The plight of the world’s poor must be addressed alongside global warming at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said at a Headquarters press conference today.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference started today in Copenhagen with what Yvo de Boer, the top UN Climate Change official, called “unprecedented political momentum for a deal”. De Boer called on negotiators to focus on solid and practical proposals that will unleash prompt action on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries and capacity-building.

The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms the bomb attacks in Baghdad today that have left over 120 people dead and scores more injured. No cause can justify these attacks on civilians. The attacks appear to be aimed at undermining the election process, including the political progress in Iraq.

Unless it received new funding from donors immediately, United Nations humanitarian operations in Somalia would begin 2010 with “zero” in the bank, a “life-threatening” situation that could trigger a spillover of people into neighbouring states like Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, said Mark Bowden, United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia.

The United Nations must be prepared to make efficiency gains in the next five years to free up funds to better respond to the world’s needs, said Gareth Thomas, Minister of State for International Development of the United Kingdom, addressing journalists on priorities for a more effective international humanitarian response.

In Copenhagen, the UN Climate Change Conference has entered the drafting phase for a final agreement. And according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, there is a real eagerness among parties to sit down and get the work done as much as possible before Ministers arrive.

The top United Nations peacekeeping officials today reported significant progress in the ongoing discussions among Member States on a study of wide-ranging proposals to bolster the world body’s peacekeeping capacity, in their quarterly press conference during which they also updated reporters on peace operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Southern Lebanon, and in the Western Darfur region of Sudan.

As negotiations in Copenhagen continue, the Secretary-General is closely following the situation. Delegates continue to work on a set of texts before Ministers arrive in Copenhagen this weekend. The negotiations are focusing on new commitments for developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol and a new long-term cooperative deal under the Climate Change Convention, which will include key issues such as mitigation, adaptation, technology and deforestation.

John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said today that he and other humanitarian actors would push negotiators at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen to guarantee sufficient funding and action plans to help the world’s poorest, most vulnerable people adapt to the changing weather patterns threatening their physical and economic survival.

The Security Council should immediately suspend United Nations support to military operations in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo until clear conditions were in place to ensure respect for international humanitarian law and the removal of commanders known to have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch said at Headquarters today.