UN Environment Assembly
Air/Climate

UN Leader: ‘Our Climate is Imploding, Humanity Is to Blame’

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 1, 2024 (ENS) – On the final day of the sixth session of the UN Environment Assembly, UNEA-6, there was a supercharged mood on the UNEP campus, only hours after delegates left the venue feeling deflated after work on draft resolutions was not finalized as scheduled earlier in the week. […]

wildfire Washington State, USA
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2023: Earth’s Hottest Year

GENEVA, Switzerland, December 30, 2023 (ENS) – The year 2023 shattered climate records, delivered extreme weather, and left death, devastation and despair in its wake laments the World Meteorological Organization, which has pegged 2023 as the hottest year ever recorded. […]

COP28 Final Plenary
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COP28 Deal ‘Beginning of the End’ of the Fossil Fuel Era

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, December 13, 2023 – The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, concluded this afternoon with an unprecedented deal among nearly 200 Parties to the Paris Agreement that signals the “beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era. The governments agreed to accomplish this by preparing for a swift, just, equitable transition, characterized by deep emissions cuts and scaled-up finance. […]

United Nations
Air/Climate

UN Chief Excludes World’s Top Polluters from Climate Summit

NEW YORK, New York, September 22, 2023 (ENS) – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres aimed a message at the world’s largest polluters Wednesday when he excluded them from his Climate Ambition Summit that took place in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. His message – you are not taking the climate threat seriously enough. […]

humpback whale
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A World First: High Seas Treaty Signed By 80 Governments

NEW YORK, New York, September 22, 2023 (ENS) – The hard-won High Seas Treaty, the first agreement to protect the two-thirds of the world’s oceans beyond national jurisdiction, was opened for signature by United Nations Member States on September 20 at UN Headquarters in New York. Signing up enthusiastically, 80 countries and the European Union indicated their support […]

golden lion tamarin
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All Is Not Lost: Pioneering Restorations of the Natural World

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 1, 2023 (ENS) – For the first time, the United Nations has recognized 10 trail-blazing efforts from across the globe that are restoring the natural world. Declared World Restoration Flagships, these 10 initiatives can now receive UN-backed advice, promotion, and funding in support of their work to prevent and reverse the degradation of natural spaces. […]

demonstration COP27
Air/Climate

COP27 Spills Into Overtime Amid Human Rights Protests

SHARM el-SHEIKH, Egypt, November 18, 2022 (ENS) – Climate activists and members of civil society have been intimidated, harassed and kept under surveillance during the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt, UN human rights experts said today, urging Egyptian authorities to ensure their safety and enable their full participation. […]

COP27 Egypt
Air/Climate

COP27: Humanity ‘On the Highway to Climate Hell’

SHARM el-SHEIKH, Egypt, November 7, 2022 (ENS) – “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the High-Level opening of the United Nations’ annual climate conference, COP27, which opened in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh today. […]

march Melbourne Australia
Air/Climate

Caution! Climate Work in Progress

BONN, Germany, October 27, 2022 (ENS) – Countries’ climate promises fall far short of avoiding catastrophic global warming, the United Nations’ climate agency warned Wednesday in a new analysis ahead of the annual UN climate conference, COP27, opening in Egypt in just 10 days. […]

Jabiru stork
At Risk

UN Petitioned to Save Pantanal Wetland Wildlife From Fires

PARIS, France, August 21, 2022 (ENS) – As this year’s fire season intensifies, wildfires in Brazil are jeopardizing the world’s largest tropical wetland, the Pantanal, and its rare and imperiled wildlife. Inhabited by 3,500 species of plants, 600 bird species, 150 mammals, 175 reptiles, 40 amphibians and 300 freshwater fish… […]

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Funding Frustrations Plague Africa’s Great Green Wall

ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, May 23, 2022 (ENS) – “We all play a role in the common fight against climate change and land degradation, recognizing that a healthy and safe environment is vital to the future of the Earth,” said Côte d’Ivoire Prime Minister Patrick Achi on Friday, to delegates from 196 countries and the European Union, wrapping up a two-week summit to combat spreading deserts in a warming world. […]

Latest News

Governments Agree to Draft Global Plastic Pollution Treaty

NAIROBI, Kenya, March 3, 2022 (ENS) – To tackle plastic pollution accumulating across the globe, governments at the UN Environment Assembly here Tuesday approved the start of talks later this year to draft a legally binding agreement – a treaty – that would promote sustainable production and consumption of plastics and prevent their pollution of the environment. […]

Air/Climate

New UN Climate Change Report “An Atlas of Human Suffering”

BERLIN, Germany, March 1, 2022 (ENS) – “Today’s IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,” declared UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after reading the latest from the agency charged with compiling climate reports to advise the United Nations – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. […]

At Risk

Philippines Face Holiday Recovery From Typhoon ‘Odette’

MANILA, Philippines, December 25, 2021 (ENS) – More than 100 towns in areas devastated a week ago by Typhoon Odette, internationally known as Typhoon Rai, have no electricity this Christmas. Communities hit hardest by the typhoon endured 195 kilometer-an-hour (121 miles per hour) sustained winds, with gusts of up to 270 kph (168 mph) in central island provinces. […]