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A woman collects plastic and other waste for recycling in South Africa. Less than 10% is recycled worldwide, with the rest remaining in the environment.

UN plastic treaty negotiations end in failure, again

Bobby Bascomb 15 Aug 2025

Jailed Vietnamese civil society leader wins award, boosting calls for his release

Jenny Denton 1 Aug 2025
Plastic washed up on a beach in Barcelona.

As UN plastic treaty talks face possible deadlock, what are the ways forward?

Tosca Ballerini 31 Jul 2025
A forest gardener waters vegetables in his forest garden in Kaffrine, Senegal.

A forest garden project attempts to expand into the Sahel

Victoria Schneider 28 Jul 2025
A waste site near Mombasa, Kenya. Separating plastic waste from growing mountains of domestic trash is a huge hurdle facing the world’s communities.

Open burning of plastic is an escalating public health threat, say experts

Sean Mowbray 17 Jul 2025
Drought in Bangladesh.

Droughts are a ‘slow-moving global catastrophe,’ report finds

Liz Kimbrough 7 Jul 2025
Riding through a locust swarm in Lekiji, Samburu County, Kenya.

Agencies race to prevent new food crisis as locusts return to northern Africa

Stephanie Achieng’ 3 Jul 2025
Emmanuel Gona, a fisherman and community scout from Muyu wa Kae village in Marereni, believes that conserving and restoring mangrove ecosystems is key to boosting fish populations.

A Kenya marine biodiversity credit program restores mangroves — and livelihoods

Juliet Akoth Ojwang 1 Jul 2025
A member of the Indigenous Tikuna nation paddling a dugout canoe on a tributary of the Amazon in Colombia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

The cost of conservation without consent: Astrid Puentes on rights-based environmentalism

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Jun 2025
Tyler Kartzinel’s research highlighted the gaps in DNA reference databases in tropical biodiversity hotspots.

DNA sequencing to meet global biodiversity goals: Interview with Tyler Kartzinel

Abhishyant Kidangoor 25 Jun 2025
Striped barracuda in Papua New Guinea.

PNG PM Marape rejects deep-sea mining even as provincial authorities try to revive project

Elizabeth Claire Alberts, John Cannon 16 Jun 2025

Ahead of UN climate talks, Brazil fast-tracks oil and highway projects that threaten the Amazon

Associated Press 13 Jun 2025
Students in Afghanistan walk to school in a sand storm during a drought in 2019.

Climate futures: World leaders’ failure to act is pushing Earth past 1.5°C

Claire Asher 11 Jun 2025

UN scientists propose ‘minerals trust’ to power green energy, protect communities

Bobby Bascomb 7 Jun 2025
Brazilian Indigenous lawyer Kari Guajajara. Image by USAID via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).

‘We can’t talk solutions without understanding complexities: Kari Guajajara on Brazil’s Amazon

Latoya Abulu 12 May 2025
The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on April 21, 2025. Image by Tailyr Irvine/Grist.

At the U.N., mining groups tout protections for Indigenous peoples

Anna V. Smith 9 May 2025
Voluntarily isolated people in the Javari Valley in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo credit: FUNAI.

Indigenous delegates at the U.N. raise alarm on isolated peoples in the Amazon

Aimee Gabay 25 Apr 2025
Collage of UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues attendees and snippet of visa paperwork. Image by Grist / Ines Belchior / Ronja Porho / UN DESA DISD; Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images.

The 2025 U.N. Forum on Indigenous Issues starts today with hopes and concerns on the agenda

Anita Hofschneider 21 Apr 2025
Banner image of deep-sea corals on the ocean floor via NOAA (Public domain).

Global seabed regulator concerned by mining company’s unilateral actions

Kristine Sabillo 2 Apr 2025
Amazon peoples have insisted on the urgency of having their voice and vote taken into account in biodiversity negotiations. Photo by UN biodiversity.

Indigenous leaders optimistic after resumed U.N. biodiversity conference in Rome

Justin Catanoso 5 Mar 2025

UN accuses Indonesia’s No. 2 palm oil firm of rights & environmental abuses

Hans Nicholas Jong 3 Mar 2025
Congolese troops in the eastern DRC during fighting with M23 in 2013. Image © MONUSCO/Clara Padovan via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

The key factors fueling conflict in eastern DRC

John Cannon 14 Feb 2025

Landmark ICJ climate change hearing concludes; opinion expected in 2025

Shreya Dasgupta 17 Dec 2024

Deadlocked plastic treaty talks will lead to renewed negotiations in 2025

Charles Pekow 10 Dec 2024
Banner image of civil society groups protesting at the INC-5 meeting in Busan, South Korea. Image courtesy of Seunghyeok Choi/Break Free From Plastic.

No deal to curb plastic production as latest negotiations fizzle

Kristine Sabillo 2 Dec 2024
River in the Kosnipata valley, Peru. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Why is a landscape approach needed for funding the global environmental agenda? (commentary)

Aida Greenbury, Robert Nasi 26 Nov 2024
Banner image of civil society groups protesting at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Image courtesy of 350.org.

With COP29 letdown, climate activists pin their hopes on Brazil

Kristine Sabillo 26 Nov 2024
Protesters bearing signs reading "Global North, pay up" and "Global South, hold the line" outside the plenary hall during COP29, Baku, Azerbaijan. Image by Kiara Worth/UN Climate Change via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/unfccc/54158868096/in/dateposted/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

COP29 ends in $300 billion deal, widespread dismay — and eyes toward COP30

David Akana 25 Nov 2024
Workers sort through discared plastic in Bangladesh.

The plastics crisis is now a global human health crisis, experts say

Alden Wicker 19 Nov 2024
COP29 entry at Baku.

COP29: With public climate finance shortfall, is investment capital a way forward?

Justin Catanoso 11 Nov 2024
A woman pulls a large bag filled with plastic in a landfill in Bangladesh.

U.S. toughens stance on plastics production in run-up to key treaty summit

Charles Pekow 5 Nov 2024

UN falls short on coral funding as reefs face largest bleaching event on record

Shanna Hanbury 1 Nov 2024

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