Climate and Environment

Aerial view of melting glaciers on King George Island, Antarctica. This latest report of an Arctic temperature more typical of the Tropics comes a few months after the Argentine research base, Esperanza, on the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula, set a new record temperature.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Extreme weather ‘record’ likely in Arctic Circle, says UN weather agency WMO

23 June 2020

Reports that temperatures in a Russian town in the Arctic Circle likely reached a record 38C (100.4F), last weekend, have been approved by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) pending final verification, it said on Tuesday.

Women in Madagascar cultivate vegetables on land using a micro irrigation system, where the World Food Programme (WFP) is providing income generating opportunities to small-holder farmer organizations.
WFP/Giulio D'Adamo

Solidarity is the world’s ‘best line of defence’: UN General Assembly president

8 June 2020
Global

Back in September, the world committed to a landmark political declaration on universal health coverage. Now, in the throes of the COVID-19 crisis, the President of the UN General Assembly has reiterated the importance of investing in health as “an investment in human capital, social and economic development and the empowerment of all people”.

A school of Trevally fish in the Solomon Islands.
Coral Reef Image Bank/Tracey Jen

World Oceans Day: Don’t be colour blind, help blue oceans keep the planet green

8 June 2020
Global

The COVID-19 pandemic is a “sharp reminder” of how we are all intimately connected to each other and to nature, the UN chief said on Monday, World Oceans Day.

A man in Kenya shops for produce as the coronavirus pandemic brings into focus the interdependence between humanity and biodiversity.
World Bank / Sambrian Mbaabu

World Environment Day: COVID-19 crisis demands fundamental rethink

5 June 2020
Global

The COVID-19 health crisis should be seen as a clarion call to “fundamentally rethink our relationship” with natural ecosystems and shrinking biodiversity, the UN cultural agency chief said on Friday, World Environment Day.

A woman poses in a field in Ardabil, Iran.
Unsplash/Habib Dadkhah

Protect the environment, prevent pandemics, ‘nature is sending us a clear message’

5 June 2020
Global

On this year’s World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5, the UN is drawing links between the health of the planet, and human health, and highlighting the importance of protecting biodiversity, the system that supports life.