Environmental issues and sustainable development

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for the International Day for Biological Diversity, observed on 22 May:

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the opening of the Economic and Social Council’s special meeting on “harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”, in New York today:

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks at the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 high-level conference on peace, justice and inclusive societies for sustainable development, in New York today:

The Head of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) met Thursday at the UNIFIL base in Ibl el-Saqi with the mayors and religious authorities of south-eastern towns to discuss local needs and the UN’s humanitarian support to impacted communities, including to restore stability along the Blue Line.

With ever-growing needs for minerals that are critical for renewable energy technologies, Secretary-General António Guterres is leveraging the United Nations’ convening power to bring together a diverse group of Governments and other stakeholders across the entire minerals value chain to develop a set of global common and voluntary principles to safeguard environmental and social standards and embed justice, in the energy transition.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the launch of the Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, in New York today:

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk today jointly sounded the alarm on the new asylum law and plans to transfer asylum-seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda, calling for practical measures instead to address irregular flows of migrants and refugees.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Climate Promise 2025 Launch, held in the Economic and Social Council chamber in New York today:

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the tenth session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development 2024, in Addis Ababa today:

A report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) states that explosive weapons were responsible for nearly half of the more than 47,500 children killed or maimed in more than 24 different conflict zones between 2018 and 2022. The vast majority of these instances occurred in populated areas.