United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday appointed Michael R. Bloomberg, the former Mayor of New York City, as his Special Envoy for Climate Action.

“[Mr. Bloomberg’s actions have] has made an enormous difference, and makes us believe that we will soon be running faster than climate change, that we will soon be starting to defeat climate change, that the Paris Agreement [on climate change] can be fully implemented but with an enhanced ambition,” Secretary-General Guterres told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.

“We need that enhanced ambition in order to make sure that we reach the end of the century with an increase in temperature of about 1.5 and below 2 [degrees Celsius],” he added, referring to the central aim of the three-year-old Paris Accord, which set the stage for all countries to take ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so.

According the UN chief’s spokesperson, Mr. Bloomberg – who earlier served as the UN Special Envoy on Cities and Climate Change – will support the Secretary-General’s climate strategy and efforts toward the planned 2019 Climate Summit at UN Headquarters, which seeks to mobilize stronger and more ambitious action towards 2020 climate targets.

The Special Envoy will leverage efforts in key areas of the Climate Summit to encourage rapid and enhanced implementation of the Paris Agreement in the context of sustainable development.

The note further stated that Secretary-General will be engaging and inviting leaders from Governments, businesses, finance and civil society organizations with a view to bending the emissions curve by 2020 and accelerating the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

“The Secretary-General and Mr. Bloomberg share the perspective that the emissions gap needs to be closed soon to limit global temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius. Climate Action, including those by cities and sub-national actors, play an essential role in driving ambition on climate change,” it added.

In addition to having served as the former UN Special Envoy on Cities and Climate Change, Mr. Bloomberg was appointed by the Chair of the Financial Stability Board Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

The Task Force – which has finished its work – has developed voluntary, climate-related financial disclosures for use by companies in providing information to lenders, insurers, investors and other stakeholders.

From 2002-2013, Mr. Bloomberg served as the 108th Mayor of the City of New York. He began his career in 1966 at Salomon Brothers, and launched the financial news and information company Bloomberg LP in 1981.

More than 100,000 United Nations peacekeepers are serving in the cause of peace around the world today. They do so at great personal risk and in harsh conditions. In places such as the Central African Republic and South Sudan, peacekeepers save thousands of lives, protect civilians against violent attacks and support the delivery of crucial humanitarian assistance.

Senegal has partnered with the UN Peacekeeping to participate in peace operations in numerous hotspots. Currently, the country is the eighth largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN peacekeeping, with more than 3,000 troops and police across six missions. Over the years, 79 Senegalese personnel have made the ultimate sacrifice, losing their lives in service to peace.

Among the most notable Senegalese heroes is Captain Mbaye Diagne of Senegal, who saved hundreds of lives in 1994 while serving as a peacekeeper in Rwanda before succumbing to a fatal injury incurred while on duty.

In May 2014, the UN Security Council created the Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal to honour military, police and civilian United Nations or associated personnel who demonstrate exceptional courage in the face of extreme danger. Two years later, the inaugural medal was awarded to Captain Diagne’s family at a ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York.

Children in crisis situations face a raft of challenges – from family separation and forced recruitment to sexual exploitation and abject poverty – the deputy United Nations human rights chief said Monday, urging immediate action to protect children from the consequences of “all too adult failings.”

“In 2016 alone, 43 million children across 63 countries required humanitarian assistance,” Kate Gilmore, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, told the annual day-long meeting on the rights of the child, Protecting the Rights of the Child in Humanitarian Situations.

“And, today, 357 million children live in conflict zones – up by some 75 per cent since last century’s last decade and accounting for one in six children globally,” she added. 

From floods, earthquakes and hurricanes to man-made political and economic instability, and armed conflicts between and among State and non-State parties globally, the costs of adult misconduct and the consequences their misbehaviour as political, social and economic guardians have let down millions of children.

Countless unknown children have lost their lives in terrified transit on the Mediterranean sea; thousands have been violated in Myanmar’s Rakhine state; girls have been subjected to sexual abuse and exploitation by Blue-helmeted troops; and others violated by numbers of religious and secular aid-workers.

“The tragedy of these all-too-adult failings are borne by children, but the shame is surely not children’s to bear,” she stated, pointing out that children are the vast majority of the populations most affected by conflict, most afflicted by abject poverty, most exposed to climate change.

“In flight, children face additional sexual abuse and exploitation, child labour and trafficking. In transit, they meet further abuse, neglect and deprivation of essential services,” she continued. 

“At reception, they more often meet unlawful detention, xenophobia and an absence of care for the physical and mental trauma to which they have been subjected,” she maintained.

Recalling that children make up half of the world’s displaced people and more than half of its refugees, Ms. Gilmore emphasized: “No matter where they are, nor the status of their movement within or across borders – irregular as that may be – a child’s rights never abandons them.” 

However, the tolerance for children’s abuse appears so high that no matter what is learned of its scale, breadth, or long-lasting damage, the world struggles to put its responsibilities to children front and centre.

Questioning why, in 2018, the Secretary-General should need to confirm the UN’s zero-tolerance policy for sexual exploitation and abuse of children and adults, Ms. Gilmore stated: “The UN must own its shame.”

“International human rights law applies at all times, in all settings for all peoples of all ages,” she underscored, noting that in the seventh decade of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “we must strongly affirm that human rights hold and human rights persist, even in humanitarian settings and specifically for children.”

Children’s interests be put at the forefront of decision-making processes.

“We must bring children in – bring children to sit at the tables of decision making and participation and specifically so for the design, implementation and monitoring of our humanitarian assistance activities,” she urged.

Iran is implementing a series of commitments under the nuclear agreement reached with key countries in 2015, the head of the United Nations nuclear energy agency said Monday.

“As of today, I can state that Iran is implementing its nuclear-related commitments,” he said in his introductory statement to the Board of Governors, one of the two policy-making bodies of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – reached by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union – sets out rigorous mechanisms for monitoring limits on Iran’s nuclear programme, while paving the way for lifting UN sanctions against the country, and “represents a significant gain for verification,” he added.

Mr. Amano said that it is essential for Iran to continues fully implementing those commitments. “If the JCPOA were to fail, it would be a great loss for nuclear verification and for multilateralism,” he warned.

He said IAEA inspectors had had access to all the sites and locations which they needed to visit.

At a news conference later in the day, Mr. Amano gave more details of the Agency’s activities in Iran.

“Our inspection work has doubled since 2013. IAEA inspectors now spend 3,000 calendar days per year on the ground in Iran,” he told reporters in the Austrian capital.

He said IAEA has installed some 2,000 tamper-proof seals on nuclear material and equipment, collected and analysed hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by its sophisticated surveillance cameras in Iran.

He also said “the most important event” in the IAEA calendar this year is Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology, which will take place in Vienna from November 28 to 30.

The conference will bring together ministers, technical experts and many others to consider how countries can make optimal use of nuclear science and technology in achieving their development goals.

The IAEA contributes directly to the achievement of nine of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as nuclear science and technology can help countries to produce more food, generate more electricity, treat diseases such as cancer, manage their water supplies, and respond to climate change.

Mr. Amano’s full remarks to the Board of Governors, here.

A United Nations-Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) humanitarian convoy arrived in the besieged Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Monday bringing life-saving aid to thousands of desperate people, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) has reported.

The convoy carried wheat flour for 27,500 people in the city of Duma, as well as specialized nutritional supplies for malnourished children, and marked the first time in four months that WFP and its partners have reached the area.

Aid workers also conducted food security, nutrition and medical assessments.

Eastern Ghouta, located near the capital, Damascus, has been under heavy bombardment, with more than 400,000 people experiencing shortages of food, fuel, medicines and drinking water.

 “A humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Eastern Ghouta where raging violence has paralyzed our response and our ability to reach families who desperately need help,” said Jakob Kern, WFP Representative and Country Director in Syria.

“The longer Eastern Ghouta is deprived of the necessities of life, the more people will die. We appeal to all parties to allow the ongoing and safe delivery of aid to all people in need, no matter where they are.”

Syrian Arab Red Crescent

With thousands in need of life-saving aid, a convoy consisting of 46 truckloads of health and nutrition supplies will provide some relief.

Marwa Awad, a WFP Communications Officer based in Damascus, said plans are under way for another humanitarian convoy to access Eastern Ghouta on Thursday. 

“This one convoy is not enough in order to cover the needs of the nearly 400,000 people on the inside, and it’s one drop in an ocean of needs and we very much look forward to and hope to be able to get more access in the future to support the people who desperately need humanitarian assistance,” she said.

WFP reported that a recent food security analysis has revealed widespread severe malnutrition in Duma.

The UN agency provides food assistance to three million people in Syria every month.