News stories by Umar Manzoor Shah

SRINAGAR, India, June 8 (IPS) - A new report has found that billions of dollars linked to illegal deforestation are flowing through global supply chains, with secrecy around land ownership and company records helping timber, soy, and beef products enter international markets unchecked.

SRINAGAR, India, May 27 (IPS) - Europe’s growing mountain of waste could become one of its most important sources of critical raw materials, according to a major new report that warns of rising geopolitical risks and growing global competition for minerals needed in the green and digital economy.

India has withdrawn its bid to host the 2028 United Nations climate summit, a move that indicates a recalibration of its global climate engagement even as it projects itself as a leader in renewable energy and climate action.

SRINAGAR, India, May 6 (IPS) - The First Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Santa Marta, Colombia, may eventually be remembered as a defining moment in global climate politics, not because it produced a treaty or a formal negotiation outcome, but because it changed the tone, structure, and ambition of the conversation itself.

SRINAGAR, India, April 30 (IPS) - A newly released United Nations report has raised urgent concerns that the world’s push toward clean energy and digital technologies is driving a hidden crisis in some of the planet’s most vulnerable regions, where mining for critical minerals is depleting water supplies, damaging health, and deepening inequality.

SRINAGAR, April 24 (IPS) - A high-stakes international summit in Colombia starting today (April 24) is expected to sharpen global efforts to phase out fossil fuels, as governments, scientists and Indigenous leaders warn that the world is running out of time to avert irreversible climate damage.

SRINAGAR, India, April 17 (IPS) - As war in the Middle East ripples through global markets, policymakers, economists, and industry leaders gathered in Washington this week to agree that economics is no longer separate from geopolitics. It is now its core instrument.

SRINAGAR, India, April 16 (IPS) - The Global Environment Facility, widely known as the GEF, plays a central role in financing environmental protection across the world. It supports developing countries in tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, pollution, and threats to ecosystems.

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 (IPS) - Professor Kaveh Madani of Iran has been named the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize laureate. The award will be formally presented by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in August during World Water Week in Stockholm.

GENEVA, Switzerland & SRINAGAR, India, March 23 (IPS) - The global climate system continued its alarming trajectory in 2025, with multiple indicators reaching record or near-record extremes, underscoring the accelerating pace of climate change and its cascading impacts on ecosystems and human societies, according to the latest State of the Global Climate 2025 report released by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).