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News in Brief 21 March 2022

News in Brief 21 March 2022

This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Ukraine: Chernobyl staff finally leave stricken plant

At Ukraine’s stricken Chernobyl nuclear plant, staff that have been working there non-stop since the Russian invasion, have finally been able to return home.

The development on Monday followed deep concern expressed over staff welfare there, by Mario Grossi, head of the UN atomic energy agency, IAEA.

In a statement on Sunday, Mr. Grossi said that they’d been carrying out their important work “under immensely stressful and tiring conditions in the presence of foreign military forces and without proper rest”.

Staying with Ukraine, the UN rights office (OHCHR) has reported that more than 900 civilians have been confirmed killed and nearly 1,500 injured, since the Russian attack.

Most of the victims were hit by shelling from heavy artillery, multiple rocket launch systems, missiles and air strikes, although the true figure is likely far higher, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in its latest update.

Getting verifiable information about reports of numerous civilian casualties is proving difficult from many Ukrainian cities and regions which are still being pounded by Russian shelling, OHCHR stressed.

North Korea’s grip on population has tightened since COVID

In Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), more commonly known as North Korea, human rights violations remain systematic and the authorities’ grip on the population has “tightened”, the Human Rights Council heard on Monday.

The forum’s UN-appointed independent expert Tomas Quintana, reported that the situation had worsened because of COVID-19 prevention measures, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis.

“Chronic food insecurity continues to be widespread in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, with the numbers of food insecure people consistently above 10 million, representing over 40 per cent of the country’s population.”

Prolonged border closures and restrictions on movement have shut down markets that many people use to get the basics, the rights expert warned.

He also highlighted the policy of shooting individuals who attempt to enter or leave the country without permission, in reference to buffer zones set up on the border with China and Russia.

The DPRK delegation was present at the Human Rights Council but declined to respond to the report.

World’s 1.5 degrees goal on life support, warns Guterres

Climate issues now, and a warning to the world’s richest nations from UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday that the target of keeping global temperatures to within 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels is “on life support”.

The problem is and has always been the “enormous emissions gap” that’s created in the main by industrialised countries, Mr. Guterres told The Economist Sustainability Summit, in a fresh appeal to achieve a 45 per cent reduction in global emissions by 2030 – and carbon neutrality by 2050.

“Last year alone, global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by six per cent to their highest levels in history. Coal emissions have surged to record highs. We are sleepwalking to climate catastrophe.”

Mr. Guterres told the Summit that the planet has already warmed by as much as 1.2 degrees, and that climate disasters in 2020 had forced 30 million people from their homes.

He urged developed countries, development banks and the private sector to unite, to deliver green technology to emerging economies that are so reliant on coal for their energy.

And as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues to unfold, Mr. Guterres also warned against any short-term measures that countries were considering, as an alternative to Russian fossil fuels.

These stop-gap policies would only “close the window” to the 1.5 degree target, the UN Secretary-General insisted, in a call to massively increase climate finance, to the tune of trillions of dollars.

Daniel Johnson, UN News.

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  • Ukraine: Chernobyl staff finally leave stricken plant

  • North Korea’s grip on population has tightened since COVID

  • World’s 1.5 degrees goal on life support, warns Guterres

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Daniel Johnson, UN News - Geneva
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