Climate and Environment

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres (c) at the Mahatma Gandhi International Sanitation Convention on 2 October 2018. New Delhi, India.
UN India/Vishal Singh

UN chief commends India’s progress towards Sustainable Development Goals

2 October 2018
Asia Pacific

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday praised India’s progress on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular the pursuit of Sanitation for All and Affordable and Clean Energy, which featured heavily during day-two of his official visit to the country.

A 15-year old girl is rescued from the rubble of her house in central Sulawesi on 30 September 2018.
© UNICEF/Tirto.id/@Arimacswilander

UN system mobilizing to support Indonesia, following earthquake and tsunami disaster

1 October 2018
Asia Pacific

Rescue workers are still trying to reach areas of Sulawesi in Indonesia affected by an earthquake and tsunami, UN humanitarians said on Monday, noting that more than 840 people have died and more than 600 have been severely injured in the disaster.

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States of the Holy See, addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

‘The world we have received also belongs to those who will follow us,’ Holy See tells UN Assembly

1 October 2018
Global

The quality of a civilization, depends on how it treats the weak, the indigent, the elderly, the persons with disability, and by the place it gives them in community life, the representative of the Holy See told the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, urging everyone to value all human life and human dignity.

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

Scientists from UN-run climate change panel to present key global warming report for world leaders

1 October 2018

Scientists from the United Nations-run Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and representatives from its 195 member governments, are meeting in South Korea, to reach agreement over a key summary for policymakers into the impact of a 1.5 degree Celsius increase in global warming, above pre-industrial levels.

Foreign Minister Francine Baron of the Commonwealth of Dominica addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

Tackling climate change is ‘global responsibility of our time,’ Dominica Foreign Minister tells UN Assembly

29 September 2018
Americas

Climate change results from “an economic calculus” that pushes global destruction, Francine Baron, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Dominica told the United Nations Assembly on Saturday, stressing that “it must be accepted as the responsibility of our time.”

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías

On Day four of UN Assembly debate, leaders from vulnerable island States turn out in force to plead for climate action

28 September 2018

From the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, leaders from island States most threatened by global warming took the podium of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, the fourth day of its annual general debate, to plead for increased aid to resolve a problem not of their making and call for reform of a financial quirk that punishes them for the progress they make.

A 16-year-old child swims in the flooded area of Aberao village in Kiribati. The Pacific island is one of the countries worst affected by sea-level rise.
UNICEF/Sokhin

Pacific Islands on the front line of climate change: UN chief

28 September 2018
Asia Pacific

The concerns of the Pacific Islands, on the front line of climate change, are at the heart of the United Nations work, said Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday, at a meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), an intergovernmental organization, which holds UN Observer status.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

At UN, Jamaica urges partnerships to tackle climate impacts, economic fragility in small islands

27 September 2018
Americas

Galvanizing an effective global fundraising campaign to address climate change and achieve sustainable economic growth is key for small island developing States, Andrew Holness, Prime Minister of Jamaica, told world leaders at the seventy-third United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

At UN, St. Vincent and Grenadines’ Prime Minister eschews ‘illiberal intolerance,’ calls for global cooperation; multilateralism

27 September 2018
Americas

The world is at a “decisive crossroads,” Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, told leaders gathered for the United Nations General Assembly’s annual debate on Thursday.

King Tupou VI of the Kingdom of Tonga addresses the seventy-third session of the United Nations General Assembly.
UN Photo/Cia Pak

At UN, Pacific Island leaders warn climate change poses dire security threat to their fragile countries and marine resources

26 September 2018
Asia Pacific

Ensuring Sustainable development and surmounting the ‘devastating impacts’ of climate change were on the top of the agenda at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, where King Tupou VI of Tonga was joined by a host of other Pacific Island leaders calling for action on what they saw as “the defining issue of our time”.