TOKYO, Japan, Sep 12 (IPS) - Sustainable development is the challenge of how to build a society in which humanity can live with dignity in this global environment.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sep 12 (IPS) - While climate change is relentlessly progressing, threatening life on earth, world leaders continue to meet while planning for a future where this immense menace to human existence remains a minor item on the agenda.

KAMPALA/LUSAKA/HARARE, Sep 12 (IPS) - Almost 30 years ago in 1994, the world witnessed a historic event as 179 nations convened on African soil, in Cairo, for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 12 (IPS) - Everyone in this world is entitled to 15 minutes of fame -- is a legendary quote mis-attributed to the American pop icon Andy Warhol.

Over the years, the United Nations has laid down its own 15-minute rule for world leaders addressing the UN General Assembly.

The building sector, responsible for an astonishing 37 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, has been lacking climate-focused development funding, according to a report published by the UN’s environment agency on Tuesday.

Hundreds have died in ethnically motivated attacks by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militia in West Darfur, according to the UN’s human rights chief.

To highlight the importance of ongoing cooperation between countries of the Global South, the UN commemorated its annual Day for South-South Cooperation on Tuesday.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday that a historic funding shortfall was forcing it to “drastically” cut rations in most of its operations, potentially pushing an additional 24 million people to the brink of starvation over the next 12 months.

UN agencies and partners are responding to the disaster unfolding in eastern Libya after extreme rainfall caused devastating flooding and loss of life over the weekend, humanitarians told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

The “dire needs” of Syrians have been systematically ignored during more than 12 years of brutal conflict in the country, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria warned on Tuesday.