.

Thus far, the beneficiaries have been those living in the developed world, and a few developing countries with high technological capacities, like India.

By and large, developing countries have lagged far behind this technological revolution. The world’s 44 LDCs and the Small Island Developing States are those that have been almost completely left out.

According to UNCTAD, LDCs risk being excluded from the economic benefits or the AI revolution. Many LDCs and Small Island Developing States struggle with limited access to digital tools, relying on traditional methods for trade documentation, market analysis, and logistics. This is happening as others race ahead.

This widening gap threatens to marginalize these countries in international trade and underscores the urgency of ensuring they can participate fully in the AI-driven global economy.

AI holds transformative potential for developing countries across sectors critical to economic growth and trade. The World Bank has noted that in agriculture, AI-driven tools can improve crop yields, forecast market demand, and enhance supply chain efficiency. It can also strengthen food security and export earnings. In trade and logistics, AI can optimize operations, reduce transaction costs, and help local producers access new markets.

Beyond commercial applications, AI can bolster disaster preparedness, enabling governments and businesses to allocate resources efficiently and minimize losses. The use of AI can be a game changer in responding to massive natural disasters such as the one caused by Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica a few days ago.

Despite these opportunities, the poorest and most vulnerable countries face significant hurdles in accessing and benefiting from AI. The International Telecommunications Union has noted that many countries lack reliable electricity, broadband connectivity, and computing resources, impeding the deployment of AI technologies. This is compounded by human capacity constraints and limited fiscal space to make the requisite investments.

Given this, what is the best way forward for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries? Firstly, policy and governance frameworks for leveraging AI for development transformation are urgently, and we can learn from others.

For example, Rwanda, a leader in the field of using technology to drive transformation has developed a National Artificial Intelligence Policy. Another example is Trinidad and Tobago, which recently established a Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence.

Secondly, capacity building, especially for policy leaders, is key. This must be augmented by making the requisite investments in universities and centers of excellence. Given the importance of low-cost and high-impact solutions, building partnerships with institutions in the global south is absolutely vital.

Finally, financing remains key. However, given the downward trends in overseas development assistance, accessing finance, especially grant and concessional resources from other sources will be important. Consequently, international financial institutions, especially the regional development banks, have a critical role to play.

Since the countries themselves are shareholders, every effort should be made to establish special purpose windows of grants and concessional financing to help accelerate adoption of relevant, low-cost, relevant and high-impact AI technological solutions.

In an adverse financing environment, achieving the above will be difficult. This is where Tech Diplomacy comes in and must be a central element of a country’s approach to foreign policy. This will be the subject of another piece.

In summary, AI is shaping and changing the world now. For the poorest and most vulnerable countries, all is not lost. With strategic investments, forward-looking and inclusive policies, and international cooperation via Tech Diplomacy, AI can become a powerful tool for their sustainable growth and development.

Deodat Maharaj, a national of Trinidad and Tobago, is presently the Managing Director of the United Nations Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries. He can be contacted at: deodat.maharaj@un.org

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Roya shares her story with our journalist in Parwan province, describing the fear and uncertainty she faces after being deported from Iran. Credit: Learning Together.

By External Source
PARWAN, Afghanistan, Nov 13 2025 (IPS)

When Roya, a former police officer under Afghanistan’s Republic government, left the country with her family, she felt a great sense of relief, having escaped from the horrors of Taliban rule. She never imagined that less than three years later she would be forced back into the same conditions, only worse.

She now spends sleepless nights, terrified of being identified as a former police officer, a label that carries dire consequences.

Roya, 52, is a mother of four. During the Republic years, she worked in the women’s search unit of Parwan province, earning enough to support her family.

When the government collapsed and the Taliban returned to power in 2021, she, like hundreds of other women in uniform, became the target of direct and indirect threats. Fear for her life and dignity pushed her onto the path of migration. She fled to Iran, where she and her six-member family spent a few years in relative safety.

“In Iran, I worked in a tomato paste factory”, she recalls. “We had a house, we ate well, and above all I had peace of mind because we lived in relative security”, says Roya.

 

Street life in Parwan provice, Afghanistan. Credit: Learning Together.

 

Her daughters also found work. “Zakia, 23, who had completed her first year at Kabul University prior to our departure, found a job in a large home appliances store as a salesclerk and computer operator. Setayesh, who turned 21 this year, threw herself enthusiastically into a job at a beauty salon, specializing in hair braiding. Everyone had something to do and earned an income.”

But that stability did not last. Escalating political tensions between Iran and Israel soon triggered harsh crackdowns on Afghan migrants in Iran.

“At two in the afternoon, Iranian officials entered our home without any warning”, says Roya. “We had no time to gather our belongings, and even much less to recover the lease for the house we were living in, she says.”

She and her daughters were forcibly deported back to Afghanistan while the men were still at work. A week later, one of her sons called from the Islam Qala border, and the family was finally reunited.

Roya now lives in Afghanistan under extremely difficult conditions. She has no job, no support, and carries a constant fear that her past work with the police could put her and her family in danger.

“Every night I go to sleep in fear, worried that my identity might be exposed. I don’t know what will happen if they find out I previously worked in the police service.”

 

A market scene in Parwan province, where women navigate restricted public spaces under Taliban rule. Credit: Learning Together.

 

She is one of several hundred women who were forcibly expelled from Iran, back into a country where women who had previously worked in the security forces are treated like criminals and where the memory of their uniform has become a nightmare of imprisonment.

Under Taliban rule, former military and civil service women are forced to hide their identities. Some have even burned their work documents. Others, like Roya, stay inside their homes, avoid social contact, and spend their nights haunted by the fear of being recognized.

“We decided to escape to Iran to rid ourselves of the strict laws of the Taliban. But now we are caught in the same restrictions again, this time, with empty hands and even more exhausted spirits,” Roya says.

Roya and her family now live temporarily in a relative’s home in Parwan province, facing an uncertain future.

The widespread deportation of Afghan migrants from Iran is particularly consequential for women whose situation has progressively worsened under Taliban rule. Job opportunities for them and participation in public life are shrinking by the day.

The Taliban have stripped women of the right to work, education, travel, and even the simple freedom to visit parks. Women who once served their government are now treated as second-class citizens in their own homes.

Roya’s story mirrors the life experience of hundreds of women – the repercussion of a combination of dysfunctional regional politics across the borders and domestic religious extremist government intolerant of women’s rights.

Roya also recounts the story of her neighbor, Mohammad Yousuf, a 34-year-old construction worker, who was violently beaten by Iranian officials. He was thrown into a vehicle without receiving his wages for several months or allowing him to collect his belongings from the small room where he had been living.

Meanwhile, the pace of deportations of Afghan migrants from Iran has accelerated sharply in 2025, according to several domestic and international media outlets, including Iran Time, Afghanistan International, and Iran International, as well as international organizations.

The International Organization for Migration has reported that since early May 2025, a wave of forced mass deportations has taken place, primarily affecting families unlike previous trends, which mostly involved single men.

In the first five months of 2025, more than 457,100 people returned from Iran. Of these, about 72% were deported forcibly, while the rest returned voluntarily.

In one year, over 1.2 million people were deported from the Islam Qala border into Afghanistan.

The deportation campaign’s peak coincided with a rise in Iran-Israel tensions in June this year. More than 500 000 people were deported in just 16 days between June 24 and July 9. In total, by early July 2025, over 1.1 million people had been forcibly returned. Daily deportation rates of up to 30,000 people were reported.

Iran has employed harsh and often violent methods to expel Afghan migrants. These measures include workplace inspections, nighttime arrests, home raids, and the destruction of legal documents, even passports and valid visas. Numerous cases of violence, mistreatment, and deprivation of basic services such as healthcare and food have been reported.

International humanitarian and human rights organizations have described these actions as violations of the principle of non-refoulement and a serious threat to refugees and have called for an immediate halt to forced deportations and respect for legal rights.

Reports from the United Nations and human rights organizations indicate that Afghan returnees especially women, minorities, and those who worked with the previous government face a high risk of arbitrary detention and torture.

Iran has stated that it intends to deport a total of 4 million Afghan migrants, of which around 1.2 million have already been sent back.

Iranian officials have claimed that the deportations will be “dignified and gradual,” but evidence shows that pressure, threats, and arrests without consent have been widespread.

The health, social, and security consequences of these returns have placed a heavy burden on Afghanistan, overwhelming border crossings and reception camps. Many are enduring extreme heat of up to 50°C, without access to water or shelter.

According to a UN report published in July, 1.35 million Afghan refugees have been forced to leave Iran in recent months. Many were arrested and deported, while others returned voluntarily for fear of arbitrary arrest.

Excerpt:

The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons

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. Belém native Da […]

Binaifer Nowrojee, human rights lawyer and president of the Open Society Foundations (OSF). Credit: OSF

By Joyce Chimbi
BELÉM, Brazil, Nov 13 2025 (IPS)

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.”

A distinguished human rights advocate with over three decades of experience navigating politically sensitive operating environments to drive meaningful change, she particularly noted that events at the Conference of the Parties (COP) run differently and as they should when held in a country with a democracy as compared to those without democratic governance.

Speaking to IPS at COP30, the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November 2025, Nowrojee said the venue is “a strong statement in support of the indigenous and Afro-descendant people who continue to struggle to control their environment or live their lives to their full potential. Their inclusion and participation sends the right message.”

OSF, the world’s largest private funder working to promote human rights, equity, and justice, works around the world, addressing various complex and most pressing issues such as the intersection between climate change, justice, equity and human rights while at the same time leveraging emerging and existing opportunities to rebuild economies, revitalise democracies and improve livelihoods.

She spoke extensively of the changing world order, stressing that even in these uncertain times, opportunities abound. While the absence of the US and particularly representatives of the President Donald Trump administration from COP30 is symbolic, Nowrojee says this move presents a real opportunity for the global South to regroup and chart a more inclusive path forward.

So far, she believes “the global South is stepping up, as they are now able to speak more freely and not water down their commitments to reach a compromise climate agreement. There is now a real possibility for countries in the global South to emerge with new ideas.”

Nowrojee said these new ideas include rethinking the intersection between climate change, environmental protection and human rights, because environmental and land defenders are the most targeted globally among all rights defenders. More than 146 land and environmental defenders were killed or disappeared globally in 2024 defending their land, communities, and the environment.

Leadership doesn't have to come from government; it can come from anywhere.
The Latin America region experienced the majority of these attacks, with Colombia being the country with the most killings for the third year in a row. Indigenous people are disproportionately affected, representing nearly a third of lethal attacks despite being only 6 percent of the global population.

Against this backdrop, Nowrojee says the OSF is “very pleased that there is now a treaty called the Escazú Agreement, which commits Latin American governments to protecting human rights defenders, reinforces their commitment to climate, and ensures that information is given to their publics.”

She noted that the Escazú Agreement is a regional treaty in Latin America and the Caribbean that guarantees the right to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters. It is the first and only treaty of its kind, and it also includes special provisions for the protection of environmental human rights defenders and vulnerable groups.

OSF supports the Escazú Agreement by funding initiatives that strengthen its implementation, promote environmental rights, and protect environmental defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean. At COP30, the organization has already announced a major USD 19.5 million commitment to advance environmental justice and support a fair and sustainable economy in Latin America.

Meanwhile, Nowrojee is optimistic that the climate negotiations are moving in the right direction. Stressing that this “climate change crisis offers us a real chance to bring a new vision, one that’s rooted in fairness, dignity and harmony with nature. The global community here has the ability and opportunity to balance people, profit, and planet in a way that has not been achieved in the past.”

On the current and fragmented world order and increasingly nationalistic governments, she says, “we are living through a moment in the world where the structures and ways of doing things that we have had since the end of the Second World War are beginning to crumble. We’ve taken them as far as they can go.”

But the present is not a moment to fold hands and fret—instead, she sees these changes as providing opportunities to rebuild and “for people with moral imagination to step forward to envision and deliver a new and different world where all human beings can thrive. And so, we are no longer living in a unipolar world where the United States is the preeminent force.”

“We’re not even living in a G7 world. We are now living in a world that is a G20 world, where Africa will now have the highest population as a continent and where young people are coming forward and imagining a new world order that truly embraces principles of human rights and dignity. Notably, even young people who’ve never even lived in a democracy are now calling for it. You see it in Kenya, Senegal, Bangladesh and Nepal.”

While the road to rebuilding can be laden with uncertainties, challenges and pitfalls, Nowrojee is hopeful that the global community is up to the task. She advocates finding inspirational leaders and notes that people in every corner of the world are beginning to rise to the challenge. “We’re seeing young people organizing differently within their movements. This, in my opinion, is a real sign of inspiration.”

“Leadership doesn’t have to come from government; it can come from anywhere. And I also see emerging new arrangements such as the coming together of the BRICS countries, which is a group of major emerging economies with 11 member countries. The fact that it’s South Africa that brings a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and Qatar negotiating and mediating various conflicts means we are now entering a new world. We’re seeing countries doing things that they wouldn’t have done 20 years ago.”

On the place of philanthropy in these uncharted waters, she says “philanthropy is a small part of the globe, and it’s a place and space where new ideas can be catalyzed and risks taken that would otherwise be impossible to take. Philanthropy is really about trying new ideas, new ways of thinking and acting, and maybe even failing, but if these ideas succeed, they then become examples of what could be done.”

On multilateralism or cooperation among many nations, she says the multilateralism structures are not crumbling, “only that, having been built after the Second World War, they are now in some ways frayed at the edges. They’re not performing the same way that they did, but I also see a multipolar world emerging, where different countries are beginning to cooperate and coordinate with each other.”

“I see a lot of imagination in different regions and also across regions. Latin America is taking major steps towards a new world. I see the Vatican with its Jubilee 2025 and attempts to rethink debt forgiveness and the unequal debt burden that countries carry. So, I see signs of change in different places and like-minded people who have the same values coming together to chart a new path towards a new world.”

In this new world, Nowrojee envisions climate justice as “a win-win for communities at the front line who are living in places and efforts to expand their participation in decision-making around how their natural resources are used.  Justice also means ensuring that the excluded or those at the edges become part and parcel of the democratic discussions, and ultimately this helps improve livelihoods and people’s well-being across the board.”

“Equally important is that we protect the planet, because if we are going to live on this planet, we are going to need to take significant and sustainable steps to address the damage that we, the human race, have done to this planet.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Excerpt:

Climate change crisis offers us a real chance to bring a new vision, one that's rooted in fairness, dignity and harmony with nature. The global community here has the ability and opportunity to balance people, profit, and planet in a way that has not been achieved in the past. —Binaifer Nowrojee, human rights lawyer and president of the Open Society Foundations (OSF)

Our countries did not light this fire—but we are burning in its heat. And the smoke does not stop at our borders. —Evans Njewa, Least Developed Countries Group chair, when talking about the importance of the Loss and Damage Fund for LDCs

By External Source
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