Ahmedabad named host of Centenary Commonwealth Games 2030

Ahmedabad named host of Centenary Commonwealth Games 2030. Photo credit: IOA

Glasgow (Scotland), (IANS) Ahmedabad, India, has officially been confirmed as the host city for the Centenary Commonwealth Games in 2030, marking a historic milestone for the Commonwealth Sport Movement. This will be the second time that India will host the Commonwealth Games after New Delhi in 2010.

The decision confirms that the world’s most populous nation will host the landmark edition of the Games after delegates from 74 Commonwealth member nations and territories approved India’s bid at the Commonwealth Sport General Assembly in Glasgow on Wednesday.

India put forward a strong vision for the 2030 Games, with Ahmedabad, Gujarat, as the main host city. This plan builds on the groundwork laid by Glasgow 2026 and allows India to celebrate its centenary in a memorable way.

Moments after Amdavad was chosen to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, 20 Garba dancers and 30 Indian dhol drummers spontaneously performed in the General Assembly Hall. Their vibrant cultural display surprised delegates and offered a glimpse of the heritage and pride that athletes and fans can anticipate from a Games held in Gujarat, India.

Garba is Gujarat’s traditional folk dance. The performance included members of Glasgow’s Indian community and individuals from other parts of the Commonwealth. It showcased both diversity and unity as part of the Movement, marking the journey from the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games to its Centenary edition.

The inaugural Commonwealth Games took place in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada. At the latest Games in Birmingham, England, in 2022, Australia led the medal tally. The top five nations also included England, Canada, India, and New Zealand.

Donald Rukare, President of Commonwealth Sport, said, “This is the start of a new golden era for Commonwealth Sport. After a 'Games reset', we head to Glasgow 2026 in fantastic shape to welcome the 74 teams of the Commonwealth before setting our sights on Amdavad 2030 for a special Centenary edition of the Commonwealth Games.

“India brings scale, youth, ambition, rich culture, enormous sporting passion, and relevance, and I'm delighted to report strong interest from a range of nations to host the 2034 Games and beyond. We start our next century for the Commonwealth Games in good health.”

PT Usha, President of the Commonwealth Games Association of India, said, “We are deeply honoured by the trust shown by Commonwealth Sport. The 2030 Games will not only celebrate a hundred years of the Commonwealth Movement but also lay the foundation for the next century. It will bring together Athletes, communities, and cultures from across the Commonwealth in a spirit of friendship and progress.”

Aside from confirming the hosts for 2030, Commonwealth Sport also announced that 15 to 17 sports will be included at Amdavad 2030.

The Amdavad 2030 team will collaborate with Commonwealth Sport and the International Federation community to develop a vibrant and engaging sports programme that resonates locally while appealing globally.

This will follow Commonwealth Sport’s recent Sport Programme Review, which outlines the sports included in the Commonwealth Games: Athletics and Para Athletics, Swimming and Para Swimming, Table Tennis and Para Table Tennis, Bowls and Para Bowls, Weightlifting and Para Powerlifting, Artistic Gymnastics, Netball, and Boxing.

The process to finalise the remaining sports in the programme will begin next month, with the complete line-up for the Centenary Games being announced next year.

The sports being considered include: Archery, Badminton, 3x3 Basketball and 3x3 Wheelchair Basketball, Beach Volleyball, Cricket T20, Cycling, Diving, Hockey, Judo, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Rugby Sevens, Shooting, Squash, Triathlon, Para Triathlon, and Wrestling. The host may also suggest up to two new or existing sports.

Duncan Scott, multiple Commonwealth champion swimmer, said, “The Commonwealth Games are a special part of my career. Taking part in the home Games is incredible, so I’m excited for Indian Athletes who’ll get to do that in 2030. And for everyone else, we’ve got an opportunity to expand our horizons and experience the ambition and colour of Amdavad and India. I loved the chance to compete in the Gold Coast in Australia as part of a travelling Team Scotland.

“We look forward to handing over the Games to Amdavad in great shape after welcoming all to Glasgow next year.”

Jaismine Lamboria, World Champion Boxer from India, said, “It truly is a proud moment to see India become the host of the Centenary Commonwealth Games. Amdavad will give Athletes and fans a very warm and vibrant welcome, and having the opportunity to compete on home soil in 2030 will be a huge motivation for me and for many others. I’m excited for the next decade for Indian sport.”

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The world’s carbon emissions continue to rise. But 35 countries show progress in cutting carbon

Global fossil fuel emissions are projected to rise in 2025 to a new all-time high, with all sources – coal, gas, and oil – contributing to the increase.

At the same time, our new global snapshot of carbon dioxide emissions and carbon sinks shows at least 35 countries have a plan to decarbonise. Australia, Germany, New Zealand and many others have shown statistically significant declines in fossil carbon emissions during the past decade, while their economies have continued to grow. China’s emissions have also been been growing at a much slower pace than recent trends and might even be flat by year’s end.

As world leaders and delegates meet in Brazil for the United Nations’ global climate summit, COP30, many countries that have submitted new emissions commitments to 2035 have shown increased ambition.

But unless these efforts are scaled up substantially, current global temperature trends are projected to significantly exceed the Paris Agreement target that aims to keep warming well below 2°C.

These 35 countries are now emitting less carbon dioxide even as their economies grow. Global Carbon Project 2025, CC BY-NC-ND

Fossil fuel emissions up again in 2025

Together with colleagues from 102 research institutions worldwide, the Global Carbon Project today releases the Global Carbon Budget 2025. This is an annual stocktake of the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide worldwide.

We also publish the major scientific advances enabling us to pinpoint the global human and natural sources and sinks of carbon dioxide with higher confidence. Carbon sinks are natural or artificial systems such as forests which absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they release.

Global CO₂ emissions from the use of fossil fuels continue to increase. They are set to rise by 1.1% in 2025, on top of a similar rise in 2024. All fossil fuels are contributing to the rise. Emissions from natural gas grew 1.3%, followed by oil (up 1.0%) and coal (up 0.8%). Altogether, fossil fuels produced 38.1 billion tonnes of CO₂ in 2025.

Not all the news is bad. Our research finds emissions from the top emitter, China (32% of global CO₂ emissions) will increase significantly more slowly below its growth over the past decade, with a modest 0.4% increase. Emissions from India (8% of global) are projected to increase by 1.4%, also below recent trends.

However, emissions from the United States (13% of global) and the European Union (6% of global) are expected to grow above recent trends. For the US, a projected growth of 1.9% is driven by a colder start to the year, increased liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, increased coal use, and higher demand for electricity.

EU emissions are expected to grow 0.4%, linked to lower hydropower and wind output due to weather. This led to increased electricity generation from LNG. Uncertainties in currently available data also include the possibility of no growth or a small decline.

Fossil fuel emissions hit a new high in 2025, but the growth rate is slowing and there are encouraging signs from countries cutting emissions. Global Carbon Project 2025, CC BY-NC-ND

Drop in land use emissions

In positive news, net carbon emissions from changes to land use such as deforestation, degradation and reforestation have declined over the past decade. They are expected to produce 4.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2025 down from the annual average of 5 billion tonnes over the past decade. Permanent deforestation remains the largest source of emissions. This figure also takes into account the 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon soaked up by human-driven reforestation annually.

Three countries – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – contribute 57% of global net land-use change CO₂ emissions.

When we combine the net emissions from land-use change and fossil fuels, we find total global human-caused emissions will reach 42.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2025. This total has grown 0.3% annually over the past decade, compared with 1.9% in the previous one (2005–14).

Carbon sinks largely stagnant

Natural carbon sinks in the ocean and terrestrial ecosystems remove about half of all human-caused carbon emissions. But our new data suggests these sinks are not growing as we would expect.

The ocean carbon sink has been relatively stagnant since 2016, largely because of climate variability and impacts from ocean heatwaves.

The land CO₂ sink has been relatively stagnant since 2000, with a significant decline in 2024 due to warmer El Niño conditions on top of record global warming. Preliminary estimates for 2025 show a recovery of this sink to pre-El Niño levels.

Since 1960, the negative effects of climate change on the natural carbon sinks, particularly on the land sink, have suppressed a fraction of the full sink potential. This has left more CO₂ in the atmosphere, with an increase in the CO₂ concentration by an additional 8 parts per million. This year, atmospheric CO₂ levels are expected to reach just above 425 ppm.

Tracking global progress

Despite the continued global rise of carbon emissions, there are clear signs of progress towards lower-carbon energy and land use in our data.

There are now 35 countries that have reduced their fossil carbon emissions over the past decade, while still growing their economy. Many more, including China, are shifting to cleaner energy production. This has led to a significant slowdown of emissions growth.

Existing policies supporting national emissions cuts under the Paris Agreement are projected to lead to global warming of 2.8°C above preindustrial levels by the end of this century.

This is an improvement over the previous assessment of 3.1°C, although methodological changes also contributed to the lower warming projection. New emissions cut commitments to 2035, for those countries that have submitted them, show increased mitigation ambition.

This level of expected mitigation falls still far short of what is needed to meet the Paris Agreement goal of keeping warming well below 2°C.

At current levels of emissions, we calculate that the remaining global carbon budget – the carbon dioxide still able to be emitted before reaching specific global temperatures (averaged over multiple years) – will be used up in four years for 1.5°C (170 gigatonnes remaining), 12 years for 1.7°C (525 Gt) and 25 years for 2°C (1,055 Gt).

Falling short

Our improved and updated global carbon budget shows the relentless global increase of fossil fuel CO₂ emissions. But it also shows detectable and measurable progress towards decarbonisation in many countries.

The recovery of the natural CO₂ sinks is a positive finding. But large year-to-year variability shows the high sensitivity of these sinks to heat and drought.

Overall, this year’s carbon report card shows we have fallen short, again, of reaching a global peak in fossil fuel use. We are yet to begin the rapid decline in carbon emissions needed to stabilise the climate.The Conversation

Pep Canadell, Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Environment; Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO; Clemens Schwingshackl, Senior Researcher in Climate Science, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich; Corinne Le Quéré, Royal Society Research Professor of Climate Change Science, University of East Anglia; Glen Peters, Senior Researcher, Center for International Climate and Environment Research - Oslo; Judith Hauck, Helmholtz Young Investigator group leader and deputy head, Marine Biogeosciences section at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Universität Bremen; Julia Pongratz, Professor of Physical Geography and Land Use Systems, Department of Geography, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich; Mike O'Sullivan, Lecturer in Mathematics and Statistics, University of Exeter; Pierre Friedlingstein, Chair, Mathematical Modelling of Climate, University of Exeter, and Robbie Andrew, Senior Researcher, Center for International Climate and Environment Research - Oslo

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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World Boxing Cup Finals: Minakshi, Preeti, Arundhati, Nupur win gold as Indian women shine bright on historic final day


IANS Photo

Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh), (IANS): Minakshi (48kg), Preeti (54kg), Arundhati Choudhary (70kg), and Nupur (80+kg) powered to gold medals as India’s women boxers delivered riches on a landmark day for the nation at the World Boxing Cup Finals 2025 in front of a packed house at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex.

Their triumphs came in several key divisions that will feature at the 2028 Olympic Games—where boxing moves to full gender parity—highlighting India’s growing competitive strength on the road to Los Angeles.

Their dominant performances capped a remarkable campaign for the host nation, which also saw Jadumani Singh, Pawan Bartwal, Abhinash Jamwal, and Ankush Phangal finish with well-earned silver medals, underlining India’s rising stature across both men’s and women’s Olympic-class weight categories.. Seven more Indians will be fighting for gold in Session 7, including reigning World Champion Jaismine Lamboira, two-time former World Champion Nikhat Zareen, and dual World Boxing Cup medalist Hitesh Gulia.

Minakshi set the tone for the day with a near-flawless 5:0 win over reigning Asian Champion Farzona Fozilova, unleashing her trademark aggression from the opening bell. The World Champion combined speed with razor-sharp accuracy, cracking open the bout with a blistering left–right combination in Round 1 and maintaining complete control through assertive jabs, clean counters, and airtight defence.

Preeti followed with another dominant 5:0 performance, overpowering Italy’s World Championship medallist Sirine Charrabi with relentless pressure. She repeatedly drove Charrabi into the corner, landing crisp face punches and dictating the tempo through superior footwork and sustained attacking bursts.

Arundhati Choudhary—former Youth World Champion—delivered one of the day’s most complete performances, dismantling Uzbekistan’s Aziza Zokirova with a commanding 5:0 win. Returning after 18 months, she blended sharp offence with disciplined defence, scoring heavily with decisive jabs and maintaining total tactical control across all three rounds. The gold surge continued as Nupur edged Uzbekistan’s Sotimboeva Oltinoy 3:2 in a tense, tactical showdown.In the men’s finals, India picked four silver medals. Jadumani Singh (50kg) fought with heart but fell 1:4 to Uzbekistan’s Asilbek Jalilov, while Pawan Bartwal (55kg), who had produced one of the tournament’s biggest upsets earlier in the week, went down to Samandar Olimov. Abhinash Jamwal (65kg) lost a spirited contest 1:4 to Japan’s seasoned Shion Nishiyama, and Ankush Phangal (80kg) was bested by England’s defending World Cup champion Shittu Oladimeji. World Boxing Cup Finals: Minakshi, Preeti, Arundhati, Nupur win gold as Indian women shine bright on historic final day | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
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