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 ->
In August 2025, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali removed all taxes and customs duties on feminine hygiene products. Now, Guyana’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva calls on other countries to follow suit. In most developing countries male condoms are distributed freely. Free access to condoms is a globally recognized harm reduction strategy in public health. […] Continue reading ->
The Eleventh Conference of the Parties (COP) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) concluded in Geneva on Saturday with calls to member states to take stronger action on reducing the environmental harm of tobacco use and increasing corporate liability. But political stand-offs between countries, along with industry interference, hindered major breakthroughs on […] Continue reading ->
A fire Thursday afternoon at the UN Climate Conference (COP30) venue in Belém, Brazil, led to delays in the crucial final stage of climate negotiations as discussions in the plenary paused for much of the penultimate day. The talks were at a contentious stage when the fire happened and remained so Friday’morning, when talks resumed […] Continue reading ->
A $300 million investment in projects integrating health into climate action has been announced at the UN Climate Conference in Bélem, Brazil by a coalition of “Climate and Health Funders Coalition” which includes over 35 of the world’s leading philanthropies and foundations, including Rockefeller, Gates and Wellcome. This announcement was made at the high-level opening […] Continue reading ->
DELHI, India – The Delhi police detained nearly 100 people Sunday evening in a protest against high levels of air pollution in India’s capital – which has consistently ranked as the biggest pollution hot spot in the world over the past month. The protest, one of the largest since the COVID pandemic and coincided with […] Continue reading ->
The United States, backed by Argentina, was reportedly blocking the G20 consensus on the final G20 Health Ministers’ statement – following their fourth and final working group meeting of the year Friday in Limpopo, South Africa, Health Policy Watch has learned. In a visible snub to the rest of the group, the US delegation also […] Continue reading ->
As pollution levels soar in Delhi, questions over missing data and transparency raise concerns about the government’s handling of the crisis. NEW DELHI – Farmers burning their fields near India’s capital city have caused air pollution in New Delhi to become even worse than it was on Diwali night, 20 October, when the extremely hazardous […] Continue reading ->
The year 2025 is set to be among the top three hottest years in the planet’s 176-year observational record, according to the State of the Global Climate Update from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The mean near-surface temperature from January to August was 1.42°C (± 0.12°C) above the pre-industrial average, the report said. Depending on what […] Continue reading ->
From killing over 600,000 elderly from dementia to an almost equal number of infants under the age of one-year, air pollution’s impact on young and old is explained simply through hard-hitting numbers in the latest State of Global Air (SOGA) report, by the Boston-based Health Effects Institute. The report identifies plenty of scope for immediate […] Continue reading ->