United Nations

UN Seeks Climate Action Plans for 2050

June 20, 2016

Environment officials and UN "climate champions" Hakima El-Haite and Laurence Tubiana have called on governments to send roadmaps on their plans for low-carbon economies by the year 2050 in preparation for a UN climate conference in late 2016.
China Seeks More US Support for UN Climate Deal

June 17, 2016

China’s special representative on climate change, Xie Zhenhua, has called on the US to do more to support efforts to protect poor countries from the impacts of climate change under the UN deal on greenhouse gas emissions agreed in 2015 and to quickly bring the climate pact into force as the 2016 US presidential election approaches.
UN Agents: Ireland Violates Rights of the Homeless

June 17, 2016

Asserting that homelessness is evidence that a government has failed to protect social and economic human rights, two UN human rights rapporteurs have blamed lack of housing assistance and "austerity" measures for problems with access to water and sanitation for homeless people in Cork, Ireland.
UN Agent: EU Budget Policies Violate Rights

June 16, 2016

The UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, has accused the EU institutions of violating their international human rights obligations through budget requirements and loan conditions for member states, which he argues have violated the social and economic rights of Europeans.
IOs Set "Food Loss and Waste" Standard

June 16, 2016

A group of international organizations, including the UN, has agreed to a global Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard through which it will pressure companies and governments to measure and report the amount of food waste that occurs in their operations in order to help achieve the UN's climate and sustainability goals.
UN Rights Chief Calls for "Robust" Gun Control in US

June 15, 2016

In the wake of the mass shooting at a gay nightclub by an Islamic extremist in Orlando, Florida, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called on the US to adopt "robust gun regulation" in order to counter the impact of gun violence on human rights.
Audit Points to UNHCR's Failure to Monitor Fraud

June 15, 2016

George Russell reports that an audit by the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services has concluded that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees issued hundreds of millions of dollars to private organizations and national governments to deal with the recent migration crisis without properly monitoring how the funds were spent.
EU Joins Initiative to Double Climate Research Funding

June 15, 2016

The European Commission has announced that the EU has joined the Mission Innovation initiative unveiled at the UN climate change conference in 2015 under which it will double its funding of research on renewable energy over the next five years in an effort to combat global warming.
UN Warns of Climate Threat to Statue of Liberty

June 14, 2016

Attempting to convince citizens of the catastrophic future effects of global warming, a report from the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization warns of the potential damage to or destruction of the Statue of Liberty and other famous sites around the world through the impacts of climate change.
Ban Pushes G-7 Leaders on UN Priorities

June 14, 2016

In remarks on the sidelines of a recent meeting of the G-7 group of countries in Nagoya, Japan, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on G-7 leaders to advance priorities in the UN agenda, including countering climate change, collective action on migrant flows, and implementing the UN's comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals for the year 2030.