Human Desperation and Environmental Destruction in Gaza
NEW YORK, New York, January 22, 2009 (ENS) – Senior United Nations officials today began to assess humanitarian needs in Gaza, getting a first-hand look a the destruction inflicted on the area’s 1.5 million residents and their environment during three weeks of Israeli military operations. “The mission was struck by the scale and urgency of [...]
Read More »Slow Progress in Poznan While Climate Threats Mount
POZNAN, Poland, December 13, 2008 (ENS) – The annual UN climate change conference ended shortly before 3:00 am today in Poznan with a commitment from governments to shift into full negotiating mode next year in order to shape a effective international response to climate change, to be agreed in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. [...]
Read More »Environmental Pledges Flow from First Clinton Global Initiative Asia
HONG KONG, China, December 3, 2008 (ENS) – Commitments to clean Hong Kong’s beaches, produce carbon-free energy from rice residues, and raise awareness of climate change in India are among the results of the first Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Asia. Today, at the conclusion of the two-day meeting in Hong Kong, former President Bill [...]
Read More »UN Buys Food From Small Farmers to Combat Global Hunger
MANILA, Philippines, October 29, 2008 (ENS) – The world’s largest food relief organization, the United Nations’ World Food Programme, has a new system of buying food that better supports the productivity of small farmers, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today in Manila. In the past, the WFP has purchased food on the international markets, said [...]
Read More »Artists, Photographers, United Nations Join in Planetary Rescue
NEW YORK, New York, October 27, 2008 (ENS) – Young artists from around the world have raised $21,000 for the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, to spend on climate-related disasters by auctioning off 26 of their paintings in New York Saturday night. The auction, held at the Harvard Club, was organized by the UN Environment [...]
Read More »UN General Assembly Opens With Climate and Energy Concerns
NEW YORK, New York, September 23, 2008 (ENS) – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today opened the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate by urging world leaders to work together to solve the most pressing and intractable problems, from climate change and the energy crisis to entrenched poverty and the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region. But [...]
Read More »UN to Help Pacific Island States Fight Climate Change
NEW YORK, New York, August 19, 2008 (ENS) – The United Nations and Samoa plan to establish an Inter-Agency Climate Change Centre to help coordinate support to Pacific Island countries to combat the impact of global warming in their region. Given the direct impact of climate change on vulnerable countries in the region, the new [...]
Read More »G8 Leaders Conclude with Pledge to Ease Global Food Crisis
TOYAKO, Japan, July 9, 2008 (ENS) – The leaders of the world’s eight wealthiest countries, the G8, packed their bags and headed home tonight after three days of discussions that dealt with ways to solve the global food crisis and global warming, among other issues. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Photo courtesy UN) UN Secretary-General Ban [...]
Read More »Visiting Kyoto, UN Chief Urges New Climate Deal by 2009
KYOTO, Japan, June 30, 2008 (ENS) – The world must galvanize its will and reach a new agreement on measures to fight climate change by the end of 2009, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Sunday in the Japanese city where the Kyoto Protocol was finalized. The secretary-general arrived in Japan on Saturday, kicking off a [...]
Read More »‘Together’ Launches U.S. Campaign to Fight Climate Change
NEW YORK, New York, June 6, 2008 (ENS) – On Thursday, in observance of World Environment Day, businesses, U.S. cities nationwide and nonprofit organizations joined with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to launch Together, a consumer engagement campaign on climate change. Together is an initiative of [...]
Read More »UN: Plan to Fix World Food Crisis in Place By June
GENEVA, Switzerland, April 30, 2008 (ENS) – The United Nations aims to have a comprehensive plan to tackle the global food crisis in place by the beginning of June, “around which the institutions and leaders around the world can coalesce,” a top UN official said at a news conference here today. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs [...]
Read More »UN: Biofuel Production ‘Criminal Path’ to Global Food Crisis
GENEVA, Switzerland, April 28, 2008 (ENS) – The United States and the European Union have taken a “criminal path” by contributing to an explosive rise in global food prices through using food crops to produce biofuels, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food said today. At a press conference in Geneva, Jean [...]
Read More »British Prime Minister Urges G8 to Help the Hungry
LONDON, UK, April 10, 2008 (ENS) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called upon the Group of Eight, G8, to press international institutions such as the World Bank to take action on a growing crisis in global food prices, which have increased by an estimated 55 percent since June. In a letter to Japanese [...]
Read More »Lack of Political Will Impedes Sanitation Improvements
NEW YORK, New York, March 23, 2008 (ENS) – A lack of political will remains the greatest obstacle to efforts to reduce the number of people without access to basic sanitation and clean, running water, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Saturday in a message to mark World Water Day. This year, World Water Day coincides [...]
Read More »World’s Water Needs Grow More Urgent
NEW YORK, New York, March 17, 2008 (ENS) – The international community needs to start creating strategies for using water more efficiently and sharing it more fairly, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, warning that unless action is taken soon, the conflicts and problems caused by water shortages around the world will multiply. In an [...]
Read More »New York Will Cut Use of Tropical Hardwoods by 20 Percent
NEW YORK, New York, February 13, 2008 (ENS) – During an address to the UN General Assembly Monday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a plan to reduce the city’s consumption of tropical hardwoods to benefit the climate. The mayor called tropical deforestation an “ecological calamity – one with huge global warming implications.” Bloomberg was [...]
Read More »World Leaders Fortify Commitments to Environment
DAVOS, Switzerland, January 25, 2008 (ENS) – Economic, scientific, and political leaders and entertainers pledged hundreds of millions of dollars and moral support to environmental causes ranging from clean water and climate change to a modern green farming revolution as the World Economic Forum wound up its annual meeting in Davos today. More than 2,500 [...]
Read More »UN Chief: World Expects Climate Change Breakthrough
NUSA DUA, Bali, Indonesia, December 12, 2007 (ENS) – The world is counting on a breakthrough at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told delegates at the summit, calling the fight against global warming “the moral challenge of our generation.” In a speech delivered today at the opening [...]
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