With the Mediterranean glittering in the background, UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened the Third United Nations Ocean Conference on Monday, delivering a blunt indictment of humanity’s fractured relationship with the sea.
They drift unseen, but everything depends on them. Plankton – the ocean’s lifeblood – regulate the climate, feed the seas, and shape life on Earth. Scientists along the French Riviera are in a race against time to unlock the mysteries of these tiny organisms before their decline reverberates across the planet.
As world leaders gear up for the Third UN Ocean Conference in Nice, one policy expert is making waves with an ancient marine organism he believes could help feed the planet, clean the air, and transform coastal economies.
The Ocean is in deep crisis. Factors such as acidification, declining fish stocks, rising temperatures and widespread pollution are contributing to a catastrophic decline in biodiversity: over half of marine species are at risk of extinction this century.
5 June marks the 52nd World Environment Day, led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and hosted by Jeju, South Korea, under the theme #BeatPlasticPollution.
As coral reefs bleach, fish stocks collapse, and sea temperatures break records, world leaders are heading to the French Riviera — not for leisure, but for one of the most urgent diplomatic gatherings of the year.
Every year, 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide, according to the UN. Half of this plastic is designed to be used only once, and only 10 per cent is recycled.
Amid reports of yet another deadly attack on a school in Gaza on Wednesday, the UN’s top aid official Tom Fletcher welcomed growing international calls for lifesaving aid work by established agencies to resume in the war-torn enclave.
Nearly 16 million people in Syria need urgent humanitarian health support, the UN warned on Tuesday, as aid deliveries continue amid escalating needs, deadly explosive hazards and a severe funding shortfall.
Flash flooding in western Nigeria at the weekend has caused devastation around the town of Mokwa in Niger state, leaving more than 150 dead and 3,000 people displaced – more than half of whom are children aged 12 and under – the UN said on Monday.
