Meetings Coverage

Climate change, the pre-eminent geopolitical and economic issue of the twenty-first century, threatened to rewrite the global equation for development, peace and prosperity, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, as he pressed world leaders to cooperate on a just and scientifically sound solution that strengthened sustainable development and powered green growth for every country.

Heads of State and Government attending the United Nations Leadership Forum heard today how business would be part of the solution on climate change from officers of some of the world’s largest corporations, as well as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Nobel Laureate Al Gore and Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Denmark.

Acting on the recommendations of its General Committee, the United Nations General Assembly this morning adopted the work programme and agenda for its sixty-fourth session, which contained more than 160 items.

Robert Serry, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council this morning that the upcoming meeting of the Middle East Diplomatic Quartet on 24 September presented an “important opportunity to lay the basis for progress” towards a durable peace.

Poverty eradication, climate change, the international financial system and development were among key topics approved for consideration by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this morning as it approved its organization of work for the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, meeting back to back with the Security Council briefing this morning by the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, heard briefings on the latest developments in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and progress in the political process, and reviewed its activities since its last meeting in May.

Opening the General Assembly’s sixty-fourth session today, incoming President Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya underscored that the United Nations and, in particular, the Assembly, “is the way to a better future”, and called on people of all colours, religions and origin to engage in dialogue through the Organization and its most representative body.

Noting with concern the threats to subregional stability, in particular posed by drug trafficking, organized crime and illicit arms, and reiterating the continuing need for support by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) for the security of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Security Council today extended the Mission’s mandate until 30 September 2010.

The Security Council decided this morning to extend the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL) for one year, until 30 September 2010.

Some 1,300 non-governmental organization representatives from more than 50 countries concluded the sixty-second annual DPI/NGO Conference in Mexico City Friday evening with a fervent call to Governments and international organizations worldwide to strengthen their commitments to achieving a world free of nuclear weapons and to promptly start negotiating a convention prohibiting and eliminating those weapons everywhere within an agreed time-bound framework.