Climate Change

Windfall Tax on Covid Profits Could Ease ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis, Oxfam Says

• June 28, 2022

Food, fossil fuel and pharmaceutical companies that have enjoyed bumper profits in the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath should be hit with a swingeing windfall tax on their excess income, the global head of Oxfam has said. A windfall tax of 90 percent on the excess profits globally would yield about $490 billion that …

Climate Change, Health and Population, Poverty

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In a Rare Sign of Unity, the World Celebrates Cycling

Deborah Baldwin

• May 25, 2022

There are not many things that United Nations members can all agree on, but who can contest the glories of the humble bike? With its narrow frame, tiny carbon footprint and ample contributions to health and well-being, the bike has few enemies. Which helps explain how, against all odds, a Polish-American cycling enthusiast named …

Cities, Climate Change, General Assembly

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THIS WEEK @UN

Trending UN News: Week Ending April 22

Damilola Banjo

• April 22, 2022

This week, the focus stays glued to Ukraine while a flicker of hope emerges in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, where children are getting new malaria vaccines. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues before the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This …

Climate Change, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN

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WORLDVIEWS

Making the Most of the 2023 UN Summit of the Future

María Fernanda Espinosa and Danilo Turk

• April 20, 2022

Combined with the growing fears of irreversible climate change and emerging new Covid-19 variants and subvariants, stands an ominous “third C”: conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has triggered a refugee crisis on a scale not witnessed in Europe since the end of World War II. At the same time, civil wars in Africa …

Climate Change, General Assembly, WORLDVIEWS

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Saving Democracy Means Saving Our Species: An Interview With US Congressman Raskin

Ankita Rao

• April 19, 2022

When it comes to fighting for democracy and climate change — two of Rep. Jamie Raskin’s top priorities — the whole thing feels a bit like a game of chicken and egg to the United States Democratic congressman. “On the one hand there is the planet, heating up quickly past the limit that is …

Climate Change

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How Well Can the UN Development Program Manage Global Climate Funding?

Anna Bianca Roach

• February 7, 2022

The United Nations Development Program is still facing calls for accountability regarding the reported mismanagement of a project that aimed to mitigate climate change and was funded by a primary entity in the UN system. The project ran from 2010 to 2017 and was meant to improve energy efficiency in Russia, but internal reviews …

Climate Change, Development

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THIS WEEK @UN

Trending UN News: Week Ending Nov. 19

Anna Bianca Roach

• November 19, 2021

COP26 ends on a teary note; an Indigenous activist expounds on Colombia’s failing peace; UN personnel released from detention in Ethiopia. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, PassBlue’s investigation into the …

Climate Change, This Week @UN, US-UN Relations

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COP26 President Fights Back Tears as the Summit Ends

Mark Hertsgaard

• November 15, 2021

GLASGOW, Scotland — COP26 president Alok Sharma held back tears as he accepted India’s last-minute motion to weaken the summit’s pledge to “phase out” coal. Sharma had been saying for months that he wanted COP26 to “consign coal to history.” And until India insisted otherwise at the eleventh hour, it looked like the summit …

Climate Change

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THIS WEEK @UN

Further Souring of Ethiopian-UN Relations; Deep-Sea Mining Dangers; Polish-Belarusian Standoff

Anna Bianca Roach

• November 12, 2021

PassBlue probes the global body granting licenses to mine the deep seas; UN staff detained in Ethiopia; global famine rises. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. This week, Mexico’s president proposes a plan …

Africa, Asia, Climate Change, Human Rights, Humanitarian Aid, Middle East, Migration, Myanmar, Refugees, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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Who Is the World’s Greatest Climate Champion?

Mark Hertsgaard

• November 10, 2021

GLASGOW, Scotland — It’s an article of faith in United States political and media circles that American leadership is essential to global climate progress. That message was repeated Tuesday at the United Nations climate conference, COP26, as speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of 16 fellow Congressional Democrats …

Climate Change, US-UN Relations

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The Obscure Organization Powering a Race to Mine the Bottom of the Seas

Anna Bianca Roach

• November 8, 2021

On the seafloor, anemones with eight-foot-long tentacles live alongside blind crabs that cultivate food in their arm hair, sharks with glow-in-the-dark bellies and glass sponges that have been thriving since before the invention of the wheel. “Because of the lack of light and the fact that creatures do need to see each other to …

Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Climate Change, UN Agencies

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THIS WEEK @UN

Spoilers of Peace in Yemen; COP26’s First Week; Morale Boosting by Blinken

Anna Bianca Roach

• November 5, 2021

COP26 opens with a foreboding announcement from the UN secretary-general; peacekeepers shot by the presidential guard in the Central African Republic; Mexico’s agenda on the Security Council. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. …

Africa, Asia, Climate Change, General Assembly, Humanitarian Aid, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Secretary-General, Security Council, This Week @UN, UN Agencies, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Good News From COP26: UN Members Agree on a New Enterprise to Transform Global Responses to Climate Change

Petteri Taalas, Achim Steiner and Inger Andersen

• October 31, 2021

Just days before the COP26 environment summit in Glasgow, Scotland, three of the United Nations’ lead agencies on climate and development each published alarming reports. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) produced evidence to show that greenhouse gases reached a new record high in 2020. Concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the …

Climate Change, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

The UN Human Rights Council Dithers While the Earth Burns

Peter Splinter

• October 5, 2021

GENEVA — It is time for the United Nations Human Rights Council to take climate change much more seriously than it has been and to treat the issue with the urgency, deliberation and action that it demands. The Council has the tools to do so, and it should use them now. The recent Intergovernmental Panel …

Climate Change, Human Rights, WORLDVIEWS

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THIS WEEK @UN

Women a Blip Among UNGA Speakers; Feminists’ Tough Advice for UN Women; Is Undersea Mining Underway?

Anna Bianca Roach

• October 1, 2021

Where were the women at UNGA?; feminists want big action by UN Women; undersea mining may be underway. You are reading This Week @UN, summarizing the most pressing issues facing the organization. The information is gathered from UN press briefings, PassBlue reporting and other sources. We covered the UN high-level week extensively, bringing readers reports …