Links tagged “un”

"This is, perhaps, the best piece of news to emerge so far from the otherwise miserable coronavirus pandemic. It’s good for the planet: 30,000 or more freeloading ‘delegates’ will no longer be converging on Glasgow this December and racking up enough air miles to wipe out entire families of cute baby polar bears."

Destruction of wildlife and the climate crisis is hurting humanity, with Covid-19 a ‘clear warning shot’, say experts ...

Nature is sending us a message with the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing climate crisis, according to the UN’s environment chief, Inger Andersen.

Andersen said humanity was placing too many pressures on the natural world with damaging consequences, and warned that failing to take care of the planet meant not taking care of ourselves. Leading scientists also said the Covid-19 outbreak was a “clear warning shot”, given that far more deadly diseases existed in wildlife, and that today’s civilisation was “playing with fire”. They said it was almost always human behaviour that caused diseases to spill over into humans.

To prevent further outbreaks, the experts said, both global heating and the destruction of the natural world for farming, mining and housing have to end, as both drive wildlife into contact with people.

U.N. FORCED TO PIVOT: During his virtual press conference, Guterres gave a nod to the Paris Agreement. He said the pandemic could create an opportunity to rebuild the global economy along more sustainable lines. But he made it clear the world must focus first on the coronavirus crisis. ...

The United Nations’ main climate change initiatives have been moved online or are on hold. Several planned U.N. climate action gatherings have been canceled or delayed. The offices of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have canceled all in-person meetings and foreign travel, and are working to arrange online conferences where possible.

Most recently, the U.N. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a body based in Montreal, called off a series of regional meetings meant to roll out a new emissions trading program to begin this month. ICAO said the regional planning seminars for its carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation simply have been postponed. But no new dates have been proposed.