Global

Jorge Montt Glacier, Southern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile. Photo: NASA
NASA

Climate experts pledge to scale up high-altitude fight against mountain melt

31 October 2019
Climate and Environment

The UN’s weather watchdog and partners committed on Thursday to a new initiative to ramp up observation and prediction technology that will help address the challenges of climate change, melting snow and ice, and water-related hazards.

Secretary-General António Guterres (at podium) delivers opening remarks at the 6th Istanbul Mediation Conference in Turkey on 31 October 2019.
UN Photo/Emrah Gruel

Syria’s groundbreaking constitutional talks: ‘a clear success of mediation’ says Guterres in Turkey

31 October 2019
Peace and Security

Mediation is “one of our most important tools to reduce and end conflict”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told the sixth Istanbul Mediation Conference, in Turkey's largest city on Thursday.

Changing the World: Innovations and Better Life for Future Generations, theme of World Cities Day 2019.
© UNESCO

As urbanization grows, cities unveil sustainable development solutions on World Day

31 October 2019
Culture and Education

Over half of the world’s population now live in cities, with numbers expected to double by 2050, but while urbanization poses serious challenges, cities can also be powerhouses for sustainable development; something the UN is spotlighting on World Cities Day, marked 31 October. 

 

Shipping companies are working towards sustainable maritime transport as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.
© MSC shipping

UN calls for shipping ‘propulsion revolution’ to avoid ‘environmental disaster’

30 October 2019
Climate and Environment

If emissions from the maritime industry are not cut, we are headed for “an environmental disaster”, Isabelle Durant, the deputy head of the UN trade body, UNCTAD, told the Global Maritime Forum summit on Wednesday.

Cordillera Huayhuash in August 2019. The Andes contain 99% of the world's tropical glaciers and 71% are in Peru.
UN News/Daniela Gross

UN summit tackles climate change-induced threat to mountain water supplies

29 October 2019
Climate and Environment

The world’s mountain and glacier regions are facing unprecedented challenges due to climate change, imposing a crippling effect on the people and economies that rely on them, the UN’s weather agency explained on Tuesday, ahead of a summit to address the world’s rapidly-changing water systems.  

Malawian peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) greet children while on patrol in August 2012.
ONUCI/Patricia Esteve

‘Real change’ involving women in peace and security, still too slow, Guterres tells Security Council

29 October 2019
Women

The Women Peace and Security agenda must continue to be “one of the top priorities of the United Nations”, Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Tuesday, in an open debate on how best to accelerate change.

UN staff retrieve historic films from the United Nations audiovisual archive. (file November 2004)
UN Photo/Mark Garten

UN spotlights digitization of audiovisual archives to preserve human history on World Day

27 October 2019
Culture and Education

On Sunday, marking the annual World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, the United Nations recognized the hard work of thousands of preservation experts, from librarians to archivists and caretakers, whose knowledge and devotion is helping ensure the world does not lose valuable history written on film, and in radio and television. 

In Ambon, Indonesia, a pregnant woman has a check-up at a local health centre.
© UNICEF

One-in-four pregnancies unplanned, two-thirds of women foregoing contraceptives 

25 October 2019
Women

Around two-thirds of sexually active women surveyed in a new UN study indicated that although they wished to avoid or postpone having children, they had stopped relying on contraception out of concern for how it was affecting their health. As a result, around a quarter of all pregnancies are unplanned. 

Hurricane Florence photographed from the International Space Station on 12 September, 2018.
ESA/NASA–A. Gerst

Thursday's Daily Brief: Syria latest, tech needs threaten life-saving weather forecasts, #UN75 birthday conversation begins, polio virus nears eradication

24 October 2019
Climate and Environment

A recap of Thurday's main stories: Wireless technology could block life-saving weather forecasts; UN gears up for 75th birthday dialogue; polio close to eradication; UN steps up northeast Syria aid; "unique opportunity" for end to Sudan-South Sudan border disputes.

Hurricane Dorian as seen from the International Space Station on 2 September 2019.
NASA

Lives at risk if wireless technology demands are not held in check: UN weather watchdog

24 October 2019
Climate and Environment

Amid growing competition for radio wave space due to new wireless technologies, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on Thursday called on governments to protect radio frequencies allocated to potentially life-saving weather forecasting services.