Climate Change

© UNICEF/Chris Herwig

Keeping cool in the face of climate change

30 June 2019
Global

As global temperatures reach record highs, providing cooling systems which are effective, sustainable and which do not harm the environment is increasingly essential for everyday life. That’s according to Rachel Kyte, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All, and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).

UN Japan/Ichiro Mae

Create conditions for ‘harmony between humankind and nature’, UN chief says on sidelines of G20 in Japan

29 June 2019
Global

The world needs to create conditions for “harmony between humankind and nature”, Secretary-General António Guterres said in Osaka, Japan, during a meeting on Saturday with the Foreign Ministers of China and France, on the margins of the G20 summit.

UNICEF/Pirozzi

Friday’s Daily Brief: More climate action says Guterres, migrant children dangers, Ebola fight, record-setting weather

28 June 2019

This Friday, we cover: UN chief appeals for stronger climate action commitment; report on migrant children deaths and disappearances; Ebola fight in DR Congo as violence goes on; and global over-heating. 

G20 Osaka Summit 2019

Amidst ‘high political tension’, UN chief appeals to G20 leaders for stronger commitment to climate action, economic cooperation 

28 June 2019
Global

The annual G20 summit of leaders from the largest and fastest-growing economies, got underway on Friday in Osaka, Japan, against a backdrop of what UN Secretary-General António Guterres described as “a moment of high political tension”.

UNICEF/Wikus De Wet

World faces ‘climate apartheid’ risk, 120 more million in poverty: UN expert

25 June 2019
Global

Climate change “threatens to undo the last 50 years” of development, global health and poverty reduction, a United Nations expert said on Tuesday, citing the risk of a new era of “climate apartheid” where the rich buy their way out of rising heat and hunger.

Lisboa +21

It’s time we took a seat ‘at your table’: Guterres calls on world youth to keep leading climate emergency response

23 June 2019

Older generations have “failed to respond properly” to the climate emergency said the UN chief on Sunday, while the young are “stepping up to the challenge” and taking the lead to slow the destructive pace of global warming. 

UN News/Daniel Dickinson

24 billion tons of fertile land lost every year, warns UN chief on World Day to Combat Desertification

16 June 2019
Global

In a video message released in advance of the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, marked on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the world loses 24 billion tons of fertile land every year, and that the degradation in land quality is responsible for a reduction in the national domestic product of up to eight per cent every year.

IOM/Jorge Galindo

Shining a light on sustainable power: how clean energy is helping to improve camps for displaced people

14 June 2019
Global

Hauwa, from Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria, fled her home village of Adamari with her husband and four children in March, when violence struck. Now, she is in the relative safety of a UN-run camp but, with little electricity available at night, lighting is scarce, and darkness can mean danger. However, thanks to a solar-energy initiative from the UN migration agency IOM, that is beginning to change.

Arne Hoel/World Bank

Promoting gender equality a ‘crucial contribution’ in effort to restore, protect our planet’s oceans

8 June 2019
Global

Women are engaged in all aspects of interaction with our ocean, yet their voices are often missing at the decision-making level, the head of the United Nations cultural agency said on World Oceans Day, emphasizing that “we must ensure diversity and gender inclusiveness at all levels” to set a balanced course for humanity and foster innovative solutions for the ocean.

UNDP Morocco

FROM THE FIELD: Balancing Morocco’s indigenous culture and conservation

5 June 2019
Africa

The delicate balance between indigenous farming practices and conservation in Morocco is under threat, but according to the UN, local communities in the Western High Atlas Mountains are finding ways to preserve traditions and still make a living from the land.