Climate and Environment

Sustainably managed forests hold vast potential to play a decisive role in ending hunger, improving livelihoods and combating climate change.
FAO/Simon Maina

UN agency develops new guidelines to help countries better monitor forest resources

26 July 2017
Global

The United Nations agriculture agency has created new guidelines to help countries develop a strong mechanism to monitor national forest resources.

Wind turbine farm in Tunisia.
World Bank/Dana Smillie

UN chief Guterres highlights importance of sustainable energy in message to EXPO 2017

10 June 2017
Global

Underlining the importance of energy, in particular for realizing the Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent action to ensure that everyone has access to clean, affordable and efficient energy so that they can rise to their full potential.

Masses of ice on Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon in south-east Iceland in June 2013.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

FEATURE: Climate change and the world’s oceans

5 June 2017
Global

The vital link between oceans and climate change is among the issues at the forefront of discussions at the United Nations Ocean Conference taking place in New York from 5 to 9 June.

Spokesman Stéphane Dujarric for the UN Secretary-General, reads a statement on the United States decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías

US decision to withdraw from Paris climate accord a 'major disappointment' – UN

1 June 2017
Americas

The Spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General today said the decision by the United States to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change is a major disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security.

Healthy oceans have a central role to play in solving one of the biggest problems of the 21st century – how to feed 9 billion people by 2050.
FAO

PODCAST: Saving ‘the blue heart of the planet’ with Sylvia Earle

8 May 2017
Global

As a little girl, Sylvia Earle, today perhaps the world’s best known woman marine scientist, literally fell head over heels in love with the ocean.

Sustainable energy.
World Bank/Dana Smillie

Renewable energy sources could be cheaper than fossil fuels within 10 years – UN-backed report

3 April 2017
Global

A new United Nations-backed report has revealed overwhelming consensus that renewable power will dominate in the future, with many experts saying that even large international corporations are increasingly choosing renewable energy products either from utilities or through direct investment in their own generating capacity.

A wastewater treatment facility in Manila, the Philippines.
Danilo Pinzon/World Bank

Wastewater should be recognized as a valuable resource, UN says on World Water Day

22 March 2017
Global

In a world where the demand for water continues to grow and the resource is finite, a new United Nations report argues that wastewater, discarded into the environment every day, once treated, can help meet the needs for freshwater as well as for raw materials for energy and agriculture.

Sustainably managed forests are a key to meeting energy needs of almost a third of the world's population.
UN Photo/Logan Abassi

Greener energy for a third of the world bodes well for all, says UN on International Forest Day

21 March 2017
Global

Cautioning the impact of human activity such as practices use of woodfuel on world’s forests, the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called for better wood-energy conversions technologies and more sustainable management of forests so that everyone benefits.

African bush elephants in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Despite increased poaching in many parts of Africa, the elephant population in Mara is presently growing.
<a href=http://bit.ly/2m1m2TQ>UNEP GRID Arendal/Peter Prokosch</a>

On Wildlife Day, UN spotlights youth's role as today's change-makers, tomorrow's custodians

3 March 2017
Global

With the fate of the world's wildlife soon to be in the hands of the next generation, the United Nations is observing this year's World Wildlife Day with a call to harness the power of young people's voices in conservation efforts.

Members of an Indian farmers group measure local groundwater levels at an observation well.
FAO/Noah Seelam

Make food systems climate resilient now or future production will be compromised – UN warns

13 February 2017

Failure to act now to make food systems more resilient to climate change will seriously compromise food production in many regions, which in turn could fail international efforts to end hunger and extreme poverty by 2030, the United Nations agricultural agency warned today.