Climate and Environment

A farmer in the Philippines inspects his rice crop after a flood. Increased flooding is expected due to climate change.
World Bank/Nonie Reyes

COP25: Global investors urge countries to meet climate action goals

9 December 2019
Global

More than 630 investors who collectively manage over $37 trillion in assets are calling on governments across the world to step up action to address climate change and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. 

A seven-year old boy stands in front of debris as Hurricane Irma moves off from the northern coast of the Dominican Republic.
© UNICEF/UN0119399/

Rise in Caribbean children displaced by storms shows climate crisis is a child rights issue: UNICEF

6 December 2019
Americas

The number of Caribbean children displaced by storms has risen approximately six-fold in the past five years, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reveals in a new report released on Friday. 

A woman selling flowers in Vietnam's tourist-laden Hanoi wears a mask to mitigate breathing in polluted air.
UN News/Elizabeth Scaffidi

Greener tourism: Greater collaboration needed to tackle rising emissions

4 December 2019
Global

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is calling for enhanced cooperation between the transport and tourism sectors to combat climate change.

Humanitarian workers provide food rations to refugee at the Lóvua settlement in Angola. (March 2018)
© UNHCR/Omotola Akindipe

Wednesday’s Daily Brief: 2020 humanitarian plan, malaria latest, greener tourism, people key to SDGs, Fall Armyworm

4 December 2019
Global

A recap of Wednesday’s stories: A record number of people will need humanitarian aid in 2020; WHO calls for more funding to protect women and children from malaria; the transport and tourism sectors are urged to tackle carbon emissions; a group of rights experts want to see more people helping make the SDGs a reality; Fall Armyworm pest sparks new global action plan; and how the UN is helping impoverished landlocked nations develop.

A mother and her baby sit in an ambulance at an accommodation centre in Beira, Mozambique, where her 2-year-old daughter is being treated for malaria.
© UNICEF/James Oatway

Only one in five countries has a healthcare strategy to deal with climate change

3 December 2019

Protecting people’s health from climate change dangers such as heat stress, storms and tsunamis has never been more important, yet most countries are doing too little about it, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Waste pickers sort through a garbage dump in India.
UNDP

FROM THE FIELD: India’s plastic waste revolution

2 December 2019
Asia Pacific

The recycling of plastic waste in India is boosting the incomes of impoverished women and helping build roads and fire cement furnaces, thanks to support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 

A windmill park on the outskirts of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania is aimed at giving more people access to renewable energy sources.
UNDP Mauritania/Freya Morales

COP25: UN climate change conference, 5 things you need to know

1 December 2019
Global

Climate change is happening—the world is already 1.1°C warmer than it was at the onset of the industrial revolution, and it is already having a significant impact on the world, and on people’s lives. And if current trends persist, then global temperatures can be expected to rise by 3.2 to 3.9°C this century, which would bring wide-ranging and destructive climate impacts.

A member of the World Health Organization's (WHO) team tackling the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo travels by helicopter to Butembo in the east of the country in January 2019.
WHO/Lindsay Mackenzie

Friday’s Daily Brief: violence in DR Congo, protester deaths in Iraq, human rights in Colombia, climate change conference, ‘high human cost’ of Ecuador unrest  

29 November 2019

A recap of Friday’s stories in brief: attacks on communities in an Ebola outbreak hotspot in eastern DRC sparks a humanitarian crisis; Guterres expresses concerns at continued protester deaths in Iraq; UN-appointed panel raises concerns about violence against indigenous rights defenders in Colombia; 5 things you need to know about COP25; UN rights chief urges dialogue to ease Ecuador unrest. 

Coal mines outside of Samaca, Colombia.
World Bank

Is the world ready to end the coal era and embrace clean energy?

29 November 2019
Global

Access to electricity has transformed the world, helping countries to develop their economies, and lifting millions out of poverty. However, this success has come at a great cost: the energy sector, heavily reliant on fossil fuels, is responsible for some 40 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions – one of the so-called greenhouse gases, which trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the Earth – and almost two-thirds of these emissions come from coal.

Passenger trains wait for people to board at the Dhanbad Junction railway station in Jharkhand, northern India, in the middle is a coal-carrying freight train. One of the busiest in the region, millions of people pass through this station every year. Railways are also a very efficient means to move large amounts of cargo over distances.
ESCAP Photo/Christian Dohrmann

Tuesday’s Daily Brief: call for emission cuts, AIDS in decline, cyber-conflict warning

26 November 2019
Global

A recap of Tuesday’s stories in brief: UNEP calls for emissions to be cut by more than half, AIDS down but thousands of children still missing out on treatment, UN chief warns of “digital divide”