Not all innovations are based on new technologies. Sometimes, they have to do with procedures or practices — that is, how people work together. That’s largely the case with a new method of responding to climate shocks and other humanitarian emergencies. Climate change is driving more extreme and frequent natural hazards, and that means that humanitarian need will only increase.
The United Nations Country Teams from Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina recently completed a ten-day mission by visiting several communities in the largest dry forest in the world and the second-largest forest biome in South America: the Gran Chaco, which extends over an area of over 1,14 million square kilometres, distributed in central and northern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and western Paraguay.
SG, António Guterres is headed to Colombia this week to mark the fifth anniversary of the signing of the peace accords that ended 50 years of conflict in the country, and his activities will include travel to the village of Llano Grande, where the townspeople and former combatants are working together to secure a better future.
One year ago, the combined impact of the Eta and Iota storms caused widespread devastation in Guatemala and other Central American and Caribbean countries, affecting nearly 9.3 million people and displacing around 1.7 million people across the region.
Shortly before world leaders convened in Glasgow for COP26, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council adopted a groundbreaking resolution to recognize “access to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a fundamental right”.
The just closed Climate Conference in Glasgow COP 26 coincided with an important milestone on Montenegro’s development path – its 30th anniversary of declaring itself as an ecologic state. Nothing speaks more about the strength of such commitment than Montenegro’s determination to embed it into the heart of its Constitution.
According to a recent UN report, climate change is happening at a faster pace than previously thought. That’s nothing new in the Western Balkans, which is considered one of the world’s hotspots of climate change.
In Southeast Asia, economic development over the past decade has lifted millions of people out of poverty, while dramatically increasing their demand for energy. Millions do not have adequate access to electricity. Today, we highlight three stories of women in the region who harness solar power to empower themselves, their families and their compatriots.
Leading up to COP 26, which kicked-off on 31 October 2021, a High-level Dialogue on Energy was convened by UN Secretary-General on 24 September under the Theme “Accelerating action to achieve SDG7 in support of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement”. As the first global gathering exclusively devoted to energy since the UN Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy in 1981, this Dialogue was a historic opportunity to promote the acceleration action on clean, affordable energy for all by 2030 (SDG7) and on net-zero carbon emissions (SDG 13) by 2050.
It’s time to say: enough. Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet. Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.
