U.N. climate change head: “We sink or swim together”

Source: European Parliament

“We sink or swim together” – that was the message the UN’s chief scientist on climate change brought to MEPs on Wednesday 25 March. India’s Rajendra K. Pachauri is Chair of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) convened by the United Nations to forge a scientific consensus on global warming. We spoke to Dr. Pachauri before his visit to Parliament’s temporary committee on climate change where he delivered a speech on climate change and global security.

Climate change is eroding Antarctica

Source: AFP on Google News

Antarctica’s massive Wilkins Ice Shelf has begun disintegrating under the effects of global warming, satellite images by the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center showed.

U.N. Chief under fire over reform

Source: IPS | by Thalif Deen

The 130-member Group of 77 (G77), the largest single coalition of developing nations, is challenging Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s decision to realign two key posts, one dealing with Africa and the other with the world’s poorest nations, into a single mega entity.

Serbia asks U.N. for partitioning of Kosovo

Source: The International Herald Tribune | by Dan Bilefsky

Serbia proposed dividing newly independent Kosovo along ethnic lines on Monday, a move that was immediately rebuffed by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership in Pristina.

Climate change and the U.N. Security Council

Source: The Christian Science Monitor | by Gregory Meeks (*) and Michael Shank (**)

The United Nations tackled the task of troubleshooting climate change last month. Between holding special General Assembly meetings at headquarters in New York, bringing 100 environmental ministers to Monaco in the largest meeting of ministers since Bali, and launching a Climate Neutral Network to highlight best practices in tackling global warming, the UN appears to be doing what it can to ensure that climate change does not fall off the political radar. Yet, it still isn’t enough. A concerted international strategy, on a par with the seriousness and scope of an UN Security Council resolution, is what’s needed to counter this climate crisis.

New proposal for Security Council expansion

Source: Associated Press | By Edith M. Lederer

An interim proposal to tackle the divisive issue of Security Council reform would expand the U.N.’s most powerful body from 15 to 22 members but leave it up to the 192 U.N. member states to decide which countries should fill them.

Kofi Annan and the limits of the U.N. in global conflicts

Source: The New York Times | by Warren Hoge

Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General, said Thursday that the United Nations was “overstretched” in conflict areas and should resist taking on new responsibilities as long as major powers proved unwilling to supply needed support.

Kosovo searches the world for friends to back independence

Source: The Tiimes | by David Charter

Three neighbours of Serbia angered Belgrade yesterday by announcing that they would formally recognise Kosovo’s independence this week, helping to relieve nerves in Pristina at the slow pace of international support for the world’s newest country. Support from Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary will bring the total number of states recognising the breakaway Serbian province to 33, far fewer than many in Kosovo had hoped for by this stage, more than a month after declaring self-rule.