A historic agreement to protect biodiversity was reached at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada. Nations agreed to preserve 30 percent of the planet’s land, oceans and coastal areas by 2030. The agreement is critical to protecting biodiversity and restoring ecosystems.
The global population reached 8 billion people in November. According to the United Nations, the moment underscores the need for humanity to look beyond the numbers and meet its shared responsibility to protect people and the planet, starting with the most vulnerable.
“Unless we bridge the yawning chasm between the global haves and have-nots, we are setting ourselves up for an 8-billion-strong world filled with tensions and mistrust, crisis and conflict,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
While the world’s population will continue to grow to around 10.4 billion in the 2080s, the overall rate of growth is slowing down. The world is more demographically diverse than ever before, with countries facing starkly different population trends ranging from growth to decline. Today, two-thirds of the global population lives in a low fertility context, where the lifetime fertility is below 2.1 births per woman. At the same time, population growth has become increasingly concentrated among the world’s poorest countries, most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Against this backdrop, the global community must ensure that all countries, regardless of whether their populations are growing or shrinking, are equipped to provide a good quality of life for their populations and can lift up and empower their most marginalized people.
“A world of 8 billion is a milestone for humanity – the result of longer lifespans, reductions in poverty, and declining maternal and childhood mortality. Yet, focusing on numbers alone distracts us from the real challenge we face: securing a world in which progress can be enjoyed equally and sustainably,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA executive director. “We cannot rely on one-size-fits-all solutions in a world in which the median age is 41 in Europe compared to 17 in sub-Saharan Africa. To succeed, all population policies must have reproductive rights at their core, invest in people and planet, and be based on solid data.”
Key facts and figures at a glance
It took about 12 years for the world population to grow from 7 to 8 billion, but the next billion is expected to take approximately 14.5 years (2037), reflecting the slowdown in global World population is projected to reach a peak of around 10.4 billion people during the 2080s and to remain at that level until 2100.
For the increase from 7 to 8 billion, around 70% of the added population was in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. For the increase from 8 to 9 billion, these two groups of countries are expected to account for more than 90% of global growth.
Between now and 2050, the global increase in the population under age 65 will occur entirely in low income and lower-middle-income countries, since population growth in high-income and upper-middle income countries will occur only among those aged 65 years or over.
The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), that took place in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, concluded on Nov. 20 with a historic decision to establish and operationalize a loss and damage fund.
Welcoming the decision and calling the fund essential, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that more needs to be done to drastically reduce emissions now. “The world still needs a giant leap on climate ambition.”
“The red line we must not cross is the line that takes our planet over the 1.5 degree temperature limit,” Guterres stressed, urging the world not to relent “in the fight for climate justice and climate ambition.”
“We can and must win this battle for our lives,” he concluded.
COP27 held high-level and side events, key negotiations, and press conferences, hosting more than 100 Heads of State and Governments, over 35,000 participants and numerous pavilions showcasing climate action around the world and across different sectors.
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.
In a series of UN reports, thousands of scientists and government reviewers agreed that limiting global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C would help us avoid the worst climate impacts and maintain a livable climate. Yet based on current national climate plans, global warming is projected to reach around 3.2°C by the end of the century.
The emissions that cause climate change come from every part of the world and affect everyone, but some countries produce much more than others. The 100 least-emitting countries generate 3 per cent of total emissions. The 10 countries with the largest emissions contribute 68 per cent. Everyone must take climate action, but people and countries creating more of the problem have a greater responsibility to act first.
The winners of this the 2022 United Nations SDG Action Awards were announced at a ceremony in Bonn, Germany. The awards sought initiatives that mobilize, inspire, and connect people to drive action towards a more sustainable future on a healthy planet — those that are flipping the script and rethinking how we live. The finalists were selected from over 3,000 applications from 150 countries.
The SDG Moment serves to place an annual spotlight on the Sustainable Development Goals and will be held at the beginning of the United Nation’s General Assembly’s High-Level Week. It takes place as the world faces a deepening cost-of-living crisis that carries huge implications for the advancement of the SDGs, especially in developing countries.
The third SDG Moment will take place in-person on Monday, 19 September 2022. This 90-minute event in the United Nations General Assembly Hall, will set the scene and lead into the Transforming Education Summit.
Goals include:
Reinforcing the continued relevance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and build momentum for major summits and intergovernmental meetings.
Highlighting urgent actions that for an equitable, inclusive and accelerated transition to sustainable development.
Demonstrating that transformative change at scale is possible between now and 2030.
Nations United is a special, first of its kind film, created by the United Nations on its 75th Anniversary and to mark five years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. In the midst of a pandemic radically transforming our world, Nations United tells the story of the world as it is, as it was, and as it could be. It focuses on the solutions and action we need to tackle poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change.
Featuring the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, Malala Yousafzai, Don Cheadle, Michelle Yeoh, Forest Whitaker, Thandie Newton, Sugata Mitra and an exclusive performance from Grammy nominated singer Burna Boy, and a new version of a previous UN performance by multi-Grammy award winning artist, Beyoncé.
The newly released United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 reviews progress of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using the latest available data and estimates, the report gives the global community a reality check on the devastating impacts of multiple crises affecting people’s lives and livelihoods. It details the reversal of years of progress in eradicating poverty and hunger, improving health and education, providing basic services, and much more. The report also highlights areas that need urgent actions in order to rescue the SDGs and deliver meaningful progress for people and the planet by 2030. The report is prepared by UN DESA in collaboration with more than 50 international and regional organizations.
The UN Ocean Conference, from June 27-July 1, provides a unique opportunity to boost collective efforts and find innovative solutions to effectively address the challenges facing the world’s oceans.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 is about conserving and sustainably using the world’s ocean and marine resources. Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface. As the planet’s largest ecosystem, the oceans regulate the climate, generate oxygen, and provide livelihoods for billions.
Oceans also contributes to current and future sustainable economic growth. Healthy, productive, sustainable, and resilient oceans are fundamental to life on our planet and to our future.
But climate change poses adverse effects on the ocean and marine life, including the rise in ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, deoxygenation, sea level rise, the decrease in polar ice coverage, decrease in marine biodiversity, as well as coastal erosion and extreme weather events and related impacts on island and coastal communities. Cumulative human activities also cause ecosystem degradation and species extinctions. 2022 is the year to stop the decline.
“We need to save our ocean to protect our future,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
World leaders are failing to prepare for a new era of complex and often unpredictable risks to peace as profound environmental and security crises converge and intensify, according to a major report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The report, Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk, offers policymakers principles and recommendations for navigating this volatile future. It will be launched today in a special session before the opening of the ninth Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development.
The report provides the most comprehensive account to date of how different aspects of environmental crisis—including climate change, mass extinctions and resource scarcity—are interacting with today’s darkening security horizon and other phenomena such as the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also offers governments and other decision-making bodies recommendations for action, and principles to guide them.
“Our new report for policymakers goes beyond simply showing that environmental change can increase risks to peace and security. That’s established,”said SIPRI Director and Environment of Peace author Dan Smith. “What our research reveals is the complexity and breadth of that relationship, the many forms it can take. And most of all, we show what can be done about it; how we can deliver peace and security in a new era of risk.”
More than 30 researchers from SIPRI and other institutions contributed to the Environment of Peace report, guided by a panel of international experts on environment and security led by Margot Wallström, the former Swedish Foreign Minister and European Commissioner for the Environment.
Last Updated: January 16, 2023 by admin Leave a Comment
New > United Nations Agreement To Protect Biodiversity
A historic agreement to protect biodiversity was reached at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Canada. Nations agreed to preserve 30 percent of the planet’s land, oceans and coastal areas by 2030. The agreement is critical to protecting biodiversity and restoring ecosystems.
Learn more from the United Nations
Last Updated: December 7, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment
Challenges Abound as World Population Reaches 8 Billion
The global population reached 8 billion people in November. According to the United Nations, the moment underscores the need for humanity to look beyond the numbers and meet its shared responsibility to protect people and the planet, starting with the most vulnerable.
“Unless we bridge the yawning chasm between the global haves and have-nots, we are setting ourselves up for an 8-billion-strong world filled with tensions and mistrust, crisis and conflict,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
While the world’s population will continue to grow to around 10.4 billion in the 2080s, the overall rate of growth is slowing down. The world is more demographically diverse than ever before, with countries facing starkly different population trends ranging from growth to decline. Today, two-thirds of the global population lives in a low fertility context, where the lifetime fertility is below 2.1 births per woman. At the same time, population growth has become increasingly concentrated among the world’s poorest countries, most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Against this backdrop, the global community must ensure that all countries, regardless of whether their populations are growing or shrinking, are equipped to provide a good quality of life for their populations and can lift up and empower their most marginalized people.
“A world of 8 billion is a milestone for humanity – the result of longer lifespans, reductions in poverty, and declining maternal and childhood mortality. Yet, focusing on numbers alone distracts us from the real challenge we face: securing a world in which progress can be enjoyed equally and sustainably,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA executive director. “We cannot rely on one-size-fits-all solutions in a world in which the median age is 41 in Europe compared to 17 in sub-Saharan Africa. To succeed, all population policies must have reproductive rights at their core, invest in people and planet, and be based on solid data.”
Key facts and figures at a glance
More information is available from the UN
Posted: November 25, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment
UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) Takes Action
The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), that took place in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh, concluded on Nov. 20 with a historic decision to establish and operationalize a loss and damage fund.
Welcoming the decision and calling the fund essential, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that more needs to be done to drastically reduce emissions now. “The world still needs a giant leap on climate ambition.”
“The red line we must not cross is the line that takes our planet over the 1.5 degree temperature limit,” Guterres stressed, urging the world not to relent “in the fight for climate justice and climate ambition.”
“We can and must win this battle for our lives,” he concluded.
COP27 held high-level and side events, key negotiations, and press conferences, hosting more than 100 Heads of State and Governments, over 35,000 participants and numerous pavilions showcasing climate action around the world and across different sectors.
Learn more about COP27 and climate change
Last Updated: October 30, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment
New Thinking: Balancing Industry and Climate Change
Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures.
In a series of UN reports, thousands of scientists and government reviewers agreed that limiting global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C would help us avoid the worst climate impacts and maintain a livable climate. Yet based on current national climate plans, global warming is projected to reach around 3.2°C by the end of the century.
The emissions that cause climate change come from every part of the world and affect everyone, but some countries produce much more than others. The 100 least-emitting countries generate 3 per cent of total emissions. The 10 countries with the largest emissions contribute 68 per cent. Everyone must take climate action, but people and countries creating more of the problem have a greater responsibility to act first.
Posted: October 5, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment
Winners of UN SDG Action Awards
The winners of this the 2022 United Nations SDG Action Awards were announced at a ceremony in Bonn, Germany. The awards sought initiatives that mobilize, inspire, and connect people to drive action towards a more sustainable future on a healthy planet — those that are flipping the script and rethinking how we live. The finalists were selected from over 3,000 applications from 150 countries.
Posted: September 16, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment
The SDG Moment: Update from the United Nations
The SDG Moment serves to place an annual spotlight on the Sustainable Development Goals and will be held at the beginning of the United Nation’s General Assembly’s High-Level Week. It takes place as the world faces a deepening cost-of-living crisis that carries huge implications for the advancement of the SDGs, especially in developing countries.
The third SDG Moment will take place in-person on Monday, 19 September 2022. This 90-minute event in the United Nations General Assembly Hall, will set the scene and lead into the Transforming Education Summit.
Goals include:
Posted: August 23, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment
Nations United: Urgent Solutions for Urgent Times
Nations United is a special, first of its kind film, created by the United Nations on its 75th Anniversary and to mark five years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. In the midst of a pandemic radically transforming our world, Nations United tells the story of the world as it is, as it was, and as it could be. It focuses on the solutions and action we need to tackle poverty, inequality, injustice and climate change.
Featuring the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, Malala Yousafzai, Don Cheadle, Michelle Yeoh, Forest Whitaker, Thandie Newton, Sugata Mitra and an exclusive performance from Grammy nominated singer Burna Boy, and a new version of a previous UN performance by multi-Grammy award winning artist, Beyoncé.
Last Updated: July 17, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment
UN Releases Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022
The newly released United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 reviews progress of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using the latest available data and estimates, the report gives the global community a reality check on the devastating impacts of multiple crises affecting people’s lives and livelihoods. It details the reversal of years of progress in eradicating poverty and hunger, improving health and education, providing basic services, and much more. The report also highlights areas that need urgent actions in order to rescue the SDGs and deliver meaningful progress for people and the planet by 2030. The report is prepared by UN DESA in collaboration with more than 50 international and regional organizations.
Last Updated: July 2, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment
2022 UN Ocean Conference Focuses on Sustainability
The UN Ocean Conference, from June 27-July 1, provides a unique opportunity to boost collective efforts and find innovative solutions to effectively address the challenges facing the world’s oceans.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 is about conserving and sustainably using the world’s ocean and marine resources. Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface. As the planet’s largest ecosystem, the oceans regulate the climate, generate oxygen, and provide livelihoods for billions.
Oceans also contributes to current and future sustainable economic growth. Healthy, productive, sustainable, and resilient oceans are fundamental to life on our planet and to our future.
But climate change poses adverse effects on the ocean and marine life, including the rise in ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, deoxygenation, sea level rise, the decrease in polar ice coverage, decrease in marine biodiversity, as well as coastal erosion and extreme weather events and related impacts on island and coastal communities. Cumulative human activities also cause ecosystem degradation and species extinctions. 2022 is the year to stop the decline.
“We need to save our ocean to protect our future,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Posted: May 30, 2022 by admin Leave a Comment
World Faces a New Era of Risk
World leaders are failing to prepare for a new era of complex and often unpredictable risks to peace as profound environmental and security crises converge and intensify, according to a major report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The report, Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk, offers policymakers principles and recommendations for navigating this volatile future. It will be launched today in a special session before the opening of the ninth Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development.
The report provides the most comprehensive account to date of how different aspects of environmental crisis—including climate change, mass extinctions and resource scarcity—are interacting with today’s darkening security horizon and other phenomena such as the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also offers governments and other decision-making bodies recommendations for action, and principles to guide them.
“Our new report for policymakers goes beyond simply showing that environmental change can increase risks to peace and security. That’s established,”said SIPRI Director and Environment of Peace author Dan Smith. “What our research reveals is the complexity and breadth of that relationship, the many forms it can take. And most of all, we show what can be done about it; how we can deliver peace and security in a new era of risk.”
More than 30 researchers from SIPRI and other institutions contributed to the Environment of Peace report, guided by a panel of international experts on environment and security led by Margot Wallström, the former Swedish Foreign Minister and European Commissioner for the Environment.
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