David Sherfinski

Heading into the COP28 conference in Dubai, this week's U.N. Climate Ambition Summit broke fresh territory by naming and shaming the fossil fuel industry for its role in the climate crisis, according to advocates tracking the talks in New York.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' summit – though light on ambitious new commitments – featured many speakers who called for a swift drawdown of fossil fuel use, which analysts say will be needed to meet goals under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Developing countries demanded new financial help from wealthy nations in their uphill fight against the climate crisis during a summit in New York at which U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said they had "every right to be angry".

Guterres told the one-day Climate Ambition Summit at U.N. headquarters that poorer countries had done the least to cause global warming but were bearing the brunt of its impacts, from more droughts and heatwaves to storms and wildfires.

The climate crisis is increasingly becoming a public health crisis, officials warned in New York this week, calling for better training, research, and resilience measures to tackle the twin priorities in the spotlight at the U.N. General Assembly.

Combating climate change and improving public health are key aims of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, as governments try to find a path forward on the 17 headline targets, with only 15% of them on track in a crisis-hit world.

Global tech giants are falling short on pledges to rein in and combat climate misinformation on their platforms, according to a new report calling for more political will to act on measures to curb the "spread of lies" that threaten climate action.

Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), a coalition of more than 50 advocacy groups and businesses, released the report on Wednesday as activists and business leaders joined Climate Week NYC, an event held alongside the U.N. General Assembly each year, and leaders laid out green plans at the U.N. chief's Climate Ambition Summit.

From public money for green banks, to efforts to combat gender-based violence, climate leaders across government, business and philanthropy, gathered in New York this week, are pushing new ways to steer vital finance toward combating the climate crisis.

Annual funding needs for meeting long-term climate goals are estimated to be in the trillions - but advocates and investors said it was important to start small and foster discussion with an eye to scaling innovations that help people on the ground.

World leaders will seek this week to salvage stalled global targets to fight issues such as hunger, poverty and climate change that have been knocked off course in recent years by the COVID pandemic and economic headwinds.

It is roughly halfway to the 2030 target to meet the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - agreed as a development yardstick in 2015 - but only 15% of the targets are on track, raising the stakes for a two-day SDG Summit starting on Monday.

With no end in sight to global warming and its dire effects for people and the planet, top United Nations officials next week are set to prod major polluters to boost their targets to cut emissions, including a faster transition away from fossil fuels.

The Climate Ambition Summit convened by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in New York on Sept. 20 aims to spotlight trailblazing climate action that goes beyond what countries have already pledged to do in their plans to meet targets under the 2015 Paris Agreement.

As the United States endures record temperatures, people working in tough conditions from farms to construction sites have little respite from the heat - and are often unable or afraid to take breaks despite the risks to their health and even their lives.

Extreme heat is the top weather-related killer in the nation - yet protections for workers are widely lacking, according to advocates who say that failing to ensure people can take breaks for water or shade will lead to more severe illness, and deaths.

U.S. colleges are confronting their past ties to slavery with public apologies, renamed buildings and scholarships for descendants - a push that could shape national efforts to tackle the thorny issue of reparations.

Five schools in Virginia are racing to comply with a pioneering state law requiring them to launch scholarships or economic programs, while Georgetown University recently doled out the first grants from a slavery "reconciliation fund."

The U.S. Labor Department has accepted nearly all processed claims for compensation from federal firefighters for diseases such as cancer since it began fast-tracking such applications last year.

The change is a major turnaround for firefighters who had campaigned for fixes for decades.