Climate and Environment

A student passes in front of a 150-megawatt wind farm in the Philippines.
ADB/Al Benavente

LIVE: World leaders pledge to power humanity with clean energy

24 September 2021
Global

How can the world come together to radically change the way it produces and uses energy, as part of efforts to hold back climate change and to ultimately give humanity a more secure future on planet earth? That’s the question that over one hundred countries, organizations and businesses will be discussing at the United Nations on Friday at the High-level Dialogue on Energy, the first meeting of its kind in 40 years.

Progressively more acute droughts in Somalia have prompted people to move – undermining food security and leaving women vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
IOM/Celeste Hibbert

UN chief: Window to avert devasting climate impacts ‘rapidly closing’

23 September 2021
Global

No region is immune to climate disasters the UN chief told the Security Council on Thursday, warning that “our window of opportunity” to prevent the worst climate impacts is “rapidly closing”.

Graphic for No Denying It, the UN News Podcast about Climate Action
UN News/ Paola Bustamante

No Denying It episode 5: Jane Goodall Introduces Xiaoyuan "Charlene" Ren

23 September 2021
Global

In the fifth episode of the UN climate action podcast No Denying It, United Nations Messenger of Peace Jane Goodall, known for her groundbreaking scientific work studying chimpanzees, interviews Xiaoyuan "Charlene" Ren.

Ms. Ren is the founder of MyH20, a network that collects drinking water data to help find solutions to improve water quality across China. Globally, two billion people lack access to safe drinking water, a figure that will only go up as infrastructure struggles to keep pace with new climate change-related weather patterns.

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

World’s two largest economies commit to climate action – Guterres

21 September 2021
Global

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday welcomed important commitments made towards climate action by the world’s two largest economies, as the 76th High Level Debate began in New York.

In southern Mauritania, a market garden run by a women's cooperative uses solar energy to irrigate crops.
© UNICEF/Raphael Pouget

Call for ‘decisive action now’ to avoid climate catastrophe 

20 September 2021

Speaking alongside the UK Prime Minister in New York on Monday the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called on world leaders for “decisive action now to avert climate catastrophe.” 

Essential infrastructure including roads and bridges were destroyed by the August earthquake.
IOM/Monica Chiriac

FROM THE FIELD: Haiti’s gruelling post-quake road to recovery

18 September 2021
Americas

Thousands of Haitians continue to take refuge in neighbours’ houses, makeshift shelters, chapels or informal displacement sites, a month after a devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the west of the Caribbean island where they live. That’s according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) which has been assisting in recovery efforts. 

If no actions are taken, global emissions will continue to grow this decade. By 2030 they will increase by about 16.3 per cent compared to 2010 levels.
WMO/Seyed Amin Habibi

Paris climate deal could go up in smoke without action: Guterres

17 September 2021

Unless wealthy nations commit to tackling emissions now, the world is on a “catastrophic pathway” to 2.7-degrees of heating by the end of the century, UN Secretary General António Guterres warned on Friday.

Schoolgirls in Côte d'Ivoire perform as part of activities to raise awareness about peace and human rights.
UN Photo/Hien Macline

Counting on youth, for an ‘equitable and sustainable world for all’

17 September 2021
Global

At a virtual event on Friday commemorating the International Day of Peace, the UN chief saluted the “voices, vision and commitment of young people in shaping a more peaceful world”.

A united global effort to phase out ozone-depleting substances means that today, the hole in the ozone layer is healing.
WMO/Chunseong Bang

Act now to slow climate change and protect the planet, urges UN chief

16 September 2021
Global

The ozone layer – a fragile shield of gas that protects the Earth from the harmful rays of the sun – is “on the road to recovery”, the UN chief said on Thursday in his message for the World Ozone Day.

People cross a flooded river in western Haiti after a bridge was washed away by Hurricane Matthew. (file)
MINUSTAH/Logan Abassi

‘Tipping point’ for climate action: Time’s running out to avoid catastrophic heating

16 September 2021
Global

The temporary reduction in carbon emissions caused by global COVID-19 lockdowns did not slow the relentless advance of climate change. Greenhouse gas concentrations are at record levels, and the planet is on path towards dangerous overheating, a multi-agency climate report published on Thursday warns.