That was the strong message from President of the Western Pacific nation of Palau Surangel Whipps speaking at an Interactive Dialogue on Wednesday during the Fourth International Conference on SIDS (SIDS4), taking place this week on the twin island of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean. He told delegates there needed to be a “transition…
The SIDS Global Children and Youth Action Summit taking place this weekend on the University of the West Indies campus of the beautiful island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, which is hosting SIDS4, bonded together 80 or so young people from all three official SIDS regions – the Caribbean, Pacific and AIS (Indian Ocean and South…
Denise Brown said civilian lives must be protected during conflict by all sides, but in Kharkiv in recent days, they have instead been targeted in their homes, with businesses and transport links damaged and attacked. “My thoughts are with the families who have lost their loved ones due to the strikes,” she said, adding that…
The World Health Organization (WHO) study, conducted in partnership with Reaching the Last Mile (RLM), a global health initiative to eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), found that rising temperatures and changing weather patterns are altering the spread of vector-borne diseases, posing significant health risks. As the geographical spread of disease vectors like mosquitoes expand, the…
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that as erratic weather on the back of the worsening climate crisis “becomes the norm”, things will only get worse. This month’s unusually high rainfall followed a dry winter, rendering the ground too hard to absorb water, leading to massive flooding. Unseasonably warm temperatures further complicated the situation…
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) attributed the temperatures to a “double whammy” of El Niño and long-term climate change, leading to droughts and wildfires, combined with extreme rainfall and hurricanes. “Unfortunately, 2023 was a year of record climatic hazards in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said the agency’s head, Celeste Saulo. “El Niño conditions during…
Small island developing States are particularly vulnerable to climate change consequences, such as rising sea levels and heavy rains that cause flooding, increasing ocean temperatures that affect coral reefs and fishing and frequent hurricanes destroying homes and livelihoods. These countries often suffer from fragile economic conditions and don’t have the means to help their citizens…
The newly established Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals brings together a diverse group of governments, organisations and UN bodies to develop a set of common and voluntary principles to protect environmental and social standards aimed at embedding justice in the energy transition. “A world powered by renewables is a world hungry for critical minerals,”…
Following close on the heels of the study of climate change in Europe, published by WMO on Monday, the State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlighted the accelerating rate of climate change across several indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat, sea level rise and more. “The report’s conclusions are sobering. Many countries in the…
The Climate Promise 2025 aims to accelerate efforts from local to international levels to take more ambitious steps to ensure the global temperature does not heat up beyond the 1.5° limit, a goal set with the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the initiative, driven by the UN Development Programme (UNDP),…
