United Nations

UN Launches Study of Global Warming "Cap"

April 25, 2016

Reuters reports that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has launched a study to determine the feasibility of limiting global warming to an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal set out in a global UN climate agreement signed by governments in New York last week.
UN Pushes Implementation of Climate Agenda in Africa

April 22, 2016

At the recent African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, an initiative affiliated with the UN Environment Programme and held in Cairo, government ministers from Africa agreed to speed along their implementation of the UN's climate change and sustainable development agendas in preparation for the UN Environment Assembly in May.
World Bank Chief Warns Against Coal Projects

April 22, 2016

At a press conference where he identified climate change, mass migration, and a potential global pandemic as the three major threats to the world economy, the website Climate Home reports that World Bank President Jim Yong Kim warned that new coal-fired power plants could counter the efforts by countries to mitigate climate change under the UN climate deal.
Coalition Works Toward Global Mechanism on Carbon Taxation

April 22, 2016

At its first High Level Assembly in Washington, DC, the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, launched during the 2015 UN climate talks in Paris, began monitoring the progress of a global system imposing a tax on carbon emissions and collaborating with governments, nongovernmental organizations, and businesses to support this system.
UN Chief Seeks Trillions in Funding for SDGs

April 21, 2016

At a recent UN forum on development finance in New York, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for the mobilization of trillions of dollars annually, using the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on development as a "starting point," to fund the UN's comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals ("SDGs") for the year 2030.
UN Official Forms Coalition on Gender Pay Issues

April 21, 2016

In a press release, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka states that she is working to develop an international coalition that will press governments around the world to enact measures that close the "gender pay gap" through policies that provide pay for domestic work and the establishment of a "universal, free childcare system."
UN Agent: ISDS "Undermines" Democracy

April 21, 2016

UN Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas has called on countries to phase out the use of any "privatized or semi-privatized" dispute settlement, including the investor-state dispute settlement ("ISDS") system, in current and future trade agreements, asserting that these systems permit "predatory" investors and companies to "undermine" democracy and human rights.
US, China Push for Early Action on UN Climate Deal

April 20, 2016

The Guardian reports that, due to a late change to provisions in the UN climate deal negotiated in December that some of its parties did not notice, officials in the US and China are indicating that they plan to bring into force the agreement, which provides for restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, as early as this year.
Resolution Seeks US Veto of UN Action on Palestine

April 20, 2016

Asserting that the UN "cannot be a truly neutral arbiter" of the conflict, a bipartisan resolution introduced in the US House of Representatives calls for the President to continue the longstanding practice of vetoing any UN Security Council resolution that seeks to impose a solution or timeline on the Israel-Palestine peace process.
Experts Urge Financial Pressure on UN to Counter Sex Abuse

April 20, 2016

George Russell writes that, as new reports of sex abuse by UN peacekeeping forces continue to come to light, some experts argued at a subcommittee hearing in the US House of Representatives that Congress must threaten to withhold funding until the UN approves a proper, independent investigation of the scandal.