Climate activist Greta Thunberg along with Danish NGO Human Act, on Thursday launched a child rights-driven campaign to support the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in protecting young lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As countries grapple with severe disruptions to education caused by COVID-19, several UN agencies – as part of the Global Education Coalition – issued new guidelines on Thursday to help Governments make decisions on safely reopening schools for the world’s 1.3 billion students affected by ongoing closures.

Starting today, organizations, cities, industries, universities, governments, and others taking bold leadership on climate change can nominate their work for a UN Global Climate Action award.

International health experts will convene on Thursday to evaluate the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and advise on updated recommendations, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday during his latest virtual press conference from Geneva.

A third of all nations lack laws to protect their citizen’s online data and privacy, despite an 11 per cent uptick in the global adoption of data protection and privacy legislation since 2015, the United Nations’ trade, investment and development body (UNCTAD) said on Wednesday.

With classrooms closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two UN agencies are urging governments to act now to shore up the futures of the 370 million children worldwide who depend on school meals.

A major UN-led initiative is under way to secure supplies of key medical equipment for 135 low to medium-income countries facing down the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

To combat the COVID-19 pandemic and the “looming existential threat of climate disruption”, the only credible response is “brave, visionary and collaborative leadership” anchored in mutilateralism, the UN Secretary General António Guterres, said on Tuesday, during an international discussion focused on climate change.

The 11th Petersberg Climate Dialogue concluded with a commitment to a green recovery built on solidarity. At the invitation of Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze and UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Alok Sharma, around 30 climate ministers from all over the globe participated in the Climate Dialogue via video conference. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary-General António Guterres also took part in the meeting.

Against the backdrop of the unprecedented global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the deputy UN chief briefed journalists on Monday about a new women-led initiative that mobilizes support to save lives and protect livelihoods.

UN agencies in Greece have expressed concern at the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the education of refugee children in the country, as a charity partner warns that funding for educational programmes is on the verge of running out.

This year’s Petersberg Climate Dialogue from 27 to 28 April will focus on how to pave the way for the international community to emerge from the acute coronavirus pandemic in a more resilient and climate-friendly way. The meeting will take place for the first time in virtual mode, which will also allow broader participation via social networks.

The senior UN official in Kosovo is stressing that strong leadership and political unity are needed now more than ever, as local leaders and their international partners wage war on the “enormous challenge” posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Informal workers who live day to day urgently need cash support from their governments to survive the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of the UN labour agency said on Friday.

Millions of people are reliant on humanitarian supplies to survive, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making it even more difficult for aid workers to reach them. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is having to rethink the way it operates in some of the most vulnerable places in the world.

Secretary-General António Guterres issued a three-point global “Call to Action” on Thursday to cushion the colossal fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, pressing Governments to unify around a defining moment in history, as the new session of the UN’s Financing for Development Forum got underway.

In Libya, ongoing heavy fighting has raised concerns yet further, about the likely devastating impact of the new coronavirus on people there, particularly those repeatedly forced to flee violence.

The world faces an unprecedented threat from COVID-19. It is a global crisis unlike any in recent history — one that is spreading human suffering, destabilizing the global economy and upending the lives of billions of people around the globe.

The latest generation of fast broadband, commonly known as 5G, is in no way responsible for the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) –the UN’s agency for information and communication technologies – confirmed on Wednesday.

An expected drop in greenhouse gas emissions linked to the global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is only “short-term good news”, the head of the UN weather agency said on Wednesday.

In a video address to mark Earth Day, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary, UN Climate Chief Patricia Espinosa urged the international community to remain focused on Earth Day 2020’s overarching theme of climate change, despite the covid-19 crisis, and on an economic recovery that is sustainable.

With most of the world’s students now at home due to COVID-19, the pandemic is revealing startling divides in digitally-based distance learning, data from the UN education and cultural agency, UNESCO, and partners has revealed.