Countdown to COP27
During the high-level week of the UN General Assembly, world leaders taking the podium to deliver their national statements might have not agreed on much, but there was one common thread that ran through most of their remarks: the need for urgent climate action.
With deadly floods in Pakistan, Europe's hottest summer in 500 years, and with Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and United States hammered by 'monster tropical storms', it's no coincidence that climate change has been in headlines worldwide pretty much every day for the past month.
These events haven't only caused loss of human lives, but also caused suffering and the destruction of infrastructure and natural ecosystems.
As UN Secretary-General António Guterres told journalists on Monday: "we are in a life-or-death struggle for our own safety today and our survival tomorrow".
Ministers are gathered this week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, for a two-day gathering that will pave the way for the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in Egypt in November.
"On every climate front, the only solution is decisive action in solidarity. COP27 is the place for all countries – led by the G-20 – to show they are in this fight and in it together," the UN chief has said.
World leaders not only need to honour the promises made last year in Glasgow but also scale up their commitments to get the planet back on track and limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as agreed in the Paris Agreement.
This will take finance, addressing loss and damage in developing countries and transforming energy systems, among other efforts.
The bar is high, and people around the world suffering the worst climate impacts among a combination of related dangers such as famine, are waiting for their pain to be acknowledged.
The next time you get this newsletter, we will be on our way to COP27 in Sharm El-Sheik. From there, we will keep you informed of the daily developments, and, through the crucial voices of scientists, UN experts and young activists, explain to you just what decisions are being made and how they will affect you.
Today, we open our newsletter telling you about the huge responsibility journalists and news media have amid a changing climate, to not only inform but to ignite action and fight mis/disinformation.
We also share an episode of our signature podcast The Lid Is On, recapping how the high-level portion of the 77th General Assembly drove the climate agenda.
And of course, a lot more, just scroll.
| | | It's a fact: media shapes the public discourse about climate change and how to respond to it. Even the UN's own Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Climate Change (IPCC) warned clearly of this for the first time in the latest of its landmark series of reports.
According to the IPCC, this "shaping" power can usefully build public support to accelerate climate mitigation – the efforts to reduce or prevent the emission of the greenhouse gases that are heating our planet – but it can also be used to do exactly the opposite.
This places a huge responsibility on media companies and journalists. | | Countries bound for COP27 must make climate action 'the top global priority'
As government representatives finalize the agenda for the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, António Guterres told journalists in New York that the work ahead is "as immense as the climate impacts we are seeing around the world".
Read more | | | Australia: Groundbreaking decision creates pathway for climate justice on Torres Strait Islands The UN Human Rights Committee found that Australia's failure to adequately protect indigenous Torres Islanders against climate change impacts, has violated their rights to enjoy their culture. Read more | | | Renewable energy jobs rise by 700,000 in a year, to nearly 13 million
Worldwide employment in the renewable energy sector reached 12.7 million last year, a jump of 700,000 new jobs in just 12 months, despite the lingering effects of COVID-19.
Read more | | | Climate change in Africa can destabilize 'countries and entire regions' Water stress and hazards like withering droughts and devastating floods are hitting African communities, economies and ecosystems hard. Read more | | | We encourage you to forward and share this content – and to sign up if you haven't.
| | | | Featured podcast: The Lid is On: Driving the climate agenda at UNGA77
The Lid is On looked at how the issue of the climate emergency was raised during the opening session of the latest General Assembly session (UNGA77).
The event heard powerful speeches by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, amid star-studded gatherings at UN Headquarters, and hundreds of other meetings in New York, capitalizing on the city's global attention when so many world leaders were in town.
As well as Mr. Guterres, the episode features the voices of former New York mayor and climate envoy Michael Bloomberg, and the new head of the UN Climate (UNFCCC), Simon Stiell.
| |  | | Climate & the UN General Assembly | | |
From UN Climate Action
Communicating on Climate Change
| |  | Tips to make a valuable, effective, and reliable piece of climate content. | | | Communicating on climate change is about educating and mobilizing audiences to take action to confront the climate crisis. Everyone can play a part by raising their voice, sharing solutions, and advocating for change – shaped by different experiences, cultural contexts, and underlying values. | | |
Featured video:
"We can't have climate justice without gender justice"
| |  | UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Vanessa Nakate urges world leaders to prioritize the planet — and girls' education. | |
Featured UN Report:
United in Science 2022
"Climate science is clear: we are heading in the wrong direction". That's the message of a major, multi-agency UN climate science report with a focus on increasing fossil fuel emissions and rising greenhouse gases, now at a record high. | | |
Social Media moment:
Frankie the Dino takes New York
| | Featured from UN agencies:
Make memories, take photos and leave only footprints
Wherever we go, let's remember to make good memories and be responsible visitors so future generations can experience all the beautiful things our planet has to offer in the same way we did.
The UN Development Programme shares 12 ways to be a good guest while traveling. | | Nurturing trees from an early age
When it comes to learning how to nurture seedlings to grow into trees, improving your surroundings and restoring the land around you, you're never too young to make a start. That's the thinking behind a project in Tanzania, supported by FAO and its partners, setting up more than 30 clubs in primary and secondary schools to impart these skills to children from an early age. | |  From UN Climate Change | | | |  | "Blueing" the Paris Agreement at COP27
Momentum is building for a strong political outcome relating to oceans at the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in November, including greater ambition to cut greenhouse gas emissions, strengthened measures to build the resilience of coastal communities to climate change impacts and the financing needed for this.
| | |  | How can Web3 help climate action?
Technology will play a central role in tackling the climate crisis. From carbon capture to the evolution of renewable technologies, innovation will be front and centre in our efforts to transition to a more sustainable way of living. But one area of technology often overlooked is Web3, a relatively new term that encompasses everything from decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics | | | | | |
In case you want to catch up:
| | | Here are more climate stories, updates and blogs by UN Agencies: | | | DO YOUR PART FOR CLIMATE ACTION | |  | People everywhere are taking steps to be part of the solution to the climate crisis. More than 8 million actions have been logged through the ActNow campaign.
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