UN Biodiversity COP16 finalises agreement on biodiversity finance
28/2/2025: Greenpeace welcomes the agreement in UN negotiations to develop a roadmap to 2030 for sourcing $700 billion of biodiversity finance. The first step seeks commitment to $20 billion per year of public funding from 2025. The US is not a party to the UN Convention ib Biological Diversity.
Source: Greenpeace International
The Cali Fund: Financing for biodiversity conservation
25/2/2025: The text of a speech by the UN Assistant Secretary-General welcoming the foundation of the Cali Fund which aims to ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits from Digital Sequence Information on genetic resources. It will compensate Indigenous communities whose genetic resources and traditional knowledge contribute to global scientific advancements.
Source: UN Environment Programme
After US retreat, countries clash over support for Green Climate Fund
21/2/2025: The loss of US funding puts at risk the capacity of the Global Climate Fund to help developing countries adopt clean energy and adapt to climate change. Pressure may grow on China and the Gulf States to contribute towards the new UN climate finance goal agreed at COP29 last November.
Source: Climate Home News
Climate projects face existential threat after Trump’s aid shutdown
5/2/2025: President Trump's threat to close down USAID puts at risk a major source of grant-based finance for climate action in the Global South. In 2022, US contributions accounted for 12% of developed countries’ climate finance, growing to close to half a billion dollars in 2024.
Source: Climate Home News
Trump freeze on USAID-funded climate program could worsen migration
5/2/2025: USAID’s SERVIR program, which uses NASA satellite data to help countries manage climate disasters, has been suspended. Experts say that the loss of this program in approximately 50 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will not only lead to tens of thousands of deaths from extreme weather events, it will also put pressure on individuals in climate-vulnerable countries to opt for migration.
Source: Devex
Trump purges climate mentions from websites
4/2/2025: Donald Trump’s administration has started to remove or downgrade mentions of the climate crisis across several major departments of the US government. Critics say the actions will stifle the public’s understanding of the climate crisis.
Source: The Guardian
G7 countries spend record sums on fossil fuel subsidies
3/2/2025: G7 countries pledged in 2016 that they would reduce harmful fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 – but tax subsidies for coal, oil and gas in these countries have increased by 15 percent over that period. Italy and Germany are the worst offenders.
Source: Greenpeace International
Trump orders US to quit Paris Agreement and pause climate finance
21/1/2025: On his first day in office, US President Donald Trump officially began the one-year process of leaving the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The US provided around $11 billion in 2024 to help developing countries reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.
Source: Climate Home News
What Trump’s second term means for climate action
15/1/2025: The new US president is expected to exit the Paris Agreement, slash climate finance and wage war on science. Trump’s team is also reportedly mulling a more audacious attempt to pull the US out of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the instrument underpinning global climate action.
Source: Climate Home News
No agreement on global droughts at desertification COP
19/12/2024: COP16 of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, held in Saudi Arabia, has concluded with no agreement on the major global issue of drought. This outcome echoed similar difficulties with multilateral megotiations at recent UN conferences on biodiversity and climate change.
Source: Passblue