Climate and Environment

The private sector in Thailand has a key role to play in the country's transition to a net zero carbon economy.
Unsplash/Geoff Greenwood

Thailand flexes financial muscle to grapple with climate crisis

15 August 2021
Asia Pacific

“Social responsibility and sustainable profit” can go hand in hand according to the chief of Thailand’s government pension fund. The UN, and some of the biggest players in the Thai economy, are working together to support efforts by the country’s finance and banking institutions to speed up the South East Asian country’s transition to a net zero carbon economy.

A firefighter battles a wildfire. (file)
Unsplash/Fabian Jones

UN weather agency seeks to confirm 48.8°C ‘record’ heat spike in Sicily

12 August 2021

UN weather experts said on Thursday that they’re “actively looking” into a possible record temperature for Continental Europe of 48.8 Celsius (119.8 Fahrenheit) near the town of Syracuse in Sicily, amid devastating wildfires in Mediterranean countries and Russia.

A wildfire burns in a national park in Oregon, USA.
Unsplash/Marcus Kauffman

IPCC report: ‘Code red’ for human driven global heating, warns UN chief

9 August 2021
Global

Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying, and some trends are now irreversible, at least during the present time frame, according to the latest much-anticipated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released on Monday.

Formula E cars at the 2021 New York race in Red Hook, Brookyln.
UN/Joon Park

From electric dreams to supercharged reality: the road race to a clean energy future

29 July 2021
Global

The global Formula E electric race series, a partner with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP),  has grown in popularity since it launched some seven years ago, attracting the attention of major car manufacturers, changing people’s perceptions of electric vehicles, and bringing the world one step closer to a sustainable transport future.

Two and a half million people in the Central African Republic (CAR) are facing hunger.
WFP/Bruno Djoye

Together, we must tackle growing hunger, urges Guterres  

26 July 2021
Global

Inefficient global food production is at the root of a huge rise in hunger as well as one-third of all emissions and 80 per cent of biodiversity loss, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has warned, in a call to all countries to transform food systems to speed up sustainable development. 

A farmer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has received agricultural training, tools, and seeds from FAO.
© WFP/Arete/Fredrik Lerneryd

FAO head urges G20 to invest in a healthy planet for healthy food

22 July 2021
Global

The head of the UN food relief agency called on the world’s richest nations on Thursday to invest more in sustainable living, to feed the world’s growing population.
 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivers his remarks at the Plenary Session of the European Parliament in Brussels.
UN Photo/Marian Blondeel

UN chief urges European Parliament to support COVID vaccines for all

24 June 2021
Europe

The European Union (EU) must use its leverage to ensure people everywhere have access to COVID-19 vaccines, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday. 

 

A shop worker sells bread in a bakery in Tirana, Albania
ILO Photo/Marcel Crozet

Small businesses unprepared for pandemic-sized climate shock ‘every decade’

23 June 2021

 

Small businesses which make up more than half of the global workforce were 2.5 times more likely to go under than larger firms in the first months of COVID-19, the International Trade Centre (ITC) said on Wednesday, warning that the impact of climate change could cause pandemic-scale disruption “every decade”.

Coral reef fish swim in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean.
Ocean Image Bank/Jayne Jenkins

End war on nature and ensure ocean health, UN chief says in message for World Oceans Day

8 June 2021
Global

Ending the “war on nature” must be part of global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday in his message for World Oceans Day. 

Kamloops lake in British Columbia, Canada, is located on traditional lands of the Secwepemc Nation.
Unsplash/Louis Paulin

Still time to reverse damage to ‘ravaged’ ecosystems, declares UN chief, marking World Environment Day 

4 June 2021
Global

Amidst the triple environmental threat of biodiversity loss, climate disruption and escalating pollution, Secretary-General António Guterres launched “an unprecedented effort to heal the Earth”, on the eve of World Environment Day.