Climate Change

• 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 …

Climate Change, Gender Violence, Secretary-General, This Week @UN

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Pressure Builds to Mine International Waters Amid Questions About Ecosystems and Profit-Sharing

Anna Bianca Roach

• September 29, 2021

A wealth of resources lies beneath international waters, including cobalt, copper, manganese and other minerals used to power smart phones and other technology. Safeguarding “the common heritage of mankind,” as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea terms this vast store, is a regulatory body called the International Seabed Authority, or …

Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Climate Change

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COVID-19

As UNGA Winds Down, Mali Warns of Rising Dangers in the Sahel as France Claims a Recent Success

Barbara Crossette

• September 27, 2021

On the last day of global leaders’ speeches at the opening of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the array of countries on the roster ranged from Israel to Iceland, from Algeria to North Korea, from Canada to Guinea. Two long-scheduled countries to deliver messages — Afghanistan and Myanmar — were …

Africa, Asia, Climate Change, Covid-19, General Assembly, UNGA76, US Foreign Relations

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From Tiny Barbados, a Scolding to the World: ‘We Have Not Moved the Needle!’

Anna Bianca Roach

• September 24, 2021

The fourth day of the United Nations General Assembly debate soldiered on, with pointed speeches by, among others, the Caribbean island nation of Barbados, whose prime minister, Mia Amor Mottley, asked the General Assembly Hall, “How many crises and natural disasters need to hit before we see that old conventions of aid mean that …

Climate Change, General Assembly, Health and Population, UNGA76, US-UN Relations

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At the UN, Boris Johnson Tries to Rally Forces for the Climate Change Event in November

Dulcie Leimbach

• September 23, 2021

If you have understandably faded from the UNGA76 gathering by now, here are highlights for Day 3 of global leaders’ speeches, held on Sept. 23. We’ve also included Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s late-night remarks on Sept. 22 in the General Assembly Hall. Only four women have spoken across the three days, from Estonia, Moldova, …

Africa, Caribbean, Climate Change, General Assembly, Health and Population, Terrorism, UNGA76, US-UN Relations

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Is the ‘Unprecedented’ Reform of the World Meteorological Organization Seriously Stalled?

Maurizio Guerrero

• July 27, 2021

Back in June 2019, the World Meteorological Organization embarked on an ambitious effort to streamline its internal operations, cut expenses by two percent and realign the organization with “21st-century realities, priorities and dynamics.” The timing was right. A United Nations specialized agency based in Geneva, the WMO, as it is known, dates its origins …

Climate Change, UN Agencies

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THIS WEEK @UN

Receding Ice in Iceland; UN Agencies’ Use of P.R. Firms; Lebanon on the Edge

Ivana Ramirez

• July 16, 2021

Receding glaciers in Iceland; the UN’s use of public-relations firms; South Sudan’s promising women’s soccer league; Lebanon’s “reversal.” 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 have reached two-thirds of the way to our important …

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

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How much do you know about the UN's women, peace and security (WPS) agenda?

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WORLDVIEWS

UN Recognition of the Myanmar Junta Will Hurt the World Body’s Moral Credibility

Nang Moet Moet

TOPIC: WOMEN

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Climate Change

Trending UN News: Week Ending Nov. 19

COP26 President Fights Back Tears as the Summit Ends

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

Who Is the World’s Greatest Climate Champion?

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

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

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

The UN Human Rights Council Dithers While the Earth Burns

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

Pressure Builds to Mine International Waters Amid Questions About Ecosystems and Profit-Sharing

As UNGA Winds Down, Mali Warns of Rising Dangers in the Sahel as France Claims a Recent Success

From Tiny Barbados, a Scolding to the World: ‘We Have Not Moved the Needle!’

At the UN, Boris Johnson Tries to Rally Forces for the Climate Change Event in November

Is the ‘Unprecedented’ Reform of the World Meteorological Organization Seriously Stalled?

Receding Ice in Iceland; UN Agencies’ Use of P.R. Firms; Lebanon on the Edge

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Action to Protect Older Women’s Rights Has Stalled in the UN General Assembly

Trending UN News: Week Ending Nov. 26

Biden Nominates an Envoy for Global Women’s Issues, but How Soon Will the US Senate Act on It?

Gender Imbalances: Missing Girls and Vanishing Men

UN-Scripted, Passblue's UN podcast series

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