Climate and Environment

A resident of the National Tapajos Forest in Brazil collects wild foliage for preparing a meal.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Forests ‘essential’ for the future, UN agriculture chief spells out in new report

6 July 2018
Global

Time is running out for the world’s forests, warns a new report by the United Nations agriculture agency, urging governments to foster an all-inclusive approach to benefit both trees and those who rely on them.

Fisherwomen like Falmata Mboh Ali (right) hard at work on Lake Chad, which has shrunk to a tenth of its original size over the past decades leaving dwindling stocks of fish.
UN News/Dan Dickinson

Fisherwomen of Lake Chad show optimism in face of multiple challenges

5 July 2018
Africa

It’s eight o’clock in the morning and fifty-year-old Falmata Mboh Ali paddles her small dugout canoe to the shores of a tributary of Lake Chad in Bol, a small town 100 miles north of the capital of Chad, N’Djamena.

In cities like Beijing in China, smog has become a major health issue.
WMO/Alfred Lee

UN agencies join forces against environmental risks that cause 12.6 million deaths a year

31 May 2018
Global

Two United Nations agencies are combining their expertise to counter the growing threat of extreme weather, climate change and air pollution, which cause more than 12.6 million deaths a year, it was announced on Thursday.

Coral reef ecosystems house 25 per cent of all marine life, feeding hundreds of millions of people. A healthy reef at Molinere Bay, Marine Protected Area in Grenada.
Kadir van Lohuizen/NOOR/UNEP

Rich variety of life on earth essential says UN chief Guterres, marking biological diversity day

21 May 2018
Global

The welfare and prosperity of people now and in the future, depends on a “rich variety of life on earth” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in his message for the International Day for Biological Diversity, marked on Tuesday. 

Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor). The Asian and southern African populations are partially migratory, with many making regular movements from their breeding sites inland to coastal wetlands when not breeding.
Mark Anderson

Save our planet by protecting migratory birds and their ‘epic journeys,’ urges UN chief

11 May 2018
Global

As they make their global journeys, migratory birds not only set birdwatchers’ binoculars agog, they also help the planet maintain its essential ecological balance.

Dohuk, Iraq, Sharia camp. Some Arab countries have experienced temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius over the past years. (file)
OCHA/Gwen McClure

Hottest April day ever recorded - maybe: UN weather watchdog

4 May 2018
Global

Deadly storms in India and record temperatures in Pakistan are an indication that more extreme weather events are happening globally owing to climate change, United Nations weather experts said on Friday.

The African grey parrot, one of most trafficked birds in the world.
Photo: CITES

Major reports on biodiversity, ecosystem services to be launched at UN-backed meeting in Medellin

15 March 2018
Global

With our planet’s flora and fauna facing unprecedented threats, science and policy experts are set to gather next week in Medellin, Colombia, for a United Nations-backed meeting to consider five landmark reports aiming to inform better decisions by Governments, businesses and even individuals on biodiversity, and issues of land degradation and restoration.

Child drinks water from a water-pipe. (file)
Imal Hashemi/Taimani Films/World Bank

UN-World Bank panel calls for ‘fundamental shift’ in water management

14 March 2018
Global

With 700 million people worldwide at risk of being displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030, water infrastructure investment must be at least doubled over the next five years, a panel set up by the United Nations and the World Bank recommended on Wednesday.