Food

Despite pledges to slash methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030 — key to getting global warming under control, only 1 per cent of the Methane Alert and Response System in the past year were responded to, a UN Environment Programme report released today states. The system is an untapped opportunity for climate action.

Speakers urged the Security Council today to prevent northern Gaza’s descent into famine amid relentless death and destruction, as the 15-member body convened an emergency meeting in response to experts’ warnings that immediate action is required within “days, not weeks” to avert the scourge.

The just released UN Environment Programme’s Adaptation Gap Report says that nations must dramatically increase climate adaptation efforts and urgently close the $187-359 billion per year gap that exists between adaptation finance needs and current international public adaptation finance flows.

The UN Secretary-General has issued a statement of deep concern over the Israeli Knesset’s adoption Monday of two laws, which if implemented, would likely prevent the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from continuing its essential work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Peacekeepers, supporting flood response, have airlifted medical supplies from Agok airstrip in the southern part of Abyei to other parts of the region, to ensure medical stocks, and the Mission is doing weekly flights to multiple areas in Abyei helping to provide humanitarian assistance to communities that are cut off because of flooding.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that an urgent request to access the Falouja area of Jabalya to help those trapped under the rubble was denied by Israeli authorities for the fourth consecutive day, and teams, in Gaza City, reported that shelter support is urgently needed.

The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative today released the 2024 Multidimensional Poverty Index, which finds that 1.1 billion people across 112 countries live in multidimensional poverty. Over half of the 1.1 billion poor (584 million) are children under the age of 18.

Calling attention to the debt distress, food insecurity and violent conflict plaguing Africa, speakers in the General Assembly today called for heightened multilateral efforts to support the continent as it pursues a transformational agenda.

In Myanmar, amid an expanding conflict, an estimated 1 million people are also suffering from the impacts of deadly flooding. To bolster emergency relief efforts, the Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator, Joyce Msuya, allocated $4 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund at the end of September.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, today announced an additional $2 million from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund to address the deteriorating situation in that country, bringing the total allocation to $12 million so far.