Page 24 - United Nations

Elon Musk meets Iran's UN envoy as Trump prepares for January takeover

US-Iran relations: Iranian diplomats described the discussions with the tech entrepreneur as 'positive' and 'good news'

Developing nations need $1 trn a year by 2030: Climate finance group

Negotiators at the UN climate conference in Azerbaijan should focus on mobilising USD 1 trillion per year by 2030 to help developing countries cope with the warming world, a new report the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance said on Thursday. This money, according to the group of international climate finance experts, is needed from public and private sources. As countries negotiate at COP29 a new climate finance package to support developing countries beyond 2025, the report cautions against the risks of delayed action. Any shortfall in investment before 2030 will place added pressure on the years that follow, creating a steeper and potentially more costly path to climate stability," Failing to invest sufficiently now, it warns, "Means we will need to mobilise even larger sums in shorter time frames to catch up on critical targets." The report said global climate action requires USD 6.36.7 trillion annually by 2030, with USD 2.4 trillion per year needed ...

A 34-page complex climate finance draft sparks concern in COP29 summit

An overly lengthy 34-page draft on a new climate finance goal emerged on the third day of the UN climate talks in Azerbaijan's Baku on Wednesday, but the text is filled with repetitions and duplications, making it difficult to work with. While it includes all the elements everyone wanted, there is growing concern as three days have already passed with little progress. Observers say all negotiating groups have now asked the co-facilitators to condense the document to make it more manageable. The G77 and China group requested the co-chairs to organise the draft text by themes and not add new ideas to it. There were three options for structuring the climate finance goal in the draft framework prepared in October by the co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Work Programme on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG). The new draft now presents 13 sub-options too. The new finance text is expected to include the same options for the goal as the previous two drafts. One of the options is a specific dol

Ongoing military exercise VINBAX-24 at Ambala to boost Indo-Vietnam ties

The 5th Edition of "VINBAX 2024" is being conducted from November 4 to 23 at Ambala and Chandimandir

India reiterates stand on terrorism, highlights peacekeeping efforts at UN

Counsellor Eldos Mathew Punnoos from India delivered the statement at the General Debate in the Fourth Committee of the UN General Assembly

UN climate talks give all nations a platform to address climate change

When more than two dozen world leaders deliver remarks at the United Nations' annual climate conference on Wednesday, many are likely to detail their nations' firsthand experience with the catastrophic weather that has come with climate change. That could include Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose nation has seen deadly flooding this year from monsoon rains that scientists say have become heavier with climate change. Just two years ago, more than 1,700 people died in widespread flooding. Pakistan has also suffered from dangerous heat, with thousands of people hospitalised with heatstroke this spring as temperatures soared to 47 degrees Celsius. Also on the list of speakers Wednesday is Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Edward Davis. Like many other countries in the Global South, the Bahamas has piled up debt from warming-connected weather disasters it did little to cause, including Hurricanes Dorian in 2019 and Matthew in 2016. Leaders have been seeking help and money from the

US prohibits airlines from flying to Haiti, UN temporarily suspends flights

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday that it will prohibit US airlines from flying to Haiti for 30 days after gangs shot two planes and the United Nations will temporarily suspend flights to Port-au-Prince, limiting humanitarian aid coming into the country. Bullets hit the Spirit Airlines plane when it was about to land Monday in the country's capital, injuring a flight attendant and forcing the airport to shut down. Photos and videos obtained by The Associated Press show bullet holes dotting the interior of a plane. On Tuesday, JetBlue announced that its plane had also been shot while departing Port-au-Prince on Monday. The shootings were part of a wave of violence that erupted as the country plagued by gang violence swore in its new prime minister after a politically tumultuous process. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the agency documented 20 armed clashes and more roadblocks affecting humanitarian operation during the violence Monday. The Port-au-Prince airpo

Pak PM calls for $6.8 trillion in climate funding for developing nations

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday called for USD 6.8 trillion in climate funding for developing countries by 2030. Sharif was speaking at a climate finance roundtable hosted by Pakistan during the 29th UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Azerbaijan's capital Baku. According to live coverage of his speech by Pakistani TV channels, the prime minister stressed that developing countries were facing huge climate challenges but were often left without adequate resources to meet them. We need urgent climate finance to tackle issues brought by environmental changes, Sharif said, as he asked the developed countries to fulfil promises that have remained largely unmet despite repeated commitments. Developing countries require USD 6.8 trillion in financing by 2030 to manage the impacts of climate change effectively, the premier said. He pointed out that while a climate finance goal of USD 100 billion annually was set in 2009, increasing this target is now crucial as the

Israeli work on Alpha Line with Syria saw severe cease-fire violations: UN

United Nations peacekeepers warned Tuesday that the Israeli military has committed severe violations of a cease-fire deal with Syria as its military continues a major construction project along the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria. The comments from the UN Disengagement Observer Force, which has patrolled the area since 1974, come after an Associated Press report Monday that published satellite imagery showing the extent of the works along the frontier. The work, which UNDOF said began in July, follows the completion by the Israeli military of new roadways and what appears to be a buffer zone along the Gaza Strip's frontier with Israel. The Israel military also has begun demolishing villages in Lebanon, where other UN peacekeepers have come under fire. While such violence hasn't broken out along the Alpha Line, UNDOF warned Tuesday the work risked further inflaming tensions in the region. Such severe violations of the (demilitarized

Donald Trump picks Afghanistan vet Mike Waltz as National Security Advisor

The person familiar requested anonymity to discuss the selection. Waltz's congressional office did not immediately respond to requests for comment

Targets unchanged a year after deal on tripling renewables by 2030: Report

A year after countries agreed to triple global renewable energy capacity to 11,000 gigawatts by 2030, a new report on Tuesday revealed that national targets still only aim for a collective doubling of capacity in the next six years. The report by global energy think tank Ember showed only eight countries have updated their renewable targets in the last 12 months, resulting in just a four-GW increase in overall renewable energy targets globally. The report analysed national 2030 renewable capacity targets for 96 countries and the EU as a bloc. These countries collectively account for 96 per cent of the world's renewable capacity, 95 per cent of global electricity sector demand and 94 per cent of global power sector emissions. Of the 96 countries, 83 have renewable capacity targets for 2030. At the UN's climate conference in December 2023 in Dubai, world leaders reached a historic agreement to triple global renewables capacity by 2030. The International Energy Agency (IEA) and ...

Afghanistan attends UN climate talks for first time since Taliban's return

Afghanistan's first delegation at United Nations climate talks since the Taliban's return to power in 2021 has arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan on Monday in a bid to garner support for climate action in the climate-vulnerable nation. Matuil Haq Khalis, who's head of the country's environment protection agency, told The Associated Press that Afghanistan is among the worst affected nations by climate change and needs the world's support to deal with extreme weather like erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts and flash floods. All the countries must join hands and tackle the problem of climate change, said Khalis, speaking through a translator. Afghanistan is particularly vulnerable to climate change, with a recent assessment by climate experts ranking it the sixth most climate vulnerable country in the world. In March this year, northern Afghanistan was hit by heavy rains resulting in flash floods, killing over 300 people. Climate scientists have found that extreme rainfall has gotten 25 pe

COP29: United Nations calls for urgent climate action, financial commitment

Soaring rhetoric, urgent pleas and pledges of cooperation contrasted with a backdrop of seismic political changes, global wars and economic hardships as United Nations annual climate talks began Monday and got right to the hard part: money. In Baku, Azerbaijan, where the world's first oil well was drilled and the smell of the fuel was noticeable outdoors, the two-week session, called COP29, got right to the major focus of striking a new deal on how many hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars a year will flow from rich nations to poor to try to curb and adapt to climate change. The money is to help the developing world transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy, compensate for climate disasters mostly triggered by carbon pollution from rich nations and adapt to future extreme weather. These numbers may sound big but they are nothing compared to the cost of inaction, the new COP29 president, Mukhtar Babayev, said as he to

New COP29 climate finance target at benefits all, says UN climate chief

Setting ambitious objectives for the COP29 climate summit here, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell on Monday emphasised the need for an updated global climate finance target and robust action on carbon markets. Stiell's remarks came during the opening of the 29th session of the climate change conference of parties (COP29) in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. India's key priorities at the conference are likely to focus on ensuring accountability for developed nations on climate finance, strengthening resilience for vulnerable communities, and achieving an equitable energy transition, experts anticipate. Stiell delivered a rallying call to global leaders, emphasising the urgency of coordinated action on climate change. Stiell's address highlighted that despite incremental progress, COP remains the sole forum for addressing the escalating climate crisis globally. "This UNFCCC process is the only place we have to address the rampant climate crisis, and to credibly hold

Lebanon: Traumatised by war, children facing physical and emotional scars

Curled up in his father's lap, clinging to his chest, Hussein Mikdad cried his heart out. The 4-year-old kicked his doctor with his intact foot and pushed him away with the arm that was not in a cast. My Dad! My Dad!" Hussein said. "Make him leave me alone! With eyes tearing up in relief and pain, the father reassured his son and pulled him closer. Hussein and his father, Hassan, are the only survivors of their family after an Israeli airstrike last month on their Beirut neighbourhood. The strike killed 18 people, including his mother, three siblings and six relatives. Can he now shower? the father asked the doctor. Ten days after surgery, doctors examining Hussein's wounds said the boy is healing properly. He has rods in his fractured right thigh and stitches that assembled his torn tendons back in place on the right arm. The pain has subsided, and Hussein should be able to walk again in two months albeit with a lingering limp. A prognosis for Hussein's invisible wounds is much .

UN climate talks to focus on money to help poor nations cut pollution

A complex international two-week-long game of climate change poker is convening. The stakes? Just the fate of an ever-warming world. Curbing and coping with climate change's worsening heat, floods, droughts and storms will cost trillions of dollars and poor nations just don't have it, numerous reports and experts calculate. As United Nations climate negotiations started Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan, the chief issue is who must ante up to help poor nations and especially how much. The numbers are enormous. The floor in negotiations is the $100 billion a year that poor nations based on a categorization made in the 1990s now get as part of a 2009 agreement that was barely met. Several experts and poorer nations say the need is $1 trillion a year or more. It's a game with high stakes, said Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare, a physicist. Right now the fate of the planet depends very much on what we're able to pull off in the next five or 10 years. But this year's talks, known as COP29, wo

'Super year for elections' turns tumultuous for those currently in power

2024 saw a string of elections globally, with incumbents struggling, historic shifts in Africa and Europe, and firsts for women in leadership, writes Archis Mohan

No reason to scale back our domestic targets, says CEEW's Arunabha Ghosh

Expectations from this year's COP are clear on issues, whether we have a ministerial presence or not, Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of Council for Energy Environment and Water, said in his interview

India slams Pakistan's rhetoric on Kashmir in strong UN Right of Reply

In a strong retort, India slammed Pakistan for peddling falsehood after it referred to Jammu and Kashmir during a debate on peacekeeping operations in the UN. India chooses its right to reply in response to the comments made by Pakistan that has yet again made an attempt to divert this august body from its agenda, Member of the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sudhanshu Trivedi said. His remarks came during a debate on peacekeeping operations at the Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth Committee) of the UN General Assembly here Friday. Trivedi asserted that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will remain an integral part of India. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have recently exercised their democratic and electoral rights and elected a new government. Pakistan must desist from such rhetoric and falsehood because it will not alter the facts, Trivedi said. He added that out of respect for the august members of the UN for

Climate finance adaptation grew by 32% in 2022, but large gap remains: UN

International public finance to help developing countries adapt to climate change increased from USD 22 billion in 2021 to USD 28 billion in 2022, but there remains a huge gap between what is needed and what is being delivered, according to a new UN report. At the UN climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, developed nations were urged to at least double their adaptation funding for developing countries from about USD 19 billion in 2019 by 2025. The UN climate summit in Dubai in December 2023 repeated this call, asking developed countries to report progress in 2024. The "Adaptation Gap Report 2024: Come Hell and High Water" from the United Nations Environment Programme on Thursday said even achieving the Glasgow Climate Pact goal would only reduce the adaptation finance gap, estimated at USD 187-359 billion per year, by around 5 per cent. Earlier in the day, European climate change agency Copernicus said it is almost certain that 2024 will be the warmest year on record and the first .