his is the News in Brief, from the United Nations.

We’re on a ‘highway to climate hell’ warns UN chief at COP27

“The clock is ticking”, and humankind is currently losing “the fight of our lives” said the UN Secretary-General on Monday, addressing delegates on the first day of COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference, in Egypt.

António Guterres warned that “we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator."

He said the planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible and that any hope of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees means achieving global net zero emissions by 2050.

He called on all G20 countries to act now and said that developed countries must take the lead.

The Secretary-General called for a Climate Solidarity Pact between developed and emerging economies, which would see wealthier countries and international financial institutions providing support to help emerging economies speed up the transition to clean energy.

Mr. Guterres said that the two largest economies – the US and China – have a particular responsibility to make the Pact a reality, adding that humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish.

Early warnings action plan against extreme weather launched at COP27

Meanwhile, an ambitious plan to warn everyone on the planet about increasingly extreme and dangerous weather has been launched at COP27.

The Early Warnings for All action plan, drawn up by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), will cost the equivalent of just 50 cents per person per year for the next five years.

It aims to provide information to anticipate storms, heatwaves, floods and droughts and warn those who will be affected ahead of a disaster.

Between 2023 and 2027, the Early Warnings for All initiative would cost around $ 3.1 billion, a sum that would be dwarfed by the benefits as increasing calamities cost lives and hundreds of billions of dollars in loss and damage.

Israel-Palestine: Witnesses give testimony to UN human rights investigators

Witnesses have begun giving evidence of human rights violations committed against Palestinian human rights organizations and on the killing of a Palestinian-American journalist at a UN Commission of Inquiry in Geneva.

Their testimony is the first time that the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, has held public hearings.

They will focus on the closure orders and terrorism designation of a number of Palestinian human rights organizations, and on the killing of the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed whilst covering a raid on the Jenin Refugee camp in the West Bank in May this year.

The Commission, which sits until Friday, will hear from victims, witnesses, civil society organizations and legal representatives.

Nicki Chadwick, UN News.