Jack Graham

World leaders will soon gather in Belem, Brazil, for the U.N. COP30 climate summit, ready to negotiate everything from the future of tropical forests to the global energy transition.

While Donald Trump's return to the presidency has seen the United States withdraw from international climate commitments, countries are under pressure to ramp up action as the World Meteorological Organization warns of more record temperatures.

Guyana, a country of just 800,000 people, would not expect to hit the headlines during New York's annual U.N. General Assembly and parallel events of the city's climate week.

But Guyana's new-found oil wealth has pushed the small South American country into the spotlight.

The health impacts of a plastic pollution crisis are costing the world $1.5 trillion each year in economic losses, according to new research from the Lancet medical journal.

From heart problems to infectious diseases, plastics are devastating human health and the environment as production continues to soar and is expected to increase 2-1/2 times by 2060 compared to 2022, said the Lancet's monitoring system, called the Countdown on health and plastics.

Heatwaves have broken records around the world this year, with warnings issued across the United States and temperatures endangering lives across southern Europe.

In June, millions of Americans sweltered as temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). In early July, Europe was gripped by a heatwave that meteorologists said was "exceptional" because it struck so early in the year.

The United States has signed a deal with Ukraine for preferential access to its critical minerals, with Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskiy mending relations after months of tense negotiations.

With Trump working to secure a peace settlement in Russia's three-year war in Ukraine, the United States will also fund investment in Ukraine's reconstruction while providing no debt obligations under the agreement.

On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump declared a "national energy emergency" with a plan to boost oil and gas production and withdrawing the United States from a global pact to fight global warming.

With an inauguration speech and series of executive orders signalling a dramatic departure from his predecessor, President Joe Biden, Trump in his second term as U.S. president is expected to have a major impact on climate action at home and abroad.

At the U.N. COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, one issue is dominating proceedings: money.

Countries are tasked with agreeing a new financial goal to help developing nations tackle climate change, a figure U.N. agencies say should reach $1 trillion a year by the end of the decade.

As the evening rush hour descends upon Nairobi, Kenyan motorcycle taxi driver Kariuki Mwangi skilfully weaves through the congestion on his electric bike, acutely aware that a quiet revolution is humming beneath him.

His emissions-free two-wheeler is at the forefront of a movement sweeping across several African cities, where ambitious initiatives are propelling the shift towards cleaner public transport.

The scale of the challenges facing the world in tackling climate change and protecting nature are not modest, from transforming how we power our lives to reversing deforestation.

Jeffrey Bezos, the Amazon founder and world's second-richest man, used a small slice of his fortune to create the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund in 2020 to find and scale solutions.

He's not in the room but he's the talk of the town.

As delegates scuttle round COP29 climate talks in Baku, President-elect Donald Trump is the name on everyone's lips.