Climate and Environment

A farmer works in a rice field in Bagré, Burkina Faso.
© FAO/Alessandra Benedetti

Free up ‘bottlenecks’ stifling Africa’s agri-food sector, urges FAO chief 

10 May 2021
Africa

The UN agriculture chief warned on Monday that severe underfunding of Africa’s agri-food sector has boosted food insecurity and was hampering the future development of countries across the continent. 

Arctic terns nest at Jökulsárlón in Iceland.
Jakub Fryš

Climate change threatens winged harbinger of spring

7 May 2021
Global

A sure sign of spring in northern Europe is the arrival of the Arctic tern bird, but ahead of the UN’s World Migratory Bird Day  experts fear the warming of the oceans in its nesting grounds in the northern Atlantic is threatening its very existence. 

National governments are the main drivers of change to reduce harmful emissions.
Unsplash/Daniel Moqvist

Cut methane emissions to avert global temperature rise, UN-backed study urges

6 May 2021
Global

Methane emissions caused by human activity can be reduced by up to 45 per cent this decade, thus helping to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to a UN-backed report published on Thursday. 

Peatland forests like this one in central Kalimantan, Indonesia, can store harmful carbon dioxide gasses.
CIFOR/Nanang Sujana

Guterres renews zero-emissions appeal to avoid falling into climate abyss

6 May 2021

All countries should commit to zero carbon emissions by 2050 if the world is to avoid a disastrous 2.4 degree Celsius temperature rise by the end of this century, UN Secretary General António Guterres said on Thursday.