From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
With the once-familiar pillars of the old world order crumbling and the US stepping away from action on climate crisis, it falls to others to assume global environmental leadership. Those leaders who understand the urgency should seize the opportunity afforded by Brazil hosting Cop30 this month to build a coalition of committed countries determined to turn back the climate deniers.
Richard Muyungi, the climate envoy and adviser to the president of Tanzania, said: Africa is ready to be part of [the global fight to stave off climate breakdown] provided we are supported with finance, technology and capacity-building. There has been an increase of investments in some areas but Africa still needs a lot of financing to be able to be part of the global solution, and to address the challenges we are facing.
Spending more on defence will be pointless unless western governments also tackle the climate crisis in poor countries, the UN's departing chief of international development has warned. The more you restrict your ability to act by simply focusing on what's happening inside your country, the more vulnerable you become, said Achim Steiner, who recently completed his second term as administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which works on overseas aid and lifting people out of poverty.
The cap-and-invest program, authorized by landmark legislation (Assembly Bill 32) in 2006, sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions from the state's largest polluters. Companies with large amounts of emissions must buy allowances through a carbon market, creating a financial incentive to pollute less and invest in cleaner technologies. The system works: it's driven emissions reductions, generated revenue and made California a model for climate action.
I was super happy when I received the news. It was so unexpected because I knew that so many people were applying since it was the first M.S. in Climate Finance in the U.S. It was good news, not only for me, but also for the nonprofit sector. We don't have these two topics together in many universities. I'm working for an NGO that does worldwide conservation.
"Despite Reform leaders' vocal opposition to climate action, the polling clearly shows broad support, with 70% of both Reform-leaning voters and the general public favoring higher taxes on polluters."
