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Dec 19, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Maria Luisa Gambale
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The major news from the desertification climate conference here was no decision on the major global matter of drought, following the lead of the earlier biodiversity and climate change COPs this fall, falling short on headline outcomes.
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Dec 12, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Maria Luisa Gambale
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A cascade of environmental summits in the final months of this year has made some people ask, are we drowning in climate talks? Here in Riyadh, where the United Nations Conference to Combat Desertification is tackling issues like rapidly increasing global droughts and sustainable land management, the question is boiling to the surface.
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Nov 20, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Maria Luisa Gambale
BAKU, Azerbaijan — At COP, the annual climate conference held this year in Baku, it’s anyone’s guess if important progress will be made on the major issue of climate financing. The total amount of money and its sources remain contentious as delegates get to the middle of Week 2 and face down a deadline to wrap up by Friday evening, Nov. 22.
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Oct 27, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Maria Luisa Gambale
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is releasing his recommendations on Monday on how to protect the millions of Sudanese caught in the civil war. Humanitarian groups outside the UN have been united in calling for a peacekeeping or civilian protection force to be deployed in the country, and, without any possibility of a ceasefire in sight, are heavily disappointed by the failure of Guterres to demand a mission to safeguard civilians.
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Sep 26, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Maria Luisa Gambale
Palestine: ‘We Will Not Leave’“We will not leave,” Mahmoud Abbas, the 88-year-old president of the state of Palestine, repeated three times in the opening of his General Assembly address, which was met with a distinctly supportive round of applause in a relatively empty hall. A brief demonstration of support in the upper balcony marked Abbas’s closing, with the holders of a small banner shouting “Free Palestine” quickly escorted out by United Nations security.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Maria Luisa Gambale
After a splash of diplomatic theater over the weekend, with Russia introducing an amendment in a last-ditch attempt to thwart the process, the Pact for the Future was approved by the United Nations General Assembly on Sunday morning with not so much fanfare as relief.
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Sep 12, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Maria Luisa Gambale
Two years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Veto Initiative through an effort led by Ambassador Christian Wenaweser of Liechtenstein. The initiative establishes that if any of the permanent members in the Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — casts a veto in a vote, the president of the General Assembly must convene a formal meeting of the body within 10 business days, incurring a debate on the disputed issue.
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Aug 5, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Maria Luisa Gambale
Last year, Ecuador was the recipient of the largest debt-for-nature swap in history when it received a $656 million loan to help finance the preservation of the Galápagos Islands in perpetuity in exchange for the forgiveness of $1.7 billion in debt. The forgiven debt and the benefit are greater than the total of all other such deals in the past 40 years.
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Jun 14, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Arthur Bassas |Dulcie Leimbach |Maria Luisa Gambale |Maya Linstrum-Newman |Nadine Gloss |Dawn Clancy
Welcome to This Week @UN : Small states financial reform; US presidential candidates; Cyprus unification? Plus: Gaza; drowning migrants; DPRK; children in war; FGM. We have begun fund-raising to boost our coverage of the UN General Assembly annual opening session in September, including reporting on the Summit of the Future.
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Jun 12, 2024 | 
passblue.com | Dulcie Leimbach |Maria Luisa Gambale |Maya Linstrum-Newman |Nadine Gloss |Dawn Clancy |Arthur Bassas
NICOSIA, Cyprus - The last chance for the long-divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus to reunite may be seized as the relatively new envoy for the United Nations coaxes the two sides in the 50-year dispute to let down their guard and begin talking to each other. A breakthrough may be afoot as some key people met together at UN headquarters in New York City recently.
