cop30latest news & developments
Komati Power Station decommissioned after serving for 60 years. The shutdown took place on 31 October 2022. The power plant will be converted into a renewable generation site powered with 150MW of solar, 70MW of wind and 150MW of storage batteries.

UPDATED: Komati illustrates the human cost of South Africa’s energy transition

What should have been a model for climate action has become a cautionary tale of what happens when communities are excluded from decisions that reshape their lives

  • Eyaaz
6 min read
Book alert: Sustainable development cannot treat the twin crises of general poverty and energy poverty as afterthoughts, says the author.

Sustainable development cannot be an end in itself

It must be viewed as a means for radical, irreversible socio-economic transformation that redefines the lives of the marginalised and excluded

  • Eyaaz
8 min read
Countries are ‘still in the climate fight’, the United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said

COP30: Nations chose unity, science and economic common sense amid ‘stormy political waters’

Countries are ‘still in the climate fight’, the United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said

  • Sheree Bega
5 min read
With COP30 closing this week, one truth has come sharply into focus: climate extremes are natural, but disasters are not. (Flickr)

COP30 analysis: the weather is natural, the disaster is not

The weather’s natural, but the disaster isn’t

  • Eyaaz
4 min read
Former environment minister Dion George. (Photo: Environmentza/X)

Axing of former minister Dion George risks undermining SA’s climate leadership at COP30

The organisations argued that South Africa’s active participation at COP30 has always been crucial

  • Sheree Bega
3 min read
Kumi Naidoo, a leading voice for climate justice advocating for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty and fair finance, has been calling for governments to act on the ‘moral failure’ of continued fossil fuel expansion (Photo supplied)

South African climate activist makes a desperate plea for urgent action, kneeling in a protest

Kumi Naidoo, a leading voice for climate justice advocating for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty and fair finance, has been calling for governments to act on the ‘moral failure’ of continued fossil fuel expansion

  • Eyaaz
1 min read
With COP30 closing this week, one truth has come sharply into focus: climate extremes are natural, but disasters are not. (Flickr)

COP30 launches global forest finance facility amid indigenous rights concerns

Indigenous groups and NGOs caution that the facility risks becoming another top-down market mechanism that benefits investors more than the forests themselves

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
The Congo Basin faces growing pressures from logging, mining, oil and gas development, agriculture, infrastructure and urban expansion, compounded by climate change and governance challenges.

Congo Basin under-researched and ‘chronically underinvested’, new report says

Deforestation, weak governance and extractive pressures also threaten this vital ecosystem, scientists said in the landmark COP30 report

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
Europe’s unusually warm and humid summer in 2025 contributed to 718 human cases of West Nile virus and 49 deaths in Italy alone.

Climate change is spreading dengue, chikungunya and West Nile virus worldwide

A new COP30 report finds that rising temperatures, extreme weather, evolving pathogens and climate-driven migration are reshaping disease patterns

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
COP30 got underway in Brazil on Monday. (@antonioguterres/X)

Africa’s COP30 priorities: Finance, adaptation, technology and fair trade

Power Shift Africa is urging the summit to move from promises to delivery, highlighting Africa’s vulnerabilities and climate finance needs

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
Emissions are still climbing. In 2024, global greenhouse gas emissions increased by 2.3%, reaching 57.7 gigatons of CO₂ equivalent — a faster rate of growth than in 2023 and more than four times the annual average of the 2010s.

Off target: Unep warns that the world is still falling short of the Paris climate goals

A decade after the Paris Agreement united countries behind the goal of limiting global warming to well below 2°C, the latest Emissions Gap report from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) delivers a sobering message: global efforts remain off target.  Despite new pledges and some policy progress, the world is still heading toward dangerous levels […]

  • Sheree Bega
7 min read
South Africa, the world’s seventh-largest coal producer, faces a climate challenge that has largely flown under the radar: methane emissions from coal mines. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Governments’ fossil fuel production plans threaten Paris climate goals, new report warns

It finds that the fossil fuel output will exceed 1.5°C limit by 120% by 2030

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
A decade later, the implementation of the agreement is struggling to take hold, and disputes over fairness block real progress. Photo: Fatih Aktas/Getty Images

The Paris Agreement is a delusion

A decade later, the implementation of the agreement is struggling to take hold, and disputes over fairness block real progress

  • Eyaaz
6 min read
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the uncertainty of the new trading regime had already harmed the country’s economy

Ramaphosa calls for ‘rules-based order’ to protect the vulnerable

Addressing G20 finance ministers, the president said a rules-based international order was needed to manage tension and resolve conflicts

  • Emsie Ferreira
3 min read