Climate and Environment

A farmer in rural Nepal tends to the crops. Nature-based solutions are low-cost options to reduce climate risks, protect biodiversity and bring benefits for communities. (file photo)
UN Women/Narendra Shrestha

SDGs: Greater urgency needed to meet environmental goals, improved data likely key

22 May 2021
Global

Countries are on track to miss the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) relating to environmental protection, two UN entities warn in new report issued on Saturday to coincide with the International Day for Biological Diversity. 

The sun sets in Acadia National Park, Maine, United States.
UN News/Elizabeth Scaffidi

Everyone will lose unless humanity makes ‘peace with the planet’, declares Guterres

21 May 2021
Global

Humanity is “waging a war on nature”, threatening biodiversity loss, climate disruption and escalating pollution, the UN chief said on Friday. 

Sunset over a field in the English countryside.
Unsplash/Jack B

SDGs will address ‘three planetary crises’ harming life on Earth 

27 April 2021
Global

The “three planetary crises” of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are reinforcing each other and driving further damage to the environment and to our health, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Tuesday. 

Scientists believe that climate change is causing an increase in extreme weather events.
NOAA/Jerry Penry

The planet’s on ‘red alert’ UN chief warns leaders at President Biden’s climate summit

22 April 2021
Global

World leaders must act now and put the planet on a green path because “we are at the verge of the abyss”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday in his address to the virtual climate summit convened by United States President Joseph Biden. 

Climate youth activist Marie Christina Kolo of Madagascar.
© Rakotondrazafy A. M. Ny Aina

First Person: ‘Youth won’t stay silent’ says Madagascar climate activist

22 April 2021
Global

Young people around the world “won’t stay silent” about the global climate crisis according to a youth activist from Madagascar. 

A young hairdresser will use the solar panel he received from the International Labour Organisation to power his salon in Malawi.
ILO/Marcel Crozet

ILO kicks off Green Week to ‘jump-start’ a sustainable future 

21 April 2021
Global

As the world grapples with the devastating economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 crisis, the UN’s labour agency launched ILO Green Week to explore what a green future of work could look like, and how we can get there. 

A turtle swims in the ocean in Martinique in the Caribbean.
Coral Reef Image Bank/Michele Roux

Ocean benefits increasingly undermined by human activity, UN assessment reveals

21 April 2021
Global

Greater understanding of the ocean is essential if the world is to recover better from the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve agreed targets on sustainable development and climate action, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday in launching a major study on what he called “the life support system of our planet.” 

Icebergs in the Bellingshausen Sea in Antarctica.
WMO/Gonzalo Bertolotto

World on the verge of climate ‘abyss’, as temperature rise continues: UN chief

19 April 2021
Global

The Earth’s temperature continues to rise unabated, with 2020 being one of the three warmest years on record, as extreme weather events combine with the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting millions. 

Women work in a vegetable garden in a village in Senegal. The village is part of the
© FAO/Eduardo Soteras

More climate action needed during ‘make-or-break year’ for people and planet 

31 March 2021
Global

The world needs “a major breakthrough” to slow the pace of climate change and build resilience to protect the most vulnerable from increasingly severe and frequent climate impacts, the deputy UN chief told a crucial high-level meeting on Wednesday, looking ahead to November’s COP26. 

Kenya has limited the use of single-use plastic.
UNEP/Florian Fussstetter

Plastic pollution disproportionately hitting marginalized groups, UN environment report finds

30 March 2021

Vulnerable communities disproportionately bear the brunt of environmental degradation caused by plastics pollution, and action is urgently needed to address the issue and restore access to human rights, health and well-being, according to a new UN report published on Tuesday.