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Ending the “war on nature” must be part of global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday in his message for World Oceans Day. 

Confirmation that Europe has just had its chilliest Spring in years is cold comfort for the planet, amid rising greenhouse gas levels which will bring negative impacts for generations to come, UN weather experts said on Tuesday.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and partners are working to restore water supply to roughly 200,000 people, including some 100,000 children, affected by the volcanic eruption last month in Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). 

During the last decade, more people around the world have gained access to electricity than ever before. However, the number still not connected has grown in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, according to a new UN report on universal access to energy, launched on Monday. 

A Ugandan woman entrepreneur who was left with just a wheelbarrow and a red dress, when a business partner ran off with all her money has been recognized with an award by the UN trade agency (UNCTAD) after she grew her company into a nationwide enterprise with five million customers.

Heads of Government, religious leaders, activists and artists joined the United Nations on Friday in a rallying cry to heal the planet, launching the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. 

Amidst the triple environmental threat of biodiversity loss, climate disruption and escalating pollution, Secretary-General António Guterres launched “an unprecedented effort to heal the Earth”, on the eve of World Environment Day. 

The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has called for “clear and unequivocal guarantees” over the safety and security of staff working to restore critical services in Gaza, following last month’s conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas, which controls the occupied enclave.

An area of land roughly the size of China needs restoring if the planet’s biodiversity and the communities who rely on it are to be protected, UN agencies said on Thursday.

Climate change is making pests which ravage important agricultural crops even more destructive, heightening threats to global food security and the environment, a UN-backed study published on Wednesday has found. 

Senior UN health agency officials on Wednesday called for unhindered humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, citing growing concerns about urgent health needs there. 

The economic crisis caused by the COVID pandemic is expected to contribute to global unemployment of more than 200 million people next year, with women and youth workers worst-hit, UN labour experts said on Wednesday.

With the coronavirus still raging in many parts of the world, the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, warned on Tuesday of vaccine shortages, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, and urged “immediate and stronger support” for the global COVAX initiative for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, “including for refugees and asylum-seekers”. 

More than one million people in two areas of the war-ravaged Tigray region in Ethiopia have received emergency food assistance since distributions began in March, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on Tuesday. 

The world must harness “clear, transformative and actionable solutions” to address the ocean crisis, the President of the UN General Assembly said on Tuesday, opening a meeting to generate momentum towards the 2022 UN Ocean Conference, when public health safety measures allow. 

In Haiti, the number of severely malnourished under-fives could more than double this year, UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Monday. Some could die if they do not receive timely treatment.

When Nigerian Blessing Ojukwu became pregnant after she was raped, her family disowned her. She was forced to live with her abuser, who continued to attack her. Now, a UN-backed initiative is giving her, and others in similar situations, a chance to become financially independent, and start new lives. 

“Ghost fishing” occurs when abandoned fishing gear dumped in the ocean traps and kills fish or other underwater life, and it is causing devastation to marine environments, warns the UN food agency, FAO.

Australian biologist Sacha Dench has been nicknamed “the Human Swan”, in recognition of her record-breaking, 7,000 kilometre, paramotor (motorized paraglider) flight, tracking Bewick swans across 11 countries, from Arctic Russian to the UK. Ahead of International Day for Biological Diversity, Ms. Dench explains why a drastic shift is needed in the global economy, to save endangered wildlife.

A renewed focus on boosting the production of millets and highlighting their benefits, is critical to reducing over-reliance on more commonly grown crops, boosting diverse diets, and food security. That’s especially true during periods of natural disaster when food becomes scarce, according to Dr Nancy Aburto, an agriculture expert at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 

The threat of new volcanic eruptions from Mount  Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have triggered thousands of residents to flee from the eastern city of Goma, the UN humanitarian office said on Friday.  

UN humanitarians expressed deep concern on Friday about serious and ongoing abuses carried out against displaced civilians who are also facing dire food insecurity in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, after months of conflict. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought “a tsunami of suffering”, taken over 3.4 million lives and 500 million jobs, while wiping trillions of dollars from global balance sheets, Secretary-General António Guterres told business leaders on Thursday, appealing for equitable vaccine distribution worldwide. 

With fears that one of the world’s most active volcanoes could erupt again in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is warning that up to 400,000 – nearly 280,000 children – could be displaced and in need of protection or support, if the current exodus continues.

Annual investments in nature-based solutions will have to triple by 2030, and increase four-fold by 2050, if the world is to successfully tackle the triple threat of climate, biodiversity and land degradation crises, according to a new UN-backed study published on Thursday. 

Only a political solution will end the “senseless and costly cycles of violence” between Israelis and Palestinians, UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland said in a briefing to the Security Council on Thursday. 

Odds are increasing that the annual average global temperature will rise beyond 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, in at least one of the next five years, the UN weather agency warns in a new report issued on Thursday.

Violent conflict, terrorism and human rights abuses continue in Syria as its besieged population suffers economic destitution, displacement, detention and abduction, the UN’s Special Envoy for the country told the Security Council on Wednesday. 

The international legal framework and tools are all there to protect civilians caught up in conflict, and now it’s time for governments and armed groups to apply them, the UN relief chief told the Security Council on Tuesday.

Africa’s rich, diverse cultural and natural heritage, is important for sustainable development, poverty reduction, and “building and maintaining peace”, the UN chief said on Tuesday, marking the international day celebrating the continent.  “This year’s Africa Day highlights arts, culture and heritage as levers for building the Africa we want”, Secretary-General António Guterres     said in his commemorative message.