SDG News Exclusive: At UNCCD’s CRIC23, Panama Pushes a New Era of Alignment — and Hosts High-Level Nature Summit on the Margins
December, Panama City — One week after the close of UNFCCC’s COP30 in Belém, the global climate community has shifted its attention to Panama City for UNCCD’s 23rd Committee for the Review of the Implementation of the Convention (CRIC23). As negotiators from more than 190 countries gather to confront accelerating land degradation, drought, and desertification, […]
Honduras Votes in a Razor-Thin Presidential Race as Foreign Pressure and Distrust Test Its Democracy
A vote under the shadow of distrust and intervention When Hondurans queued outside schools and community centres on 30 November, many carried not only their ID cards but years of accumulated scepticism. The country’s 2017 election was marred by irregularities and violent protests; even the cleaner 2021 contest that brought Xiomara Castro to power was […]
What to Know About the Top Forest Carbon Credit Types Shaping Climate Policy in 2025
High-quality forest carbon credits sit at the center of today’s climate finance strategy. As governments and companies grapple with tightening emissions pathways and rising pressures to demonstrate integrity, forest carbon markets are undergoing rapid evolution. In 2025, forestry and land-use projects account for 37% of all global carbon credit retirements—underscoring the sector’s influence on national […]
GIX Unveils 2026 Product Roadmap as Climate Finance Enters a New Regulatory Era
Green Impact Exchange (GIX) — the first U.S. securities exchange built specifically for climate-aligned and resilience-focused companies — has released a 2026 product roadmap that signals a major shift in how environmental markets may be regulated, traded, and integrated into mainstream capital allocation. The announcement comes ahead of the launch of GIX’s listings exchange in […]
Nigeria Launches BIOFIN to Unlock Private Investment for Biodiversity
Abuja, November 2025 — The weekend launch of Nigeria’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) unfolded not as a ceremonial policy announcement, but as a recalibration of how the country intends to protect its ecosystems in the decade ahead. In a hall filled with government officials, private-sector leaders, development partners and UNDP representatives, the message was unmistakable: […]
European Parliament Agrees to Delay EU Deforestation Regulation and Ease Supply Chain Rules
Strasbourg, November 2025 — Applause broke gently across the hemicycle in Strasbourg as the final tally appeared on the screen: 402 in favour, 250 against, eight abstentions. With that vote, the European Parliament agreed to slow down the EU deforestation regulation, the bloc’s flagship law meant to keep forest-risk commodities linked to deforestation out of […]
Trump Disinvites South Africa from 2026 G20 Summit in Miami
Johannesburg, November 2025 — The G20’s first Leaders Summit on African soil ended with a diplomatic rupture that few in Johannesburg had anticipated. Days after members adopted a declaration on multilateral cooperation, President Donald Trump announced that South Africa, the outgoing G20 president, will not be invited to next year’s summit in Miami, escalating a […]
Humanitarian Crisis in Southeast Asia Deepens as Floods Hit Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand
A week of water that turned into a regional emergency In southern Thailand, drone footage over Hat Yai shows streets carpeted with mud, cars piled into corners and rows of shopfronts gutted by water that only days ago reached first-floor windows. Behind those images is a stark human cost: at least 145 people have been […]
ISA Director General Ashish Khanna Outlines Post-COP30 Strategy to Power the Global South with Solar
SDG News’ Heeta Lakhani interviews International Solar Alliance Director General Ashish Khanna on new solar platforms, global procurement for SIDS, risk guarantees for mini-grids, and the push to move the world from pilots to action. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) was born at a COP ten years ago in Paris, out of a sense that […]
What to Know About the COP30 Climate Deal and Its Global Implications
The last night of COP30 broke into dawn as exhausted delegates stepped out of Belém’s humid Blue Zone, clutching the eight-page Global Mutirão decision that will define climate diplomacy for the next year. Outside, protesters had drifted home. Inside, negotiators from nearly 200 countries had inched toward agreement without the presence of the United States […]
