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Millions of people displaced by conflict or persecution from Ukraine, Afghanistan and across the Middle East could face a perilous winter as freezing temperatures add to the misery already that they are already suffering from spiralling prices, the lingering impact of COVID-19 and extreme weather linked to the climate crisis, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.

Food import costs globally are projected to reach nearly $2 trillion this year, or higher than previously expected, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report published on Friday. 

Negotiations, sharing solutions aimed at curbing emissions by the world’s biggest-polluting industries, as well as continued calls for climate justice and finance for hard-hit developing countries were in the spotlight on Friday as the latest UN Climate Conference reached its midway point in Egypt.

Next week, the world’s population is due to reach eight billion, which the UN chief is describing as “a testament to scientific breakthroughs and improvements in nutrition, public health and sanitation”.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners are continuing to reach growing numbers of people impacted by the war on the ground with life-saving assistance, a UN spokesperson told journalists on Thursday.

Armed with banners, picket signs, megaphones, and especially with heart-wrenching testimonies backed by scientific and economic facts, the youth took over the halls of COP27 on Thursday to demand that negotiators address the issue of loss and damage.

A UN-appointed independent human rights expert on Thursday, urged States to lift unilateral sanctions against Syria, warning that they are perpetuating and exacerbating the destruction and trauma suffered by ordinary citizens since the brutal war began there in 2011. 

Climate change is forcing nearly half of young Africans to rethink their plans to have children someday, a global poll conducted by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed, underlining their uncertainty about the future of a planet in crisis.  

The global building and construction boom has pushed the sector’s CO2 emissions to an all-time high of 10 gigatonnes, meaning that it is now “off track” to meet decarbonization pledges by 2050, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Wednesday.

The first of the ‘thematic’ days kicked off on Wednesday at COP27, focused on finance, and activists made it clear right from the start that there must be a global push to re-direct the hundreds of billions of dollars invested annually in fossil fuels to help fund community-led renewable energy initiatives.

The second day of COP27’s Climate Implementation Summit saw world leaders raise their voices for concrete action, particularly on adaptation and the thorny issue of loss and damage.

While a growing number of governments and non-State actors are pledging to be carbon-free, the criteria for net-zero commitments can have loopholes wide enough to “drive a diesel truck through”, the UN Secretary-General decried as his expert group on the matter published its first report on Tuesday.

Amidst Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since independence, the UN on Tuesday revised its joint Humanitarian Needs and Priorities (HNP) Plan, appealing for more life-saving assistance to aid 3.4 million people.

Overwhelming flooding has affected at least 27.7 million children across 27 countries worldwide, with the number of children affected by flooding in Chad, Gambia, Pakistan and northeast Bangladesh, being the highest in over 30 years.

At the opening of the two-day Climate Implementation Summit at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, António Guterres called for a historic pact between developed and developing countries to combine capacities, and pivot the world towards reducing carbon emissions, transforming energy systems and avoiding a climate catastrophe.

Global action to fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing has intensified, the Food and Agriculture Organization said on Monday, noting that 100 States have now signed on to an international agreement battling the scourge.

Greater global solidarity is needed to address the rapidly unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in the Horn of Africa, where millions are going hungry due to two years of unprecedented drought, UN agencies and partners said in a statement on Monday. 

With climate-related disasters displacing more people than conflict, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday unveiled the details of his plan to ensure everyone on the planet is protected by early warning systems within the next five years. 

Although the global cost-of-living crisis will be an obstacle to eradicating poverty by 2030, countries can still make significant progress towards this Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), UN-appointed human rights expert Olivier de Schutter has said. 

The UN Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, should shift the world towards implementation of previously agreed plans to tackle humanity’s greatest challenge, Simon Stiell, the new Executive Secretary of the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC), said on Sunday at the opening of COP27.

The latest report from the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), released on Sunday, shows that the last eight years have been the warmest on record, fuelled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations.

The impact of climate change on health if carbon emissions remain high, could be up to twice as deadly as cancer in some parts of the world, according to new data released on Friday by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Climate Impact Lab.

Some of the world’s most iconic glaciers are set to disappear by 2050, according to a new study by UNESCO, which highlights the accelerated melting of glaciers in World Heritage sites.

The number of people in South Sudan who are going hungry is at the highest level ever, UN agencies said in their latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, issued on Thursday.  

Russia’s decision to rejoin the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the Ethiopian agreement to end the war in Tigray demonstrate the power of multilateralism in action, said the UN chief on Thursday, in a call for countries to also rebuild trust between the North and South at the UN’s COP27 climate conference in Egypt.

Countries must urgently ramp up action to adapt to the current and future impacts of climate change, as efforts now are too little and too slow, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in its latest report, published on Thursday. 

Humanity’s basic right to life is being threatened by insufficient action in the face of the climate emergency, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned on Wednesday.

Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past 30 years – the highest of any continent in the world. As the warming trend continues, exceptional heat, wildfires, floods and other climate change impacts will affect society, economies and ecosystems, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday issued a statement warmly welcoming Russia’s decision to resume its participation in the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which has allowed nearly ten million metric tonnes of vital foodstuffs to be shipped from Ukraine.

A peace deal between the Ethiopian Government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed on Wednesday in South Africa, represents “a critical first step” towards ending the brutal two year war, said the UN chief.