The livestock industry is responsible for a staggering amount of greenhouse gas emissions, with a single beef burger taking up to 450 gallons of water to produce. The UN is ramping up awareness on the issue, and two companies who make “plant-based meat”, were recently named “Champions of the Earth” by UNEP. Conor Lennon from UN News went along to see how the new generation of meat-free meals are going down with the notoriously hard-to-please burger-loving public of New York City.

What’s it really like to be a victim of child trafficking?  The founders of non-profit, Street Art for Mankind, that fights child trafficking using art from around the globe, are trying to provide the answer. For this latest edition of our UN News Lid is On podcast, Natalie Hutchison went along to find out more.

For this special edition of our Lid Is On podcast, the head of our UN News Arabic unit, Reem Abaza, reports from the Al-Shifa Hospital, where dozens of victims of violence are undergoing often years of treatment, in the face of cutbacks and funding crises.

This week’s episode of our podcast series, The Lid Is On, comes to you on World Cities Day, which was launched in 2014 to emphasize the world’s urban challenges.

We’ll find out what the UN is doing to influence the way cities grow and develop, and we’ll discover how community gardens are an effective, and low-cost way to build stronger neighbourhoods.