African leaders opened the World Health Summit Regional Meeting at the United Nations complex in Nairobi this week with a unified declaration that two decades of dependence on foreign aid for health is over. “The challenge that I see is that many of the leaders in our continent believe that it is somebody else’s responsibility. […] Continue reading ->
More than 50 countries are gathering this week on Colombia’s Caribbean coast to launch a coalition for phasing out fossil fuels, as a third month of war in Iran exposes the costs of a global economy run on the oil, gas and coal driving the climate crisis that decades of deadlocked UN climate talks have […] Continue reading ->
The world’s darkest ongoing war – defined by sexual violence, extermination, famine and genocide – enters its fourth year today. With no end in sight, tens of millions of Sudanese people are facing a historic humanitarian crisis of “industrial proportions,” according to the United Nations (UN). Seven years after a new generation overthrew a three-decade […] Continue reading ->
The gas that keeps hospital MRI scanners running has been caught in the crossfire of the war in Iran, raising the prospect of diagnostic delays, rising costs and rationing of one of modern medicine’s most important imaging tools. Roughly a quarter of all helium consumed worldwide goes toward cooling the superconducting magnets inside MRI scanners. […] Continue reading ->
More than 60 countries now include refugees and migrants in their national health policies, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report tracking progress on commitments first set out by the World Health Assembly in 2019. The finding, drawn from a survey of 93 member states, is the first systematic count of how countries […] Continue reading ->
The world has entered the era of “global water bankruptcy” as water systems relied on by six billion people, and half of the world’s food production, are pushed beyond the point of recovery, a United Nations (UN) report has found. The report marks the first time UN scientists have declared water systems “bankrupt” rather than […] Continue reading ->
The UN climate summit marking the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement to keep global warming under 1.5 °C ended in trademark UN fashion: a text laying out next steps to speak about plans to agree to make more plans. The package of voluntary measures dubbed the “Global Mutirão,” Portuguese for collective effort, nixed any […] Continue reading ->
Brazil’s tropical forest fund aims to be the largest global financial instrument of its kind. But as COP30 enters its final hours, $6.6 billion raised so far falls well short of its $25 billion target. Although that is still considerably more than other climate funding mechanisms, the unique structure of this fund as an interest-generating […] Continue reading ->
First UN assessment since the 2021 Glasgow pledge shows methane cuts falling far short of targets needed to meet climate goals. Accelerated action could yield $330 billion in annual benefits by 2030 through improved health and reduced crop losses. Four years after more than 100 countries pledged to slash methane emissions 30% by the end […] Continue reading ->
Nations worldwide must finance and implement climate adaptation measures for health systems or risk losing millions of lives as extreme weather, rising temperatures, and intensifying heat threaten healthcare access for nearly half the global population, according to a report published Friday by the World Health Organization and Brazil. The special report, released at the COP30 […] Continue reading ->