Environmental issues and sustainable development

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the opening of the General Assembly High-level Event on Climate Change, in New York today:

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s video message to the Climate Leaders Roundtable on Building Momentum for Action in Paris, a multi-faith, multinational youth rally, at St. Peter’s Square, in the Vatican, today:

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the Climate Leaders’ Round Table Hosted by the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA/USA) and the United Nations Foundation, in San Francisco today:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Thomas Gass, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, to Interaction:  Forum 2015, in Washington, D.C., today:

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the Economic and Social Council annual Partnerships Forum, “The role of Partnerships in achieving the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Making it Happen”, in New York today: 

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s video message for the seventeenth World Meteorological Congress, taking place in Geneva from 25 May to 12 June:

The Forum on Forests approved a wide-ranging omnibus resolution this evening, which would have the Economic and Social Council extend until 2030 the International Arrangement of actors involved in the management, conservation and sustainable development of the world’s woodlands, and lay out — for the first time — the main objectives of such work for the coming decades.

Capping two days of high-level debate, ministers in the Forum on Forests today pledged to promote the significance of forests in the post-2015 development agenda, reaffirming that the sustainable management of the world’s woodlands was vital to addressing other global challenges — from poverty eradication and economic growth to food security, gender equality and climate change.

A global arrangement on forests, bolstered by credible financing and means for monitoring and implementation, would help Governments and local communities  tackle the illegal timber trade and economic activities that were eroding one of the world’s most valuable resources, ministers in the Forum on Forests said today, as they debated how to revise the normative framework guiding such decisions.