With more than 7,000 delegates from 182 UN Member States and more than 170 ministers participating in Nairobi, UNEA-6 adopted a package of action plans, from promoting sustainable lifestyles to the sound management of chemicals and waste and sand and dust storms, issuing calls for immediate steps to rein in overconsumption and take smarter, greener steps towards sustainability. “The…
“Your efforts are urgent,” he said in a video message to the sixth edition of the UN Environmental Assembly (UNEA-6). “Our planet is on the brink, ecosystems are collapsing, our climate is imploding, and humanity is to blame.” Action now The UNEA is the world’s highest decision-making body on the environment and aims to help restore…
Mr. Stiell’s strong message to government negotiators comes as the latest UN climate conference, running in the UAE’s main city, Dubai, since last Thursday, reaches the halfway mark with agreement on financing for climate adaptation and the fate of fossil fuels still up in the air. “All governments must give their negotiators clear marching orders”. …
Will COP28 go down in history as a turning point for climate action? The world’s largest climate gathering under way in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will identify what more needs to be done to reach Paris Agreement targets set in 2015 and set the agenda for years to come. UN chief António Guterres has said…
Ahead of the first ever ‘Health Day’ at a UN climate conference, delegates signed onto a new declaration on climate and health and separately considered the role of digital technology can play in climate action. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed the new declaration, which aims to help accelerate actions to protect people from…
The Global Drought Snapshot report, released by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) on Friday, coinciding with COP 28, paint a grim picture of the scale of lives and livelihoods lost to droughts. Ibrahim Thiaw, UNCCD Executive Secretary, emphasized the urgency of the situation. “Unlike other disasters that attract media attention, droughts happen silently,…
The UN chief delivered his impassioned appeal at the high-level opening of the Global Climate Action Summit, which will see world leaders and Heads of State and Government taking centre stage for the next two days in the Al Waha Theatre in Dubai’s iconic Expo City. Warning that “humanity’s fate is hanging in the balance”,…
While 2023 is not yet over, a provisional report from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that it is set to be the warmest on record, with global temperatures rising 1.4 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Mr. Guterres said that the race is on to keep alive the 1.5-degree limit agreed by world leaders…
The latest update from UN aid coordination office OCHA indicated that two hospitals in Gaza City, Al Ahli and As Sahaba, had received a total of 10,500 litres of fuel, which is enough to operate their generators for about seven days. But humanitarians have warned that despite the pause in fighting, much more aid is…
António Guterres is in Antarctica this week, where he saw first-hand how climate change is impacting the world’s southernmost continent, which is mostly covered in ice. The heat is on “Fossil fuel pollution is heating our planet, unleashing climate anarchy in Antarctica,” said Mr. Guterres, adding that the Southern Ocean has taken the majority of…
