Climate and Environment

As the SDGs Falter, the UN Turns to the Rich and Famous

• July 23, 2019

The Sustainable Development Goals are in trouble. United Nations officials are concerned and say so publicly. Secretary-General António Guterres joined in raising an alarm in mid-July when he introduced the most recent official UN report. “It is abundantly clear that a much deeper, faster and more ambitious response is needed to unleash the social …

Climate and Environment, Development, Poverty, Sustainable Development Goals

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At Norway’s New Mission to the UN, a Love for Nature Revealed

Sonah Lee-Lassiter

• July 9, 2019

Moments after entering the Norwegian consulate and mission to the United Nations in New York, you may be surprised to hear a hum of varying tones. It’s the sound of a hanging textile piece that a Norwegian artist, Pearla Pigao, wove with conductive copper thread and connected to an oscillator that detects electric currents. …

Climate and Environment, UN Diplomats

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WORLDVIEWS

Climate Change and Risk of Conflict: The Links Grow Clearer

Adriana Erthal Abdenur

• May 7, 2019

There is growing evidence that climate change can increase the risks of conflict and violence. When government authorities are unable or unwilling to mitigate and adapt to climate shocks such as hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts, these extreme weather events are more likely to be followed by surges in crime, including homicide, robbery and sexual …

Climate and Environment, WORLDVIEWS

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Together, the Caribbean Confronts a Major Problem: Climate Threats

Barbara Crossette

• March 11, 2019

GOSIER, Guadeloupe — The Caribbean islands, though culturally and linguistically diverse and differing government systems, are coming together to confront the climate changes that threaten their rich tropical environment and the livelihoods of their people. Seas are warming and acidifying, reducing fish catches, while on land water shortages are being recorded in recent droughts. …

Caribbean, Climate and Environment

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

Security Council Presidency: Two Old Friends, France and Germany, Now Share an Office

Stéphanie Fillion

• March 4, 2019

As a united front in the fight to preserve the European Union, France and Germany are about to gain a global audience. During March and April, their top United Nations ambassadors, François Delattre and Christoph Heusgen, will take turns — in alphabetical order — presiding over the Security Council, marking the first time for twin …

Climate and Environment, Gender Violence, Security Council Presidency

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WORLDVIEWS

10 Ways to Push the Climate Change and Conflict Agenda, Despite the Deniers

Adriana Erthal Abdenur

• February 19, 2019

THE HAGUE — It is now well documented that global warming is a multiplier of insecurity and conflict, but holding debates on the topic presents ever-more complex challenges as multilateralism and climate change are increasingly questioned if not dismissed by some of the world’s top leaders and biggest polluting nations. In that light, here …

Climate and Environment, WORLDVIEWS

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Climate Talks Bypass the Poorest, Who Endure Polluted Homes

Barbara Crossette

• December 18, 2018

Today and every day around the world, in bleak rural villages and the poorest urban neighborhoods, millions of people are igniting small fires to cook their meager meals, brighten dark homes or scare away intruders at night. The number of people using small fires is not small. Climate scientists estimate that three billion people …

Africa, Asia, Climate and Environment

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WORLDVIEWS

To Save the Earth, Deepen Incentives for a Carbon-Free World

Franz Baumann

• October 6, 2018

When United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres spoke passionately about the frightening prospect of a climate catastrophe recently, he called it “the defining issue of our time.” Everything in his powerful speech was backed by science. Yet, because secretaries-general cannot say everything, it was incomplete. What Guterres did not say is that global warming is the flip side …

Climate and Environment, WORLDVIEWS

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GEOPOLITICS

Europe and Others Help Fund the UN Palestinian Agency, Filling US Void

Stéphanie Fillion

• September 27, 2018

The European Union, Germany, Norway, Ireland and Kuwait stepped in this week to donate a total of $118 million in financing to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa), after the United States cut $304 million of its annual support to the agency for this year. …

Climate and Environment, Geopolitics, Middle East, Refugees, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENCY

Sweden’s Priorities in the Security Council: Being Prepared, Including for the World Cup

Stéphanie Fillion

• July 5, 2018

Welcome to our new column, Security Council Presidency, providing insight into the United Nations Security Council member sitting in the rotating seat of the president every month, starting in July with Sweden and its ambassador, Olof Skoog. The column is meant to be an informative capsule of not only the country’s ambassador but also …

Climate and Environment, Security Council, Security Council Presidency

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TAKE A LOOK

Europe’s Contraception Gaps: They May Be Wider Than You Think

Barbara Crossette

• April 29, 2018

It is a continent where almost half of the pregnancies are unplanned, where government agencies do not provide enough information on available contraception, where geography is destiny for those needing reliable family planning advice. This is not a developing region, but 21st-century Europe, according to the recently published 2018 Contraception Atlas. The atlas, presented …

Climate and Environment, Health and Population, Take a Look

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TAKE A LOOK

Zimbabwe Stuck With a Health Crisis Left by Mugabe Era

Barbara Crossette

• January 10, 2018

Robert Mugabe, the only head of state that Zimbabwe had known since independence in 1980, was forced out of office by an unexpected coup in November 2017, and citizens of the economically battered country are now forced to tally the costs of his dictatorship. One of them is a health system in collapse. A …

Africa, Asia, Climate and Environment, Take a Look

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TOPIC: WOMEN

‘Period Poverty’: Why No One Is Talking About Eco-Friendly Solutions

Rhona Scullion

• November 30, 2017

The United Nations has recognized menstrual hygiene as a global public health and human-rights issue, yet across the world, “period poverty,” as some call it, is the reality for millions of women and girls. In India, for example, it is estimated that only 12 percent of the country’s 355 million menstruating women can afford …

Climate and Environment, Human Rights, Poverty, Women

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TAKE A LOOK

Americans Want an Active Role in the World, Contrary to Trump’s Actions, a Poll Finds

Barbara Crossette

• November 14, 2017

In the first week of November, more than 200 Americans who had been the beneficiaries of Fulbright international exchanges over many years went to the United States Congress to lobby members from across the country. They were asking their state representatives and senators not to strip the iconic, but now endangered, program of …

Climate and Environment, Take a Look, US Foreign Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

As UN Climate Talks Convene, the Earth Veers Toward Catastrophe

Franz Baumann

• November 2, 2017

Two years ago, the governments of the world unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a remarkable blueprint of the world’s most pressing long-term predicaments that the United Nations is good at lifting into the global conscience. Cataloguing 17 goals and 169 targets, the agenda contains an inventory of the remedial activities that …