NEW YORK CITY – World leaders issued a political declaration Monday warning that the world is nowhere close to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it set in 2015. The declaration, adopted at the first UN high-level political forum on the SDGs since 2019, comes at a time when progress on the goals has been […] Continue reading ->
European air quality activists have won a key victory in the European Parliament, which approved tough new air pollution rules that would require countries to meet stricter WHO air quality guidelines by 2035, and allow EU citizens to sue for financial compensation for air pollution-related health damage. But the draft legislation still faces an uphill […] Continue reading ->
Thousands of people and hundreds of civil society organisations are expected to march in New York City this weekend to call on US President Joe Biden to use his executive powers to stop the expansion of fossil fuel projects in the country. The march is one of over 400 marches, rallies and protests worldwide coordinated […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) will host a summit on air pollution in Accra, Ghana in 2024, the organization announced on Thursday. The summit will be the second ever to address air pollution, which is responsible for millions of premature deaths each year, and the first to be held in Africa. The announcement was made […] Continue reading ->
Over 20 African countries unanimously adopted the Nairobi Declaration on Wednesday, a document that sets out the continent’s demands for climate finance and debt relief ahead of the United Nations climate negotiations in Dubai later this year. The declaration calls for a global carbon tax on the use and trade of fossil fuels, low-interest loans […] Continue reading ->
The health, development and safety of children in 98% of African countries are severely threatened by the effects of climate change, according to a new report by UNICEF. The report, published ahead of the start of the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi on Monday, found that children in 48 of the 49 African countries for […] Continue reading ->
A draft political declaration on pandemics, due to be adopted by the United Nations General Assembly later this month, offers “little hope” that the UN process will make a difference in global pandemic preparedness, global health experts said on Friday. The document, made public on Thursday, is long on words but short on commitments. The […] Continue reading ->
Three years after the launch of its COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative, the World Health Organization (WHO) has secured its first COVID-19 vaccine license from a private pharmaceutical company, the UN health body announced on Tuesday. The agreement with Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp., a private vaccine manufacturer based in Taiwan, is a welcome but underwhelming […] Continue reading ->
Global fossil fuel subsidies surged to a record $7 trillion in 2022 – $2 trillion more than in 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said in its 2023 report on fuel subsidy trends. The increase comes despite the mounting damage being caused by climate change, and clear scientific evidence that phasing out subsidies would […] Continue reading ->
Fewer than 20 countries worldwide still report COVID-19 hospitalization and ICU data to the World Health Organization (WHO), leaving the UN health body blind to the impact and evolution of the virus in most of the world, agency leaders said Friday. The decline in data reporting is a major setback for the WHO’s efforts to […] Continue reading ->