United Nations

UN Expands Partnership for Promotion of Green Technology

August 07, 2019

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has signed an agreement with the International Renewable Energy Agency to expand their partnership in seeking to promote renewable-energy technology around the world to supplant fossil-fuel energy and help achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord.
UN’s Palestinian Agency Faces Range of Employee Allegations

August 07, 2019

Fox News reports that the UN has launched an investigation into the leadership of the UN Relief and Works Agency, charged with supporting Palestinian refugees and from which the Trump Administration cut off funding last year, based on credible allegations of nepotism, retaliation, discrimination, and sexual misconduct.
NGOs Target Overseas Finance by Export Credit Agencies

August 07, 2019

The Bankwatch Network has published a blog entry calling for greater government oversight of export credit agencies, which the NGO coalition warns are stepping into spaces left by global development banks by facilitating investments in infrastructure projects in “politically volatile countries.”
UNESCO Project Builds Education Around Climate Change

August 01, 2019

The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released a video highlighting its global pilot project encouraging schools “to make climate change a priority in every part of school life.”
US Envoy: UNSC Is Avoiding Real Debate on Mideast Peace

July 31, 2019

In remarks to the UN Security Council, the US President's Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt criticized the Council’s history of “heavily negotiated, purposely ambiguously worded resolutions” as a way for the body “to avoid substantive debate” about a realistic resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
UN Body Targets Israel as “Obstacle” to Women’s Rights

July 29, 2019

The Times of Israel reports that members of the UN Economic and Social Council - including Saudi Arabia and Iran - have targeted Israel and no other country over alleged violations of women’s rights, adopting a resolution citing the “Israeli occupation” as a “major obstacle” to the fulfillment of the rights of Palestinian women.
US Blocks UNSC Resolution on Israeli Demolition of Buildings

July 26, 2019

Reuters reports that US officials have blocked the introduction of a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution condemning Israel’s destruction of apartment buildings, most of which are still under construction, which Israeli authorities argued were built illegally and too close to the West Bank security barrier.
UN Officials: Climate Change Threatens “Sustainability” Agenda

July 26, 2019

The recent UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development included calls by UN officials for governments to treat climate change as a “threat multiplier” that must be tackled for the UN to achieve the targets contained in the organization’s comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals.
UN Official: Asia & Pacific Could Fail on All SDGs

July 26, 2019

Highlighting the idealistic nature of the UN’s comprehensive social and environmental wishlist contained in its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UN Under-Secretary-General Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana has warned that the Asia and Pacific region is not on track to achieve any of the SDGs by the year 2030.
UN Seeks “Gender-Responsive” Climate Action Plans

July 26, 2019

At the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, the UN hosted an event explaining that governments must adopt a “gender-responsive” approach to their policies combating global warming “due to pervasive historical and existing inequalities” leading to greater impacts of environmental degradation on women than on men.