Cut methane emissions to avert global temperature rise, UN-backed study urges

6 May 2021
Climate and Environment
Unsplash/Daniel Moqvist

Methane emissions caused by human activity can be reduced by up to 45 per cent this decade, thus helping to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to a UN-backed report published on Thursday. 

Guterres renews zero-emissions appeal to avoid falling into climate abyss

Former LRA leader, ex-child soldier, sentenced to 25 years in prison

UN launches key initiative to protect seafarers’ human rights amid COVID-19 crisis

Latin America rights groups face growing threats, attacks: Bachelet

UN chief pledges to keep ‘memories alive’ of those who died in service during 2020

© UNICEF/Giovanni Diffidenti

Nearly 8 years on, ‘gaps, inconsistencies, discrepancies’ remain over Syria chemical weapons declaration

Peace and Security

The Security Council heard new evidence in longstanding international efforts to eradicate Syria’s chemical weapons programme on Thursday, including the results of an investigation into the possible of use of chlorine gas in the city of Saraqib in 2018, as the UN’s top disarmament official provided her regular briefing to ambassadors.

PAHO/Karen González

WHO chief hails ‘monumental moment’ in COVID fight, as US throws support behind vaccine patent waiver

Health

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said the commitment announced by the United States administration to lift vaccine patent protections to help boost global supply, was a “monumental moment” in the battle to end the deadly pandemic.

ICC-CPI/Pete Muller

FROM THE FIELD: Uganda conflict survivor helps communities find ‘ways forward’

Human Rights

A Ugandan man who avoided being drawn into a decades’ long conflict as a child soldier, is dedicating his adult life to healing communities which were impacted by his government’s fight with the rebel Lords Resistance Army (LRA).

UN News/Shirin Yaseen

USA: Rights expert decries wave of anti-protest laws ‘spreading through the country’

Human Rights

A UN independent human rights expert has slammed new laws in several American states aimed at suppressing racial justice protests and the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a statement on Wednesday. 

© WFP/Oluwaseun Oluwamuyiwa

155 million faced acute food insecurity in 2020, conflict the key driver

Humanitarian Aid

At least 155 million people faced crisis levels of food insecurity in 2020 because of conflict, extreme weather events and economic shocks linked in part to COVID-19, a UN-partnered flagship report said on Wednesday.  

Headlines at a glance

Early-warning ‘pandemic hub’ plan unveiled by WHO’s Tedros and Germany’s Merkel

Myanmar: Attacks on healthcare jeopardizing COVID-19 response, UN team says

UN report sounds alarm on acute global shortage of midwives

South Asia: ‘Real possibility’ health systems will be strained to a breaking point, UNICEF warns

Young people key to transforming world’s food systems

Joy in South Sudan, as schools reopen after 14-month COVID lockdown

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