Renewable technologies like wind and solar power are, in most cases, cheaper than the fossil fuels that are driving climate change, but the world needs to prioritize the transformation of energy systems to renewable energy. The Climate Ambition Summit, scheduled for 20 September at UN Headquarters in New York, will consider how to accelerate this transformation….
Airborne contaminants are one of the most significant environmental health risks. According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), 99 per cent of the world’s population breathes polluted air, with the exposure significantly worse in low and middle-income countries. The pervasive nature of air pollution requires global collaboration. This year’s theme, Together for Clean Air, addresses the urgent…
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, stressed the urgency of addressing these challenges if the country is to move forward, recalling the 2022 anti-Government protests demanding a fairer and more inclusive society. “But the potential for a historic transformation that would address long-standing challenges is far from being realized.” The UN rights chief’s…
Other Russian strikes damaged schools and homes in the Zaporizhzhya region, and port and grain infrastructure in the Odesa region. “I am shattered by the news of a series of attacks that today, once again, have left a path of death and destruction in different parts of Ukraine,” Denise Brown, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine…
Tomoya Obokata, the Human Rights Council-appointed Special Rapporteur on the global scourge of modern slavery issued his statement at the end of a 14-day visit. He called on the Canadian Government to intensify its efforts to safeguard workers’ rights and offer a clear pathway to permanent residency for all migrants. Migrant workers at risk “I am deeply…
Hope Away from Home gets underway at a time of unprecedented, forced displacement. There are a staggering 110 million people displaced from their homes, and access to asylum and protection is under threat in various regions due to increasingly harsh policies. “People fleeing war, violence and persecution should be met with compassion and kindness, not…
The news came as the UN chief released a strongly worded statement on a record summer of global warming in the northern hemisphere, according to the European Union’s climate service Copernicus. Dog days bite back “Our planet has just endured a season of simmering – the hottest summer on record,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres,…
Forced to take the drastic measures citing a “massive funding shortfall”, WFP will only be able to provide emergency assistance to three million people per month across the country from October. “Amid already worrying levels of hunger and malnutrition, we are obliged to choose between the hungry and the starving, leaving millions of families scrambling for their…
The CMC 2023 report indicates that 1,172 people were killed or injured in 2022, which is the highest number since regular reporting started in 2010. Speaking to journalists in Geneva, Human Rights Arms Advocacy Director Mary Wareham, emphasised that 95 per cent of casualties reported were civilians. “It is unconscionable that civilians are still dying…
Secretary-General António Guterres was addressing the African Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, noting that despite “extreme heat, ferocious floods, and tens of thousands dead from devastating droughts”, the continent was responsible for less than four per cent of emissions. “The blow inflicted on development is all around with growing hunger and displacement”, he said. ‘Quantum…
