UN Insider

Photo: Mary Robinson and Deon Shekuza. Credit: GlobalGoalsUN

Former Irish President Joins a Namibian Youth in Conversation on Climate Justice

This article is part of reports by the UN SDG Media Compact of which IDN is a member. Watch video.

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – Science continues to show that as the impacts of climate change accelerate, extreme weather events are taking a major toll in developing countries, particularly in Africa and Asia, home to some of the world’s largest youth populations.

Global warming of 2˚C would put over half of Africa’s population at risk of undernourishment, as as of today, we have already reached about 1°C above pre-industrial levels (1850–1900). Global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 18 June 2019

Photo: UNEP Chief Inger Andersen (left) and her deputy Joyce Msuya. Credit: UN Environment

Danish Environmentalist Takes Over as UNEP Chief

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK | NAIROBI (IDN) – Danish economist and environmentalist Inger Andersen, who took over as Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, brings to the role a passion for conservation and sustainable development, promising to prioritize greater action on climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution during her four-year tenure.

“I am proud and excited to begin work at the UN Environment Programme in beautiful Kenya at a critical time for humanity,” she said. “Good environmental stewardship has never been more important. Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution in all its forms pose a clear and present danger to human and planetary health, and to prosperity."

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 18 June 2019

Photo: Portrait of Pardhi tribal community members, Maharashtra, India (7 June 2019). Credit: UNICEF | Sri Kolari

World Population Expected to Reach Nearly 10 Billion by 2050

Yet Another Challenge to Global Goals

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) – Compared to 7.7 billion today, around 8.5 billion people are expected to inhabit the planet Earth within little more than a decade, and almost 10 billion by 2050, with only a few countries accounting for most of the increase, says to new United Nations report.

The World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights, published by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), provides a comprehensive overview of global demographic patterns and prospects. The study concludes that the world’s population could reach its peak around the end of the current century, at a level of nearly 11 billion.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 17 June 2019

Photo: Sergio Duarte, then UN High Representative for Disarmament, opening the 6th Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), on 24 September 2009, in New York. Photo # 411972. Credit: UN Photo/Sophia Paris.

Resist Erosion of NPT to Rid the World of Atomic Bombs

Crumbling Security Landscape Ahead of the 2020 Review Conference

Viewpoint by Sergio Duarte

Ambassador Sergio Duarte is President of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and a former UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. He was president of the 2005 Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference.

NEW YORK (IDN) – The forthcoming 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) provides the opportunity to look for lessons to be learned from its history and from its review cycles.

: Sergio Duarte; OPINION; 17 June 2019

Photo: Review and Extension Conference of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Opens at UN Headquarters in New York. Seated on the podium from left to right are: Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali; Ambassador Jayantha Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), President of the Conference; Prvoslav Davinic, Secretary-General of the Conference. 17 April 1995. Photo # 68537. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider

1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference in Retrospect

Viewpoint by David Krieger

The author is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. The following article originally appeared on the organisation's website on April 9, 2019.

SANTA BARBARA, CA | USA (IDN-INPS) – The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was opened for signatures in 1968 and entered into force in 1970. Despite its name, the NPT sought not only to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, but also, in Article VI, called for good faith negotiations for an end to the nuclear arms race at an early date, for nuclear disarmament, and for general and complete disarmament.

: David Krieger; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 16 June 2019

Photo: Secretariat Building at United Nations Headquarters. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Low-income Countries Ensuring Liquidity as the UN Faces Financial Crisis

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations is at risk of running out of cash, Secretary-General António Guterres warned in a letter to UN staff in July 2018 and stated that he had “written to Member States regarding the troubling financial situation facing the United Nations”. The situation has not changed for the better since.

In fact, nearly one year later, the situation is preventing the Organization from reimbursing troop- and police-contributing countries in a predictable and timely manner, hindering their ability to provide lifesaving support to peacekeeping operations, Guterres cautioned on June 4, 2019.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 11 June 2019

New Study Shows How AI Can Generate Fake UN Speeches

By Felicia Vacarelu

The writer is Communication Officer of UN Global Pulse, a flagship innovation initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General on big data, which has released a new study discussing the risks that can arise from the malicious use of automated text generation software, and the potential impacts. The study used open-source tools and data from UN General Assembly speeches to build a fake UN speech generator. This blog first appeared on June 15, 2019.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 11 June 2019

Photo: Energy access in Timor-Leste. Credit: UN-Photo-Martine-Perret

Urgent Action Needed to Scale-up Energy Access in LDCs

By Santo D. Banerjee

NEW YORK | BEIJING (IDN) – The world’s 47 least developed countries (LDCs) will fail to achieve global sustainable energy targets by 2030 unless urgent and enhanced action is undertaken. This was the backdrop to discussions which took place on May 30-31, 2019 at a United Nations conference on 'Scaling-Up Energy Access and Finance in the Least Developed Countries' in Beijing, China.

: Santo D. Banerjee; SUSTAINABILITY; Affordable Clean Energy; 09 June 2019

Photo: High level participants and representatives from the least developed countries following the opening session of the Global Conference on Scaling-Up Energy Access and Finance in the Least Developed Countries on May 30. Credit: UN-OHRLLS.

Boosting Energy Access and Finance in Poorest Countries

Viewpoint by Youba Sokona

The following are extensive extracts from keynote remarks by Youba Sokona, South Centre's Senior Adviser on Sustainable Development, at the Global Conference on Scaling-up Energy Access and Finance in Least Developed Countries in Beijing, China. The United Nations Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) and the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO) organised the conference with the support of the UN system on May 30-31, 2019.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 09 June 2019

Image credit: knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

UN Study Urges a More Gender-Equal Digital Space

Flays Feminization of Voice Assistants

By Rita Joshi

BERLIN | PARIS (IDN) – "I think if we wake up 20 years from now and we see the lack of diversity in our tech and leaders and practitioners [that we see today], that would be my doomsday scenario," said Li Fei-Fei, co-director of Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute and one of the few female leaders in the field of Artificial Intelligence, during testimony to the U.S. Congress.