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The UN Secretary-General is calling on business leaders to use their “enormous influence” to push for inclusive growth and opportunities that benefit all people and the planet.

António Guterres made the appeal in an op-ed first published earlier this week in the Financial Times.

“It is both good ethics and good business to invest in sustainable, equitable development,” he wrote.

“Corporate leadership can make all the difference to creating a future of peace, stability and prosperity on a healthy planet.”

Since nobody is born to hate, intolerance can be prevented and unlearned, the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday, in a speech underlining his continued fight to stamp out antisemitism, racism and other forms of hatred.

António Guterres was speaking at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York which was marking the 81st anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom carried out by the Nazi regime.

Greater action is needed to protect the environment during wartime if the world is to realize the goal of a more sustainable future for all people and the planet, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned on Wednesday.

The Commissioner-General for the UN relief and works agency serving Palestine refugees, UNRWA, resigned on Wednesday, hours after the UN announced preliminary findings of an investigation into misconduct allegations.

Outgoing UNRWA chief, Pierre Krähenbühl, was placed on leave earlier in the day, as UN chief António Guterres named Christian Saunders acting Officer-in-Charge of the agency, based on preliminary report findings from the UN’s internal oversight body, OIOS.

At the core of peacekeeping lies the notion of shared responsibility, the UN peacekeeping chief said on Tuesday, presenting this year’s award for Female Police Officer of the Year, to a woman who “has made a career of speaking up and speaking out on behalf of all vulnerable populations”.

Each year, an estimated eight million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean – equivalent to a full garbage truck dumped into the sea every minute - the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Monday.

Between 60 to 90 per cent of the litter that accumulates on shorelines, the surface and the sea floor is made up of plastic. 

The head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is appealing for countries to repatriate scores of foreign children who are stranded in northeast Syria in the wake of the Turkish-launched offensive which began last month.

The agency estimates nearly 28,000 children from more than 60 countries remain trapped in the region, mostly in displacement camps. This includes almost 20,000 from Iraq.

Four of the ten countries most affected by climate change are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Sunday, urging the ASEAN Summit in Bangkok to “confront the world’s climate emergency”.

UN-brokered face-to-face talks between the Syrian Government and opposition – the first to take place in nearly nine years of fighting – to draft a new constitution for the country, will continue into next week, the UN’s Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Friday.

The UN’s weather watchdog and partners committed on Thursday to a new initiative to ramp up observation and prediction technology that will help address the challenges of climate change, melting snow and ice, and water-related hazards.