Countries are gathering for a key U.N. nature conference in Montreal, aiming to broker a new global agreement to protect what's left of Earth's wildlife and natural spaces. Negotiators hope that the two-week summit, known as COP15, yields a deal that ensures there is more "nature" — animals, plants, and healthy ecosystems — in 2030 than what exists now. But how that progress is pursued and measured will need to be agreed by all 196 governments under the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). FILE PHOTO: A hammerhead shark swims close to Wolf Island at Galapagos Marine Reserve. REUTERS/Jorge Silva "How do you translate 'nature positive' into an actual term we can measure?" said Basile van Havre, one of the co-chairs of the group responsible for drafting the agreement. "Tha...
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The United Nations General Assembly has met for a first ever dedicated session on tourism and its key role in inclusive recovery and growth. The High-Level Thematic Debate was convened by the President of the General Assembly, His Excellency Abdulla Shahid, in collaboration with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). In the General Assembly Hall, government representatives joined public and private stakeholders in recognizing tourism’s unique ability to drive positive change. Tourism for hope and opportunity As the first ever UNWTO Secretary-General to address the UN General Assembly, Zurab Pololikashvili stressed that “now is the time to build resilient and peaceful societies and tourism can help make this happen! Tourism is a leading provider of opportunities because it is...
Read MoreUN IPCC releases last of its three part series report on Climate Change Drastic cuts to fossil fuel use. Growing forests and eating less meat. These are just some of the actions needed in this decade to contain global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures, a major report by the U.N. climate science agency said Monday. Despite climate change warnings issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 1990, global emissions have continued to rise in the last decade, reaching their highest point in history. The result: global emissions are on track to blow past the 1.5 degrees C warming limit envisioned in the 2015 Paris Agreement and reach some 3.2 degrees C by century's end. FILE PHOTO: People hold a balloon during a demonstration by ...
Read More# U.C. climate report says drastic action needed# 'Delay means death' says U.N. secretary general Guterres# Change impacting world faster than anticipated - report# Breaching 1.5C threshold will cause irrepairable damage# 'Brief and rapidly closing window' for action Climate change is upon us and humanity is far from ready, the United Nations climate panel warned in a major report on Monday. Noting that nearly half the world's population was already vulnerable to increasingly dangerous climate impacts, the report calls for drastic action on a huge scale: A third to a half of the planet needs to be conserved and protected to ensure future food and freshwater supplies. Coastal cities need plans to keep people safe from storms and rising seas. And more. "Adaptation saves lives," U.N...
Read MoreUnited Nations negotiators have agreed a roadmap for a global plastic treaty that would address plastic production and design, according to a draft resolution seen by Reuters, in what delegates said was a key step to agreeing an ambitious deal. U.N. member states are meeting this week in Nairobi to agree plans for the first global agreement to tackle plastic pollution, a soaring environmental crisis that is destroying marine habitats and contaminating the food chain. A 30-foot monument dubbed "turn off the plastic tap" by Canadian activist and artist Benjamin von Wong, made with plastic waste collected from Kibera slums, is seen at the venue of the Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5), at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Headquarters in Gi...
Read MoreThe important role that tourism will play in the recovery of national economies and global trade has been highlighted in the 2022 edition of the World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report by the United Nations. Drawing on data from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), WESP underlines the sector’s importance for the world economy and particularly for developing economies, including Small Island Developing States (SIDS). After a global contraction of 3.4% in 2020 and a rebound of 5.5% in 2021, the world economy is projected to grow by 4% in 2022 and then 3.5% in 2023. Given its importance as a major export category (prior to the pandemic tourism was the third largest in the world, after fuels and chemicals), and recognizing its role as a source of employment and economic dev...
Read MorePenguins may not require passports to travel, but they do need protection, according to an international research team who analyzed 131 scientific papers on penguin movement at sea. The work comes as the United Nations continues to negotiate a treaty regarding the sustainable use of areas beyond national jurisdiction, the high seas over which no coastal state can claim ownership. The researchers published their conclusions — and a call for specific protections to help conserve and restore marine biodiversity — in the September issue of Marine Policy. “In the marine environment, coastal states typically retain management of waters up to 200 nautical miles from their shorelines, but beyond that, the high seas, which represent 64% of the ocean’s surface and 95% of its volume, are c...
Read MoreCurrent commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions put the planet on track for an average 2.7 degrees Celsius temperature rise this century, a United Nations report said on Tuesday, in another stark warning ahead of crunch climate talks. Governments will be in the spotlight at the COP26 conference next week to meet a deadline of this year to commit to more ambitious cut pledges, in what could be the last chance to put the world on track to limiting warming to below 2C above pre-industrial levels and ideally to 1.5C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). FILE PHOTO: Exhaust fumes are seen coming from a vehicle stopped at traffic lights in Jakarta. REUTERS/Beawiharta As extreme weather events from wildfires to floods have hit countries around the world, a U.N. report in August warned that glob...
Read MoreEarth has not been so warm since the Pliocene Epoch roughly 3 million years ago Among the many things that IPCC report released on Monday had said very categorically, one of utmost significance is that the world is running out of time. Climate change is already affecting every inhabited region across the globe with human influence contributing to many observed changes in weather and climate extremes. If the world drastically cuts emissions in the next decade, average temperatures could still rise 1.5C by 2040 and possibly 1.6C by 2060 before stabilizing. FILE PHOTO: Aerial view of an area affected by a bushfire on Fraser Island (K'gari), Queensland, Australia December 5, 2020 in this picture obtained from social media. Save Fraser Islands Dingoes Inc via REUTERS If the world d...
Read MoreU.N. sounds clarion call over 'irreversible' climate impacts by humans The U.N. climate panel sounded a dire warning Monday, saying the world is dangerously close to runaway warming – and that humans are "unequivocally" to blame. Extreme heat waves that previously only struck once every 50 years are now expected to happen once per decade because of global warming, while downpours and droughts have also become more frequent, a UN climate science report has said. Flames rise as a wildfire burns at the village of Afidnes, north of Athens, Greece August 6, 2021. REUTERS/Costas Baltas The report found that we are already experiencing those effects of climate change, as the planet has surpassed more than 1 degree Celsius in average warming. Heat waves, droughts and torrential rains ...
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