UNIS/SGSM/1407
31 May 2024
The theme of this year’s World Environment Day is “land restoration, desertification, and drought resilience.”
Humanity depends on land. Yet, all over the world, a toxic cocktail of pollution, climate chaos, and biodiversity decimation are turning healthy lands into deserts, and thriving ecosystems into dead zones. They are annihilating forests and grasslands, and sapping the strength of land to support ecosystems, agriculture, and communities.
That means crops failing, water sources vanishing, economies weakened, and communities endangered – with the poorest hit hardest. Sustainable development is suffering. And we are trapped in a deadly cycle – land use is responsible for eleven percent of the carbon dioxide emissions heating our planet. It’s time to break free.
Countries must deliver on all their commitments to restore degraded ecosystems and land, and on the entire Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. They must use their new national climate action plans to set out how they will halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. And we must drastically scale-up finance to support developing countries to adapt to violent weather, protect nature, and support sustainable development.
Inaction is too costly. But swift and effective action makes economic sense. Every dollar invested in ecosystem restoration creates up to thirty dollars in economic benefits.
We are Generation Restoration. Together, let’s build a sustainable future for land, and for humanity.
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Transnational organized crime in the Sahel represents a major obstacle to peace and security, human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a new UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, Impact of Transnational Organized Crime on Stability and Development in the Sahel.
The biggest street art in Vienna has been inaugurated today at a special ceremony at the United Nations headquarters in the city, with representatives of Host Country, City of Vienna, 22nd municipal district, the United Nations and the Calle Libre Street Art Festival as well as the artist himself, Fintan Magee.
Marking its 20th anniversary, the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) invites the 79 million people living in the 14 Danube countries to take part in this year’s Danube Day celebration and outdoor events.
The UNCITRAL/UNIDROIT Model Law on Warehouse Receipts was adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) at its 57th session in New York.
