Schools in South Africa have been designating students as “eco-warriors” as part of an initiative supported by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), to drive environmental and climate change awareness amongst the young and old in their communities.
Thursday’s top stories: food security risk from climate crisis, fresh violence threat for millions of Syrians, UN chief urges “maximum restraint” in Jammu and Kashmir, calls for investigations into “brutal abduction” of Libyan politician.
African farmers need help to cope with the threats of climate change, with national policies that protect them and make them resilient, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, has declared, following a major conference on food security in the continent.
Global warming and rising political tensions are dangerous and avoidable, Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters on Thursday, previewing the UN’s upcoming Climate Action Summit, and spotlighting geopolitical hotspots.
Can young coders help solve the climate crisis? The UN’s Youth Envoy launched a global competition earlier this month, “Reboot The Earth”, with support from the UN Office of Information & Communications Technology, Deloitte and SAP, to try and answer that question, fostering collaboration between the United Nations, academia, civil society, and young people to address the climate emergency.
Heavy rainfall, severe flooding and landslides across Nepal, India and Bangladesh have killed at least 93 children, and put the lives of millions more at risk, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which is “responding urgently”.
Heavy carbon dioxide emitters should “take on greater responsibility” to address climate change, the head of China’s Xiamen Airlines told the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in New York on Friday.
Arriving in Mozambique to express solidarity and see for himself the damage wrought by two back-to-back cyclones earlier this year, UN chief António Guterres on Thursday said “undeniable moral authority” lay with its people, who had borne the brunt of a disaster linked inexorably to climate change, and a warming world.
The global response to realizing poverty and environmental goals agreed by world leaders in 2015 has not been “ambitious enough” according to the UN Secretary-General.
To counter global challenges that are a particular threat to vulnerable island nations like those in the Caribbean, it’s vital to “face the headwinds together”, especially in the face of the destruction being wrought by climate change, the UN chief told the annual Caribbean Community (CARICOM) conference in Saint Lucia on Wednesday.
