Climate and Environment

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.

With most of its land only a few feet above sea level, Kiribati is seeing growing damage from storms and flooding.
© UNICEF/Vlad Sokhin

Sink or swim: Can island states survive the climate crisis?

31 July 2021
Global

Small island nations across the world are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, and their problems have been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has severely affected their economies, and their capacity to protect themselves from possible extinction. We take a look at some of the many challenges they face, and how they could be overcome.

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.

A locomotive freight train traverses the Absirom Bridge on the Trans-Iranian Railway in Iran.
©UNESCO/Hossein Javadi;

Outstanding sites added to UNESCO World Heritage List 

26 July 2021
Global

An ancient temple in India and a “cultural landscape” in Spain have become two of the latest sites to be registered on the UN’s prestigious World Heritage List. 

The low-lying archipelago, Tuvalu, in the Pacific Ocean is reclaiming land as it fights the effects of climate change.
UNDP Tuvalu

UN climate science talks open amid heatwaves, floods and drought

26 July 2021

Negotiations began on Monday to approve a UN science report which will anchor high level summits later this year, charged with boosting climate action worldwide.

A woman plants mangrove trees in Timor Leste.
UNDP/Yuichi Ishida

Support mangrove conservation, UNESCO chief says

26 July 2021
Global

The world is waking up to the importance of mangroves, a senior UN official said on Monday, underscoring the need for everyone to support restoration and protection of these crucial habitats. 

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. 

Floods are increasing around the world due to climate change.
UN Women/Mohammad Rakibul Hasan

No pathway to reach the Paris Agreement’s 1.5˚C goal without the G20: UN chief

25 July 2021
Global

“The world urgently needs a clear and unambiguous commitment to the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Agreement from all G20 nations”, António Guterres said on Sunday after the Group failed to agree on the wording of key climate change commitments during their recent Ministerial Meeting on Environment, Climate and Energy.

Rescuers pull villagers from flood waters in Xingyang city in China's Henan Province.
China Fire and Rescue

Water-related hazards dominate list of 10 most destructive disasters

23 July 2021

Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing global climate, water-related hazards top the list of natural disasters with the highest human losses in the past 50 years, according to a new report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

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.