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Stressing the urgent need to end impunity in the Central African Republic (CAR) and bring to justice those who violate humanitarian law, the United Nations Security Council today renewed its sanctions against individuals or groups implicated in the country’s ongoing sectarian tensions.

More than 500 global investors gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York today to mobilize the trillions of dollars needed to move the world onto the path of clean energy, with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon challenging them to, at a minimum, double clean energy investments to $660 billion by 2020.

The genetic diversity of livestock can play a vital role in feeding the world in the face of hotter weather and the other effects of climate change, yet many valuable breeds continue to be at risk, the United Nations agricultural agency warned today, calling for stronger global efforts to safeguard the existing gene pool.

Marking the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged everyone to denounce political and religious ideologies that set people against people.

Senior United Nations relief officials working on the front lines of the conflict in Syria stressed today that only a political solution will end the five-year war, insisting that humanitarians have been doing all that they can to assist millions of desperate people who have lost nearly everything and are “now beginning to lose hope that the world cares.”

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported today that a team of independent experts mandated to probe violations and abuses in Burundi has not been able to enter the country.

Condemning Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians, highlighting growing Palestinian frustration at a half century of occupation, and calling on Israel to change its settlement and other policies, United Nations Secretary-General today urged both sides to seize the “historic challenge” of compromise to secure a two-state solution.

Despite the well-coordinated response already under way to offset the impacts of an El Niño-induced drought in Ethiopia, the United Nations humanitarian wing has warned that the scale of the developing emergency exceeds resources and that more funding is urgently needed to ensure food distribution and child protection amid ongoing malnutrition and water shortages.

On the eve of the first-ever gathering of scientists to discuss disaster risk management, the head of the United Nations office tasked with synergizing disaster reduction activities emphasized today the importance of government leaders and decision makers’ attention to the role of science in lowering the exposure to extreme disaster events and promoting sustainable development.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today announced the launch of a $2.8 billion appeal to reach 43 million children in humanitarian emergencies worldwide, with for the first time ever the largest portion of the appeal – 25 per cent – going towards their education.