And increasingly, climate change is compounding the problem – damaging roads, disrupting supply chains, and threatening already fragile infrastructure with floods, droughts, and extreme weather. But as global discussions intensify, a UN conference underway in Turkmenistan is aiming to flip the script – to help transform LLDCs from landlocked to...
Urging global leaders to rethink development for landlocked nations, the UN chief declared: “We gather today to reaffirm a fundamental truth: geography should never define destiny.” According to the UN Development Programme, of the 32 landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) worldwide, 16 are in Africa, 10 in Asia, four in Europe,...
In a special address at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Guterres cited surging clean energy investment and plunging solar and wind costs that now outcompete fossil fuels. “The energy transition is unstoppable, but the transition is not yet fast enough or fair enough,” he said. The speech, A Moment...
The AI for Good Global Summit 2025 brings together governments, tech leaders, academics, civil society and young people to explore how artificial intelligence can be directed toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – and away from growing risks of inequality, disinformation and environmental strain. “We are the AI generation,” said Doreen...
Speaking at the 17th BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he emphasised the human impact of environmental devastation and climate change. And as environmental disasters increase, the sustainable development goals are also being left behind. “Across the world, lives and livelihoods are being ripped apart, and sustainable development...
“The human consequences of rising debt burdens, escalating trade tensions and steep cuts to official development assistance have been brought into sharp relief this week,” she told the closing session of the pivotal gathering, amid sizzling temperatures across southern Spain. Multilateralism at work But against that backdrop, the conference has...
“We close this historic week not just with hope, but with concrete commitment, clear direction, and undeniable momentum,” Li Junhua, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the summit, told reporters. Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, the five-day event brought 15,000 participants, including more than...
With the conference, known as UNOC3, set to close Friday, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Li Junhua, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, told UN News on Thursday that the past four days have been marked by a rare sense of solidarity around Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG...
“The ocean is the ultimate shared resource,” he told delegates gathered at the port of Nice. “But we are failing it.” Oceans, he warned, are absorbing 90 per cent of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions and buckling under the strain: overfishing, rising temperatures, plastic pollution, acidification. Coral reefs...
António Guterres told leaders meeting in the Iraqi capital that “the region and the world face trials and tests on all fronts,” starting with the situation in Gaza. He reiterated that neither the atrocious 7 October 2023 terror attacks by Hamas nor the collective punishment of the Palestinian people can...
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the regular daily briefing in New York that the leaders of both the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities would join UN chief António Guterres along with guarantors Greece, Türkiye and the United Kingdom, at the UN in Geneva. The Mediterranean island was...
Addressing the AI Action Summit against the glittering backdrop of the Grand Palais museum in the French capital, the UN chief warned that the growing concentration of AI capabilities risked deepening geopolitical divides. “Global guardrails” must be agreed and deployed urgently and best practices shared, Mr. Guterres insisted, in the interests...
