A recap of Monday’s stories:  New UN-Habitat campaign converts waste into wealth; refugee agency chief issues alert over  'dangerous nationalism',  UN warns against Syrian civilian displacement; Guterres renews call for full disclosure by States over 1961 Hammarskjöld plane crash; First-ever conference on nuclear power and climate change.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) pledged on Friday to work hand in hand with the people of the Pacific to improve nutrition, and mitigate the worst effects of climate change, which pose an existential threat to many island nations across the region. 

When it comes to the climate emergency, “we have a long way to go. But the movement has begun,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared in a widely-distributed opinion piece on Thursday, reaffirming his concern over the threats posed by a warming world, unless more urgent action is taken. 

“All of us from small islands can relate to the word’s perception of us, as small islands”, but rather than treating them as distant vessels, imagine instead “an undivided Pacific, connected by an ocean highway.” That was the plea to world leaders from Vinzealhar Ainjo Kwangin Nen, on Friday, speaking on behalf of her generation, on the front line of climate change.