April 19, 2025
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J. Tuyet Nguyen, a journalist with years of experience, has covered major stories in New York City and the United Nations for United Press International, the German Press Agency dpa and various newspapers. His reports focused mostly on topics with international interests for readers worldwide. He was president of the United Nations Correspondents Association (2007 and 2008), which is composed of more than 250 journalists representing world media with influence over policy decision makers. He has chaired the organization of the annual UNCA Awards, which seeks to reward journalists around the world who have done the best broadcasts and written reports on the UN and its specialized agencies. He has traveled the world to cover events and write stories, from politics to the environment as well cultures of different regions. But his most important reporting work has been with the United Nations since the early 1980s. He was bureau chief of United Press International office at the UN headquarters before joining dpa in 1997. Prior to working at the UN, he was an editor on the International Desk of UPI World Headquarters in New York. He worked in Los Angeles and covered the final months of war in Vietnam for UPI.

UN blunt message to climate summit: “Either we stop it — or it stops us”

Leave a Comment / Climate /

Glasgow/New York, November 1 – In his address opening the climate summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the 197 countries that signed UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to prevent a climate catastrophe. “We face a stark choice:  Either we stop it — or it stops us,” he said.

The United Nations’ 26th climate conference, considered the biggest and most important for planet earth, opened negotiations that could last two weeks faced with negative views that it may not succeed in efforts to revert global warming as wealthy nations remain divided about measures to phase out coal and other energy sources responsible for global warming.

“It’s time to say: enough,” he said. “Enough of brutalizing biodiversity. Enough of killing ourselves with carbon. Enough of treating nature like a toilet.

Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.”

Guterres said the planet is changing “from the ocean depths to mountain tops, from melting glaciers to relentless extreme weather events.

Sea-level rise is double the rate it was 30 years ago.”

The UN chief called recent statements that the world is still on tract to fight climate change an “illusion.” He said published report of Nationally Determined Contributions, which are pledges by countries to implement measures cutting emissions, would still increase global temperature to 2.7 degrees Celsius this century instead of 1.5 degrees as demanded in the Paris climate agreement in 2015.

“So, as we open this much anticipated climate conference, we are still heading for climate disaster,” he said. “Young people know it. Every country sees it.”

Frustration built up after the group of 20 major economies (G20) remained divided about how to implement the Paris 2015 climate agreement, which aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 by removing enough greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in order to match any new emissions.

The two-week climate summit opened on October 31 in Glasgow with an ambitious but difficult program of setting up new regulations to implement targets of phasing out fossil fuels burning that are heating up the planet. Known as COP26, which means the 26th annual Conference of the Parties to the UNFCC signed by 197 countries. About 100 heads of state and government and more than 25,000 participants from the UN, non-governmental organizations and civil societies and activists have registered to attend in person. US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, European Union leaders, Guterres and other government leaders were to address the summit.

See climate summit’s schedule of meetings: https://unfccc.int/conference/glasgow-climate-change-conference-october-november-2021

A main goal of fighting climate change was set at the climate conference in Paris in 2015, which demanded that countries implement climate mitigating measures and adapt to climate technology to prevent the average global temperature from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius. But studies showed that global warming will continue with deadly heat waves, flooding, wildfire, drought and the collapse of the ecosystems.

Climate action requires also that wealthy countries allocate $100 billion a year to developing and vulnerable countries so they can adapt to green technology and cope with climate disasters that they are not responsible for. But wealthy countries have not yet met the needed financial goal.

The UN Environment Program said in a new Emissions Gap Report before the Glasgow conference that new and updated commitments to mitigate climate change were a positive step forward. But it said however that the world remains on track for a dangerous global temperature rise of at least 2.7 degrees Celsius this century even if climate action is implemented.

The report said the efforts remained insufficient and the world needs a 55 per cent reduction to limit global temperature increase below 1.5°C, the capstone defined by scientists as the less risky scenery for our planet and humanity’s future.

See full report here: https://bit.ly/2ZhNuUT

Executive summary: https://bit.ly/3GloOfd

The report showed that updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are pledges by each country to reduce national emissions, as well as other commitments made for 2030 but not yet officially submitted – would only lead to an additional 7.5 per cent reduction in annual greenhouse emissions in 2030, compared to previous commitments.

The UN Development Program and the University of Oxford issued also a new survey called the G20 Peoples’ Climate Vote that showed the crucial importance of how young people support climate action in the G20, which is a group of the world’s wealthiest nations. Climate action by the G20 would have a huge impact on mitigating climate change because the group accounts for 80 per cent of the global economy and 75 per cent of global emissions.


See full report: https://bit.ly/3GixZNt

“This new Peoples’ Climate Vote shows that, on average, 70 per cent of young people in G20 countries believe that we are in a global climate emergency,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

“Given that they are about to inherit this climate emergency, young people are sending a message to global leaders that is loud and clear: they want climate action now. The world is now watching – hoping that countries will come together at COP26 in Glasgow to make bold, historic decisions that will literally change the future.”

The most popular climate policies among under-18s in the G20 countries surveyed were conservation of forests and land (59%), using solar, wind and renewable power and using climate friendly farming techniques (both 57%). Support for these policies was stronger among young people by three percentage points for the first two policies, and by four percentage points for climate-friendly farming.

The survey polled over 689,000 people, including over 300,000 under 18 years old. Youths at are particularly aware of climate dangers as they are entering the workforce and becoming voters, which put them in positions of greater influence.

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Methane Observatory Launched to Boost Action on Powerful Climate-Warming Gas

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Rome, October 31 – The UN Environment Program, with support from the European Union, has launched a new observatory to drive action on reducing methane emissions – a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for at least a quarter of the current climate warming.

The International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO) was launched at the G20 Summit, on the eve of the latest round of climate talks, known as COP26 in Glasgow.

IMEO will improve the reporting accuracy and public transparency of human-caused methane emissions. IMEO will initially focus on methane emissions from the fossil fuel sector, and then expand to other major emitting sectors like agriculture and waste.

The recently published UNEP-CCAC Global Methane Assessment states that zero or low net-cost reductions could almost halve anthropogenic methane emissions and proven measures could shave 0.28 degrees Celsius from the forecasted rise in the planet’s average temperature by 2050.

IMEO will provide the means to prioritize actions and monitor commitments made by state actors in the Global Methane Pledge – a US- and EU-led effort by over two dozen countries to slash methane emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.

See detailed report on the IMEO at https://bit.ly/3ClU8bv

Methane: over 80 times more potent than CO2

To stay on track to reach the Paris Agreement goal of limiting climate change to 1.5°C, the world needs to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change notes that if the world is to achieve the 1.5°C temperature target, deep methane emissions reductions must be achieved over this time.

“As highlighted by IPCC, if the world is serious about avoiding the worst effects of climate change, we need to cut methane emissions from the fossil fuel industry. But this is not a get-out-of-jail free card: methane reductions must go hand in hand with actions to decarbonize the energy system to limit warming to 1.5°C, as called for in the Paris Agreement,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

Methane released directly into the atmosphere is more than 80 times more potent than CO2 over a 20-year time horizon. However, as methane’s atmospheric lifespan is relatively short – 10 to 12 years – actions to cut methane emissions can yield the most immediate reduction in the rate of warming, while also delivering air quality benefits.

EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said: “Methane has accounted for roughly 30 per cent of global warming since pre-industrial times, and today its emissions are increasing faster than at any other time since record keeping began in the 1980s.”

“Existing systems do not allow us to determine precisely enough where emissions happen across the global and in what volumes. Once better data is available, countries can take swift and well-targeted action.”

“In the EU, we will already propose pioneering legislation to cut methane emissions this year. This includes mandatory leak detection and repair and limiting venting and flaring.”

The fossil fuel industry is responsible for one-third of anthropogenic emissions and is the sector with the highest potential for reductions. The wasted methane, the main component in natural gas, is a valuable source of energy that could be used to fuel power plants or homes.

IMEO: an independent and trusted entity

The Observatory will produce a global public dataset of empirically verified methane emissions – starting with the fossil fuel sector – at an increasing level of granularity and accuracy by integrating data principally from four streams:

* reporting from the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0 (OGMP 2.0),

* direct measurement data from scientific studies,

* remote sensing data, and

* national inventories.

This will allow IMEO to engage companies and governments around the world to utilize this data to target strategic mitigation actions and support science-based policy options.

Critical to this effort are data collected through OGMP 2.0, launched in November 2020 in the framework of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. OGMP 2.0 is the only comprehensive, measurement-based reporting framework for the oil and gas sector, and its 74 member companies represent many of the world’s largest operators across the entire value chain, with assets that account for over 30 per cent of all oil and gas production.

IMEO: First Annual Report

In a report released to coincide with the launch, IMEO laid out its Theory of Change, at the heart of which is the need for an independent and trusted entity to integrate these multiple sources of heterogenous data into a coherent and policy-relevant dataset.

The report also includes the analysis of the first reports submitted by the company members of the OGMP 2.0. During this first year, most companies put significant effort into reporting and outlined ambitious 2025 reduction targets. Out of the 55 companies that set targets, 30 meet or exceed the recommended targets of 45% reduction or near-zero methane intensity, and 51 have submitted plans that provide confidence the accuracy of their data will improve in the next 3-5 years.

Hosted by UNEP, IMEO is budgeted at EUR 100 million over five years. To maintain its independence and credibility, it will receive no industry funding. Instead, IMEO will be entirely funded by governments and philanthropies, with core resources provided by the European Commission as a founding member.

Contact:

Terry Collins & Assoc. | tca.tc | LinkedIn.com/in/terrycollins, Toronto, ON M6R1L8 Canada

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Climate summit faces major challenges to revert global warming

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Glasgow/New York, October 30 – The United Nations climate conference in the Scottish city of Glasgow faced negative views that it may not be able to succeed in efforts to revert global warming as wealthy nations remain divided about measures to phase out coal, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during meetings October 29-30 in Rome of the G20 that there is a “serious risk” that the Glasgow conference “will not deliver,” as reported by UN News. G20 is the group of the world’s wealthiest nations that account for 80 per cent of the global economy and 75 per cent of global emissions.

 “Even if recent pledges were clear and credible, and there are serious questions about some of them, we are still careening towards climate catastrophe,” he said.

“If we want real success…we need more ambition and more action. The most important objective of this G20 Summit must be to re-establish trust – by tackling the main sources of mistrust – rooted in injustices, inequalities and geo-political divides,” he said.

“On all our climate goals, we have miles to go.  And we must pick up the pace. Scientists are clear on the facts. Leaders must be as clear in their actions,” he stated, adding that the climate summit can be “a turning point towards a safer, greener world. It is not too late. But we must act now”.

The two-week climate summit was to open on October 31 in Glasgow with an ambitious but difficult program of setting up new regulations to implement targets of phasing out fossil fuels burning that are heating up the planet. Known as COP26, which means the 26th annual Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change signed by 197 countries.

About 100 heads of state and government and thousands of representatives from the UN, non-governmental organizations and civil societies have registered to attend in person. US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, European Union leaders and Guterres will address the summit.

A main goal of fighting climate change was set at the climate conference in Paris in 2015, which demanded that countries implement climate mitigating measures and adapt to climate technology to prevent the average global temperature from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius. But studies showed that global warming will continue with deadly heat waves, flooding, wildfire, drought and the collapse of the ecosystems.

Climate action requires also that wealthy countries allocate $100 billion a year to developing and vulnerable countries so they can adapt to green technology and cope with climate disasters that they are not responsible for. But wealthy countries have not yet met the needed financial goal.

The UN Environment Program said in a new Emissions Gap Report before the Glasgow conference that new and updated commitments to mitigate climate change were a positive step forward. But it said however that the world remains on track for a dangerous global temperature rise of at least 2.7 degrees Celsius this century even if climate action is implemented.

See full report here: https://bit.ly/2ZhNuUT

Executive summary: https://bit.ly/3GloOfd

The report said the efforts remained insufficient and the world needs a 55 per cent reduction to limit global temperature increase below 1.5°C, the capstone defined by scientists as the less risky scenery for our planet and humanity’s future.

The report showed that updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are pledges by each country to reduce national emissions, as well as other commitments made for 2030 but not yet officially submitted – would only lead to an additional 7.5 per cent reduction in annual greenhouse emissions in 2030, compared to previous commitments.

The UN Development Program and the University of Oxford issued also a new survey called the G20 Peoples’ Climate Vote that showed the crucial importance of how young people support climate action in the G20, which is a group of the world’s wealthiest nations. Climate action by the G20 would have a huge impact on mitigating climate change because the group accounts for 80 per cent of the global economy and 75 per cent of global emissions.


See full report: https://bit.ly/3GixZNt

“This new Peoples’ Climate Vote shows that, on average, 70 per cent of young people in G20 countries believe that we are in a global climate emergency,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

“Given that they are about to inherit this climate emergency, young people are sending a message to global leaders that is loud and clear: they want climate action now. The world is now watching – hoping that countries will come together at COP26 in Glasgow to make bold, historic decisions that will literally change the future.”

The most popular climate policies among under-18s in the G20 countries surveyed were conservation of forests and land (59%), using solar, wind and renewable power and using climate friendly farming techniques (both 57%). Support for these policies was stronger among young people by three percentage points for the first two policies, and by four percentage points for climate-friendly farming.

The survey polled over 689,000 people, including over 300,000 under 18 years old. Youths at are particularly aware of climate dangers as they are entering the workforce and becoming voters, which put them in positions of greater influence.

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UN issues urgent appeal for help as Afghanistan faces world’s largest food crisis; current funding “a drop in the ocean”

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Rome/New York, October 25 – Years of conflict, drought, economic woes and the recent accumulation of Covid-19 health problems have made Afghanistan home to one of the world’s largest number of people – nearly 23 million – facing severe humanitarian crisis as the harsh winter is approaching while funding available is “a drop in the ocean,” two United Nations agencies said as they launched an urgent appeal for help.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) said the 23 million Afghans facing dire malnutrition and hunger, including 3.2 million children under five, represented more than half of the country’s population. Globally, the affected Afghan population have needs surpassing those in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen combined.

“It is urgent that we act efficiently and effectively to speed up and scale up our delivery in Afghanistan before winter cuts off a large part of the country, with millions of people – including farmers, women, young children and the elderly – going hungry in the freezing winter. It is a matter of life or death. We cannot wait and see humanitarian disasters unfolding in front of us – it is unacceptable!” said Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General.

“Afghanistan is now among the world’s worst humanitarian crises – if not the worst – and food security has all but collapsed. This winter, millions of Afghans will be forced to choose between migration and starvation unless we can step up our life-saving assistance, and unless the economy can be resuscitated. We are on a countdown to catastrophe and if we don’t act now, we will have a total disaster on our hands,” said David Beasley, WFP Executive Director.

“Hunger is rising and children are dying. We can’t feed people on promises – funding commitments must turn into hard cash, and the international community must come together to address this crisis, which is fast spinning out of control,” Beasley warned. WFP said it expects operations to cost as much as US$ 220 million a month.

The two UN agencies said in their Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report that more than one in two Afghans will be facing crisis (IPC Phase 3) or emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of acute food insecurity through the November 2021 to March 2022 lean season, requiring urgent humanitarian interventions to meet basic food needs, protect livelihoods and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe.

The report also notes that this is the highest number of acutely food insecure people ever recorded in the 10 years the UN has been conducting IPC analyses in Afghanistan. Globally, Afghanistan is home to one of the largest number of people in acute food insecurity in both absolute and relative terms.

Following is part of the joint WFP-FAO news release:

Hunger spreads from rural to urban areas

The IPC report reflects a 37 percent increase in the number of Afghans facing acute hunger since the last assessment issued in April 2021. Among those at risk are 3.2 million children under-five who are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition by the end of the year. In October, WFP and UNICEF warned that one million children were at risk of dying from severe acute malnutrition without immediate life-saving treatment.

For the first time, urban residents are suffering from food insecurity at similar rates to rural communities, marking the shifting face of hunger in the country. Rampant unemployment and the liquidity crisis mean that all major urban centres are projected to face Emergency (IPC Phase 4) levels of food insecurity, including formerly middle-class populations.

In rural areas, the severe impact of the second drought in four years continues to impact the livelihoods of 7.3 million people who rely on agriculture and livestock to survive.

Current funding a drop in the ocean

FAO and WFP have been alerting the world to huge funding shortfalls and the need for urgent action by the international community before it is too late. Immediate financial support is now crucial to meet the most basic humanitarian needs as Afghans confront winter with no jobs, cash, or prospects, just as another La Niña event is on the horizon, meaning this year’s drought conditions are likely to extend into 2022.

To meet the scale of needs, the UN will need to mobilize resources at unprecedented levels. The UN’s Humanitarian Response Plan remains only a third funded. WFP in planning to ramp up its humanitarian assistance as we enter 2022 to meet the food and nutrition needs of almost 23 million people in Afghanistan. To meet the task at hand WFP may require as much as US$ 220 million per month.

Since the beginning of 2021, WFP has provided food, cash, and nutrition assistance to 10.3 million people, including malnutrition treatment and prevention programmes for nearly 400 000 pregnant and breastfeeding women, and 790 000 children under-five.

FAO continues to deliver vital emergency livelihood interventions at scale in Afghanistan, providing lifesaving support and cash assistance to farmers and livestock owning households who comprise 70 percent of the total population, so they can remain productive.  More than 3.5 million people will be supported this year, with FAO reaching over more than 330 000 in August and September alone

Amid worsening drought, FAO is seeking $11.4 million in urgent funding for its humanitarian response and is seeking a further $200 million for the agricultural season into 2022. FAO is now distributing wheat cultivation packages, including high quality and locally-supplied seeds, fertilizers and training. This campaign is expected to benefit 1.3 million people across 27 out of 34 provinces of the country in the coming weeks.

IPC Report brief can be accessed here & IPC Snapshot here.

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Beijing Conference: sustainable transport infrastructure can reduce carbon emissions, develop economy

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Beijing/New York, October 16 – Infrastructure has become a major international issue as its components are responsible for greenhouses gas emissions and adaptation costs, facts that can help accelerate the implementation of the Paris climate agreement that will be discussed at the Glasgow climate conference.

Thousands of experts, activists and business leaders from over 100 countries took part in the virtual Second UN Global Sustainable Transport Conference (October 14-16) in Beijing, the UN said in a press release at the close of the conference. It said participants called for accelerating progress towards achieving sustainable transport that would result in major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and in improving the lives of millions of people.

The transport conference was held before of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) taking place October 31-November 12 in Glasgow at which decision-makers will discuss ways to accelerate progress towards meeting the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.

“Participants agreed that without a profound shift to sustainable mobility, achieving the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals — already off-track — would be impossible,” the press release said.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a video message to the conference: “Covide-19 has pushed an estimated 120 million people into extreme poverty, 160 million into hunger, and set back education for around 100 million children. We are further from realizing the Sustainable Development Goals on climate, ocean, and biodiversity than we were when they were agreed six years ago.” 

Guterres warned that the door on climate action was closing unless decarbonization of all means of transport is imposed in order to get to net-zero emissions by 2050 globally. He called also for phasing out the production of internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035 for leading manufacturing countries, and by 2040 for developing countries.

He called for zero emission ships to become the default choice, and commercially available for all by 2030 in order to achieve zero emissions in the shipping sector by 2050; and that companies start using sustainable aviation fuels now, in order to cut carbon emissions per passenger by 65 per cent by 2050.

“We have the opportunity now to capture the innovation and technology that can revolutionize transport,” said Conference Secretary-General Liu Zhenmin, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. “But these new technologies have to work for everyone. We have the solutions, and now we need the global cooperation to ensure that sustainable transport will be the engine that powers our efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the objectives of the Paris Agreement.”

The conference said progress made so far is insufficient and challenges remain to achieve the goal of keeping earth temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius as demanded by the Paris climate agreement.

The press release said remote rural communities and vulnerable groups in countries with special conditions “risk being left behind as the number of new and emerging transport-related technologies increase. More than $2 trillion of transport infrastructure investments will be needed each year until 2040 to fuel economic development. There is also a need for stronger policies on road safety measures and regulations on the import of new and used vehicles. “

A report prepared for the Beijing transport conference by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) in close collaboration with 14 other UN agencies say key changes in transport would improve climate action.

The report said over 1 billion people worldwide still have no adequate access to all-weather roads, including some 450 million people in Africa. It said over 70 per cent of the total global rural population remain unconnected to transport infrastructure and systems, and car fuel emissions killed about 400,000 people.

“The lack of access to roads and transport contributes to deprivation in terms of access to timely health care, education, jobs and markets for agricultural produce,” the report said. “Rural isolation disproportionately harms the poor, older persons, persons with disabilities, children and women. Women and girls can face additional challenges when there are concerns about their physical safety.”

Oxford University, UN agencies: Radical changes needed in infrastructure design and management to achieve climate and development goals

Studies by experts from the UN Office for Project Services, the UN Environment Program and the University of Oxford have found that infrastructure is responsible for 79 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, and 88 per cent of all adaptation costs. A report issued by the experts called for radical changes are in infrastructure planning and management to achieve key climate and development targets.

“The central question is not whether we need infrastructure, but how it can be provided in ways that are sustainable, resilient and compatible with a net zero future,” Jim Hall, professor of Climate and Environmental Risk at the University of Oxford, said.  “There is no simple answer to the question of how to provide climate-compatible infrastructure. It requires a myriad of choices, from the moment an infrastructure project is first conceived, to the end of its life when it is decommissioned or repurposed.”

 Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, said, “As we seek to bridge the infrastructure gap and improve the quality of life of people everywhere, it is critical that we invest in sustainable infrastructure that adapts to future uncertain climate conditions; contributes to the decarbonization of the economy; protects biodiversity and minimizes pollution. Sustainable infrastructure is the only way we can ensure that people, nature and the environment thrive together.”

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WHO resolves to vaccinate 70 percent of world population by mid-2022, close rich-poor pandemic gap

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Geneva/New York, October 7 – The World Health Organization has launched a global vaccination strategy that calls for meeting targets of vaccinating 40 percent of the world population by end of 2021 and 70 percent by mid-2022. It has mobilized the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, UN agencies, organizations and civil society to ensure success of the strategy and end the deep inequality in vaccine distribution between rich and poor countries.

WHO said currently global vaccine production stands at about 1.5 billion doses per month, which should be sufficient to meet the demand of at least 11 billion vaccine doses to vaccinate 70 percent of the global population in 2022 provided there is equitable distribution of the doses. As of end of September 2021, just over 6 billion doses had already been administered worldwide.

The Geneva-based health organization had planned to vaccinate 10 percent of people in every country and territory by the end of September but it had not been able to do so in 56 countries, most of them in Africa and the Middle East.

“Science has played its part by delivering powerful, life-saving tools faster than for any outbreak in history,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the event launching the Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination ( Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination by mid-2022)

“But the concentration of those tools in the hands of a few countries and companies has led to a global catastrophe, with the rich protected while the poor remain exposed to a deadly virus. We can still achieve the targets for this year and next, but it will take a level of political commitment, action and cooperation, beyond what we have seen to date.”

“This is a costed, coordinated and credible path out of the COVID-19 pandemic for everyone, everywhere,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “Without a coordinated, equitable approach, a reduction of cases in any one country will not be sustained over time. For everyone’s sake, we must urgently bring all countries to a high level of vaccination coverage.”

Both Guterres and Tedros Adhanom called on governments and manufacturers to make good on their commitments to fund and provide vaccine doses without further delays.

The strategy calls for vaccination of all older adults, health workers and high-risk groups of all ages in every country first followed by the full adult age group in every country and lastly extended vaccination of adolescents. It says substantial investment has been made to procure most of the required vaccine doses for low- and lower-middle-income countries through its vaccine program known as COVAX, the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) and bilateral contracts.

The Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination by mid-2022 can be read in its entirety here. 

See also: The Global COVID-19 Vaccination – Strategic Vision for 2022 Technical Document

Slide deck on the Strategy to Achieve Global Covid-19 Vaccination by mid-2022

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UN: Life-saving humanitarian aid to 7 million people in Ethiopia crippled by fighting, road blockades and cash shortage

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New York, October 6 – The United Nations Security Council was told that UN operations to bring life-saving humanitarian aid to 7 million people in Ethiopia, including 400,000 people living in famine conditions in Tigray, are seriously hampered by continued fighting, severe checkpoints along transportation routes and lack of cash to operate and pay relief workers.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the 15-nation Security Council to support and unite behind efforts being made by UN agencies and partners in Ethiopia to bring urgent relief goods and medicine to the 5 million people in Tigray and 2 million in Amhara and Afar. The council is the highest body in the UN system responsible for peace and security matters.

Guterres said the Afar corridor is the only option to transport humanitarian aid to Tigray but access to the area has been severely restricted by official and unofficial checkpoints, insecurity and other obstacles and challenges.

“Vital fuel supplies continue to be blocked, as are essential medicines and equipment,” he said.

“Humanitarian organizations continue to lack the cash they need to operate and to pay their staff. “Access to electricity remains precarious. Millions of people are cut off from communications networks and vital services such as health care. Fighting in Amhara is another serious impediment to humanitarian access.”

“As a result of all these facts, life-saving humanitarian operations are being crippled,” he said.

He said UN officials and workers on the ground in Ethiopia have reported “increasingly alarming eye-witness testimony of the suffering, including growing accounts of hunger-related deaths” which are close to the levels of the devastating famine in Somalia in 2011.

“We are also seeing deeply worrying reports of violations of human rights abuses perpetrated by all sides. I am particularly concerned about chilling accounts of violence against women and children, including sexual and gender-based violence,” Guterres said.

“The country is facing an immense humanitarian crisis that demands immediate attention.

All efforts should be squarely focused on saving lives and avoiding a massive human tragedy.”

In his remarks the council, Guterres said the Ethiopian government’s decision to expel seven UN officials failed to follow a normal procedure and was “particularly disturbing.”

“This unprecedented expulsion should be a matter of deep concern for us all as it relates to the core of relations between the UN and Member States.”

The Ethiopian government on September 30 shocked the UN when it declared seven UN officials persona non grata and ordered them to leave the country within 72 hours. Five of the officials are members of the UN humanitarian affairs office and the other are representatives of the UN Children’s Fund and the UN human rights office.

Despite the difficult challenges facing the UN humanitarian operations in Ethiopia, the UN chief said the UN agencies will continue their work as mandated in the African nation and with local and international partners to support millions of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Tigray, Amhara and Afar, and across the country, in full accordance with the UN Charter and General Assembly resolution 46/182.

“I now call on Ethiopian authorities to allow us to do this without hindrance and to facilitate and enable our work with the urgency that this situation demands.” Guterres said.

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Urgent action needed to prevent large armed conflict in Myanmar and beyond, UN says

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New York, September 30 – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said an international response is urgently needed to prevent a catastrophic military conflict in Myanmar that would threaten other Southeast Asian nations.

“The risk of a large-scale armed conflict requires a collective approach to prevent a multi-dimensional catastrophe in the heart of Southeast Asia and beyond,” Guterres said in a report to the 193-nation General Assembly. “Grave humanitarian implications, including rapidly deteriorating food security, an increase in mass displacements and a weakened public health system compounded by a new wave of COVID-19 infections, require a coordinated approach in complementarity with regional actors.”

The UN has called for immediate humanitarian access and assistance to vulnerable communities such as 600,000 Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine state and over 700,000 others who fled to Bangladesh after a military crackdown in 2017.

Guterres called for an urgent, unified and international response to put Myanmar back on the track to democratic reform and for the immediate release of the country’s President Win Myint, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and other government officials who detained after the military takeover in February 2021. The military junta claimed that the general election in November 2020 that elected the civilian government in a landslide was marred by voter fraud.

Large scale protests against the military takeover were violently suppressed by military and security forces resulting in over 1,000 people killed and thousands of arrests and at least 120 people who died while under military detention.

Guterres welcomed the appointment of Brunei’s Second Foreign Minister Erywan Yusof in August as Special Envoy to Myanmar by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The UN chief also urged the “timely and comprehensive” implementation of a five-point plan to facilitate a peaceful solution in Myanmar.  The plan called for ending violence, constructive dialogue, the appointment of an envoy to direct mediation efforts and a humanitarian aid package.

Just days before Guterres issued his Myanmar report to the General Assembly, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in Geneva warned that Myanmar is heading to a nation-wide civil war and the military’s suppression of civilian protests may amount to crimes against humanity or war crimes.

Bachelet said in a report to the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva that clashes between the military and civilians have taken place more regularly whereas the country had not seen such violence in generations. The report covered the situation in Myanmar from the military takeover in February to mid-July and was based on interviews with over 70 victims and witnesses to human rights violations, as well as remote monitoring, credible open sources, and meetings with a range of informed stakeholders, UN News said.

“There is no sign of any efforts by the military authorities to stop these violations nor implement previous recommendations to tackle impunity and security sector reform,” Bachelet said calling for the urgent need for strong accountability measures. “The national consequences are terrible and tragic, and the regional consequences could also be profound.”

The report said there have been increasing fighting between the military and ethnic armed groups since the coup, displacing thousands, particularly in Kayin, Shan and Kachin State, where the military has carried out indiscriminate airstrikes and artillery barrages, killing civilians, UN News reported.

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Urgent action needed to prevent large armed conflict in Myanmar and beyond, UN says Read More »

UPDATE: US urges world powers to “go big” on vaccines, orders 500 million doses for developing countries; WHO says not enough

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New York/Washington, September 22 – US President Joe Biden, who has ordered over 500 million vaccine doses from Pfizer-BioNTech to donate to developing countries, has called on governments to meet the challenges of vaccinating the world and solving the shortage of oxygen bottles needed by hospitalized Covid-19 infected people.

 “We need to go big,” Biden told a virtual Covid-19 summit convened by the White House and attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and some government leaders who were attending the UN General Assembly in New York.

 “We’re not going to solve this crisis with half measures or middle of the road ambitions – we need to go big. It’s an all hands on deck crisis,” news reports said.

President Xi Jinping of China said in his virtual address to the 193-nation assembly on September 21 that Beijing will provide 2 billion doses of vaccine to the world by the end of this year. In addition he said he will donate $100 million to the World Health Organization’s COVAX vaccine program and 100 million vaccine doses to developing countries this year.

“Vaccination is our powerful weapon against Covid-19,” Xi said in his remarks. “Of pressing priority is to ensure the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines globally.”

The WHO said over 5.7 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, but 73 percent have been in just 10 countries. High-income countries have administered 61 times more doses per inhabitant than low-income countries. Just 3 percent of Africans have been vaccinated.

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed over 4.5 million people in less than two years.

UN News said Guterres renewed his call at the US-led summit for a global Covid-19 vaccination plan in which manufacturers should at least double vaccine production and ensure 2.3 billion doses are equitably distributed through COVAX to reach 40 per cent of people in all countries by the end of this year and 70 percent in the first half of 2022, as WHO recommended.

Guterres proposed that the global vaccination plan be led by an emergency team composed of countries that produce or have the potential to produce vaccines, WHO, COVAX partners and international financial institutions. He said the World Trade Organization will work with pharmaceutical companies to double vaccine production and ensure equitable distribution.

“This is necessary to solve the problems of intellectual property, the problems of technical support to the countries that can produce vaccines but need to be sure that they have all the safety guarantees in their production and, together, the power and the money that the group of countries I mentioned have,” Guterres said. “The United Nations will of course continue to support vaccine rollout in countries and communities that are hardest to reach.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who also took part in the discussion, thanked Biden for the planned donation of 500 million doses. But he said WHO has so far received only 120 million out of the 1 billion doses pledged by rich countries. He said two-thirds of the 120 million doses came from the United States.

Tedros Adhanom said there should be an ironclad agreement to implement a global vaccination plan because at least 40 percent of the population of every country must be vaccinated by the end of this year, and 70 percent by mid-2022.

“To reach that target, we need 2 billion doses for low- and lower- middle income countries, right now, as the UN Secretary-General said. We call on the countries and companies that control the global supply of vaccines to swap their near-term vaccine deliveries with COVAX and AVAT; to fulfil their dose-sharing pledges immediately; and to facilitate the immediate sharing of technology, know-how and intellectual property,” he said.

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UPDATE: US pledges to work with UN and all countries; China calls for “new type” of international relationship

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New York, September 21 – US President Joe Biden pledged to work with the United Nations to build a future and uphold human rights for all in his first speech to the UN General Assembly that captured the attention of world diplomats who met in person for the first time since the pandemic locked down the world almost two years ago.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also addressed the 193-nation assembly through a pre-recorded video calling for “dialogue and inclusiveness over confrontation and exclusiveness.”

“We need a new type of international relationship based on mutual respect, equity, justice and win-win cooperation,” he said. “We will do the best we can to expand the convergence of our interests and achieve the biggest synergy possible.”

Xi said no country can dictate another about democracy. He said China supports “true multilateralism” and recognizes one international system represented by the UN and UN Charter.

“The UN should hold high the banner of true multilateralism,” Xi said. His speech was translated into English and broadcast to the assembly in New York.

The assembly opened a week-long general debate on the world situation subdued by climate change’s devastations, wildfires, flooding and the Covid-19 virus that has killed more than 4.5 million people worldwide. More than 100 heads of state and government have registered to speak, but about 60 of them will deliver their speeches in pre-recorded videos.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his speech opening the debate that the world is on “the edge of abyss — and moving in the wrong direction. I’m here to sound the alarm. The world must wake up.”

He said the lack of unity among the international community and mistrust between world powers have contributed to the current worsening situation.

“Geopolitical divisions are undermining international cooperation and limiting the capacity of the UN Security Council to take the necessary decisions.,” he said.

“At the same time, it will be impossible to address dramatic economic and development challenges while the world’s two largest economies are at odds with each other,” Guterres said referring to the US-China competition in world affairs.

“Yet I fear our world is creeping towards two different sets of economic, trade, financial, and technology rules, two divergent approaches in the development of artificial intelligence — and ultimately two different military and geo-political strategies.

“This is a recipe for trouble. It would be far less predictable than the Cold War.”

Biden said in his 34-minute speech that the world is at “an inflection point in history” but he said the US is not seeking a new Cold War.

“The future belongs to those who give their people the ability to breathe free, not those who seek to suffocate their people with an iron hand authoritarianism,” he said. “The authoritarians of the world, they seek to proclaim the end of the age of democracy, but they’re wrong.”

Biden said his administration intend to “compete vigorously and lead with our values and our strength to stand up for our allies and our friends.”

“We’re not seeking — say it again, we are not seeking — a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs,” he said.

Biden said his administration is addressing all challenging issues, from climate change, the pandemic and global vaccines, which are on the agenda of the UN General Assembly. World diplomats are to attend other meetings on the sidelines of the assembly session with summits on climate and the global food systems.

“This year has also brought widespread death and devastation from the borderless climate crisis,” Biden said. “Extreme weather events that we’ve seen in every part of the world — and you all know it and feel it — represent what the secretary general has rightly called Code Red for humanity.”

On the pandemic, he said, “We need a collective act of science and political will. We need to act now to get shots in arms as fast as possible, and expand access to oxygen, tests, treatments, to save lives around the world.”

Before ending his speech, Biden urged the international community to work together for a better world. “Let’s make our future, now. We can do it. It’s in our power and capability.”

Speakers on the first day of the General Assembly included the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, whose country by tradition is the first speaker at every annual assembly session since the UN was established in 1945. Other countries include Maldives, Colombia, Qatar, Portugal, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Iran, South Korea, Switzerland and China.

The assembly’s president, Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives, opened debate by challenging delegates to rise to the occasion. “There are moments in time that are turning points,” he said. “This is one such moment.”

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