Asia Pacific

India still faces significant hurdles in addressing climate change, pollution, and inequality. While India has made significant progress in reducing extreme poverty (Goal 1) and improving infrastructure (Goal 9), it lags behind in areas such as quality education (Goal 4), gender equality (Goal 5), and environmental sustainability (Goals 13, 14, and 15).

Nearly half of PM2.5 pollution in the worst-affected countries comes from the burning of fossil fuels, biomass, and agricultural waste – also major contributors to climate change. As extreme weather events worsen due to climate change, air pollution is expected to become an even greater threat, UNICEF warned.

The sogo shoshas have played a crucial role in Japan’s industrial and economic development. However, the environmental advocacy group, Market Forces, says that these corporations continued investment in liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and gas power plants contradicts global decarbonisation efforts.

Pakistan can see the writing on the wall and knows that it must refrain from using the heyday of the alliance during the early years of the Cold War as the baseline because that world no longer exists. More importantly, Pakistan is no longer the same.

Sri Lanka's initiatives, coupled with a focus on multi-sectoral policies, reflect a progressive approach to addressing mental health risks across the life course.

Vanuatu is emblematic of the cascading disasters that Pacific Island nations increasingly endure, where frequent earthquakes intersect with the escalating impacts of climate-induced hazards such as cyclones, rising sea levels, and coastal erosion accompanied by staggering loss and damage experienced by vulnerable populations and ecosystems.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines ordered restrictions on health workers moving abroad, a move that was strongly criticised by health unions in the country.

At the ICJ hearing, Ammar Hijazi, Ambassador of Palestine to International Organisations in The Hague, linked the relationship between climate change and emissions during armed conflict.