Tag: year
WMO confirms 2023 as warmest year on record ‘by a huge margin’
The World Meteorological Organization uses six leading international datasets from across the globe to monitor global temperatures, which reveal a new annual temperature average of 1.45°C set against the pre-industrial era (1850-1900). Every month between June and December set new records. July and August were the two hottest months ever recorded, WMO said. The 1.5°C…
Read MoreCOP28: UN says staggering $7 trillion spent every year on investments that fuel climate change
The report from the UN’s environmental wing, UNEP, also revealed that despite decades of calls for ending finance flows towards sectors that harm some of humanity’s most valuable assets, those investments currently account for a whopping 7 percent of global GDP. Saturday’s report launch comes as negotiations on the conference’s outcome text are shifting into…
Read More2023 likely hottest year on record; further spike expected with El Niño
That’s the message from UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which said on Wednesday that for the calendar year to date, the global mean temperature is the highest ever recorded, 1.43 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and sea ice in the Antarctic remains at record low levels. WMO expects the warming El Niño climate pattern to last…
Read MoreUN welcomes release of five staff abducted last year in Yemen
The men – four national staff and a Bangladeshi citizen – were abducted in the southern governorate of Abyan on 11 February 2022 after returning from a field mission. UN Secretary-General António Guterres was delighted to learn of their release, noting that available information suggests they all are in good health. Mr. Guterres was “profoundly…
Read MoreUkraine: UN rights chief upholds need for justice one year after POW killings
The “tragic killing” at the penal colony at Olenivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, under temporary Russian military control, occurred overnight on 28 July 2022. Many of the POWs were Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered at the stricken Azovstal steel plant in the city of Mariupol. Appeal for justice “The prisoners of war…
Read MoreUN remembers 77 personnel who died in the line of duty last year
“We are here to mourn together, to remember together, and to pay our respects together,” Secretary-General António Guterres said at the solemn ceremony, held in the Trusteeship Council chamber at UN Headquarters in New York. Relatives of the fallen personnel, members of the diplomatic community and UN staff from around the world attended the event,…
Read More‘Dire year’ for children caught in conflict, as hospital and school attacks double
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba unveiled the Secretary-General’s latest annual report, for 2022, which showed there were 27,180 grave violations overall, an increase from the previous year. The recorded violations only refer to verified information, with the likely toll much higher, and cover four categories: recruitment and use of children into…
Read MoreUN refugee agency predicts spike in resettlement needs next year
According to the Projected Global Resettlement Needs Assessment for 2024, over 2.4 million refugees will be in need of resettlement, marking a 20 per cent increase compared to 2023. A woman leaves a refugee camp in Rwanda on her way to resettlement in Norway. Escalating challenges With a deepening refugee crisis, security breakdowns and conflicts, urgent…
Read MoreUkraine: 18 million need support as war enters second year
“Since the start of the full-scale war we, along with our humanitarian partners in Ukraine, have made every effort to ramp up operations to provide life-saving support to those who need it most,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists in New York. Last year, thousands of convoys delivered vital supplies to people in all regions…
Read MoreUN rights chief deplores Ukraine death toll one year after Russian invasion
Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), told journalists in Geneva that the civilian death toll in the southern city of Mariupol – besieged and bombarded by Russian missiles – had been particularly high. “My colleagues interviewed a former prisoner of war, and he was from Mariupol and he…
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