In progress at UNHQ

Press Conference


With a much-watched referendum on the horizon in Southern Sudan, a “very tense” situation in Côte d’Ivoire and disputed presidential election results in Haiti, United Nations peacekeepers were working around the clock to prevent very real challenges from destabilizing hard-won gains achieved in their areas of operation, said Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy in his quarterly Headquarters press conference today.
The agreement that emerged from Cancún would not strengthen the Kyoto Protocol, but rather, it would replace it with a much weaker accord at a time when there was need for greater commitment from developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Bolivia’s Ambassador said today. Speaking at a Headquarters press conference, Pablo Solón said that what had been agreed in Cancún did not guarantee stabilization of the temperature at a limit that protected human life and nature.
While investments in malaria prevention and control had made major strides towards eradicating the disease, experts at a Headquarters press conference today said that progress remained fragile – and more remained to be done.
After engaging in the “most complex negotiation in the history of the world” delegates at last week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun, Mexico successfully brokered key global agreements on mitigation, adaptation, deforestation, financing and technology transfer, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning Robert Orr said this afternoon.
The United Nations has launched an appeal for nearly $530 million in 2011 to help humanitarian groups operating in Somalia meet the basic needs of 2 million of the war-ravaged country’s most vulnerable people, officials of the world body said today at a Headquarters press conference.