What's New

The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, will undertake a human rights fact-finding mission to Lebanon from 1 to 12 November 2021 to examine the Government’s efforts to alleviate poverty in the country.

If you’ve been following the UN for any period of time, you will quickly notice the plethora of acronyms, initialisations and jargon that abound across the Organization. There will be plenty more to confuse you at COP26 (a classic example in itself), so here’s our handy guide to help you make sense of some of the key buzz words you’ll be hearing, as the landmark climate change conference gets going. 

Bridging the financial and technical gaps that will limit global warming, is the focus of a high-level debate in the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. 

The day-long meeting comes just ahead of the COP26 climate change conference for countries to deliver on the promise of keeping global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement. 

The Middle East Green Initiative launch in Saudi Arabia on Monday was hailed by the UN’s deputy chief as a valuable commitment and strategic vision, to transition regional economies away from unsustainable development, to a model “fit for the challenges of the 21st century”.

With only a few days until the G20 Summit of leading industrialized nations in Rome, followed immediately by the UN climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed lauded the new initiative.

New or updated climate action plans by governments can be effective in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but greater efforts are needed to keep global warming at bay, the UN climate change office (UNFCCC) said in a new report on Monday. 

While multilateralism remains “committed to solving global challenges”, the deputy UN chief said on Sunday, United Nations Day, it is “struggling to find the path to effective implementation”.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme’s (UN-Habitat) Regional Office for Arab States and Lebanon Country Programme together with the Lebanese Ministry of Environment, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (UN ESCWA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched a regional project aimed at increasing the capacity of local authorities, displaced persons and host communities in Lebanon to better address climate change related water scarcity.

Plastic pollution in oceans and other bodies of water continues to grow sharply and could more than double by 2030, according to an assessment released on Thursday by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). 

Between 80,000 and 180,000 health and care workers may have died from COVID-19 between January of 2020 and May of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. 

Four children – three boys and a girl - were killed on Monday morning while travelling to school in northwest Syria, along with a teacher, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.