Tag: UN

Kenya Launches 2026 International Volunteer Year

Stuart Mitchell

  On 5 December 2025, Kenya officially launched the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development (IVY 2026) at a high-level event held on the margins of the 7th UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, followed by an environmental volunteering activity at Karura Forest. This national launch celebrates Kenya’s critical leadership at global and national levels. In 2023, Kenya served as a Core Group Member that negotiated and co-facilitated the UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/78/127, which proclaimed 2026 the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable…

Read More

UN summit confronts AI’s dawn of wonders and warnings

Stuart Mitchell

The AI for Good Global Summit 2025 brings together governments, tech leaders, academics, civil society and young people to explore how artificial intelligence can be directed toward Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – and away from growing risks of inequality, disinformation and environmental strain. “We are the AI generation,” said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, chief of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) – UN’s specialized agency for information and communications technology – in a keynote address. But being part of this generation means more than just using these technologies. “It means contributing to this…

Read More

To Protect Human Rights, Ban Fossil Fuel Ads, Lobbying, and Disinfo to Defossilize Economy, UN Report Warns

Stuart Mitchell

As the result of a six-decade history of deliberate obstruction of climate action by the fossil fuel industry, our economies continue to be based on fossil fuels even if it has been harming humanity and the planet for generations. Exploring for new oil, expanding fossil fuel production, fracking, and subsidizing fossil fuels must stop, according to a new report from the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change, Elisa Morgera.  Additionally, we must be fully informed of how fossil fuels are harming our human rights, and how the…

Read More

Electronic Waste Rising Five Times Faster than Documented E-waste Recycling: UN

Stuart Mitchell

The world’s generation of electronic waste is rising five times faster than documented e-waste recycling, the UN’s fourth Global E-waste Monitor (GEM) reveals today. A record 62 million tonnes (Mt) of e-waste was produced in 2022, Up 82% from 2010; On track to rise another 32%, to 82 million tonnes, in 2030; Billions of dollars worth of strategically-valuable resources squandered, dumped; Just 1% of rare earth element demand is met by e-waste recycling The 62 million tonnes of e-waste generated in 2022 would fill 1.55 million 40-tonne trucks, roughly enough…

Read More

New UN framework to protect environment from harmful chemicals

Stuart Mitchell

A new global framework to reduce environmental risks from chemicals and waste was adopted at a UN conference in September, with countries committing to phase out the most harmful ones. Agreed at the fifth International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM5), in Bonn, Germany, the Global Framework on Chemicals sets concrete targets and guidelines across the lifecycle of chemicals. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), welcomed the new framework. “Everyone on this planet should be able to live and work without fear of falling sick or dying…

Read More