Environmental issues and sustainable development

The United Nations will participate in Earth Hour 2013 by turning off the lights at its offices around the world for one hour on Saturday, 23 March, in a symbolic gesture to support action on climate change and demonstrate its commitment to reducing its own carbon footprint.

Member States have completed a first round of discussions aimed at articulating a set of new set of sustainable development goals that will shape the United Nations development agenda. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened a two-day inaugural meeting of the new General Assembly working group tasked with proposing new universal sustainable development goals that should build on the success of the Millennium Development Goals while inspiring and galvanizing action.

For centuries forests have been a source of food, fibre, livelihoods, resources and water. They are also central to combating climate change, but until today, and despite a multitude of special days honouring or commemorating key elements of human life, there has never been a globally recognized day for paying homage to the world’s forests.

For the first time, Turkey will host a multilateral meeting on forests, with 193 Member States participating, in Istanbul from 8-19 April following the signing today of an agreement between Turkish Government and United Nations representatives.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will launch the Oceans Compact — an initiative to strengthen United Nations system-wide coherence in delivering on its oceans-related mandates — on Sunday, 12 August, in Yeosu, Republic of Korea.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will launch a new independent global network of research centres, universities and technical institutions to help find solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental, social and economic problems.

RIO DE JANEIRO, 22 June — High-level officials of nearly every Member State meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, renewed their commitments to ensuring an “economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet and for present and future generations”, as the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development — Rio+20 — closed this afternoon.

RIO DE JANEIRO, 21 June — Inequality — in both environmental and economic terms – took centre stage as the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development entered its second day, with many high-level participants emphasizing that a disproportionate share of the world’s woes still fell upon its poorest, smallest and least represented States.

RIO DE JANEIRO, 22 June — Away from the podium and the media spotlight, Heads of State and Government, as well as ministers, United Nations system officials, representatives of major groups and other international actors held a series of round tables in parallel with the plenary, during which they discussed the main themes of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development — Rio+20 — and the draft outcome document to be formally adopted today, 22 June.

RIO DE JANEIRO, 20 June — With the planet increasingly under stress from climate change and a human population exhausting life’s vital resources, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged delegates gathered in Rio de Janeiro to face “an existential reality”: the old model of economic and social advancement was broken and it was time to agree on a new blueprint to end poverty, ensure social equity and protect the environment.