New Zealand creates first climate change refugee visa program
Faced with the looming prospect of entire islands disappearing under rising sea levels, New Zealand is designing the world’s first climate change refugee visa program.
International cooperation
When nations work together, problems that seem intractable often yield. This archive covers treaties signed, coalitions formed, and shared commitments that show cross-border cooperation producing real results — on climate, health, trade, and more.
North, South Korea to march together under one flag at Winter Olympics
North and South Korean athletes will march together at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony under a unified flag, the South said Wednesday, in a diplomatic breakthrough following days of talks between the two countries.
U.N. brokers deal to end use of children in Nigeria’s battle with Boko Haram
Officials hail landmark for child protection as youth vigilante group known as Civilian Joint Task Force pledges to draw a line under recruitment of minors
U.N. conference adopts treaty banning nuclear weapons
The treaty — adopted by a vote of 122 in favour to one against (Netherlands), with one abstention (Singapore) — prohibits a full range of nuclear-weapon-related activities, such as undertaking to develop, test, produce, manufacture, acquire, possess or stockpile nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, as well as the use or threat of use of these weapons.
Nine of the world’s largest fisheries pledge to eradicate overfishing
Signatories of the pact include Maruha Nichiro Corporation and Nippon Suisan Kaish, the two largest fishing companies by revenues, as well as the world’s two largest tuna companies and the two largest aquafeed companies.
Countries signed to UN-brokered illegal fishing treaty meet for first time
Participants at the week-long event in Oslo, which began today, are from the more than 46 countries that have endorsed the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA).
The United Nations just launched its first large-scale ethereum test to send funds to refugees
For the next month, cryptographically unique coupons representing an undisclosed number of Jordanian dinars will be sent to dozens of shops in five refugee camps across the nation.
World leaders adopt the Sustainable Development Goals at the UN
The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted on September 25, 2015, when 193 nations gathered at UN headquarters in New York and agreed to a shared 15-year plan spanning poverty, climate, and equality. More than 8 million people helped shape priorities through the MY World survey. It remains the broadest development framework humanity has ever attempted together.
U.N. adopts resolution to develop a high seas biodiversity treaty
High seas protection took a real step forward in 2015, when every U.N. member state agreed by consensus to begin negotiating a legally binding treaty for the open ocean. The waters beyond national borders cover more than 60 percent of the sea, yet had long lacked meaningful rules. This resolution opened the door.
Norway agrees to pay Liberia $150 million to halt deforestation
Liberia’s forests gained a powerful ally in 2014, when Norway pledged up to $150 million in development aid tied to a single condition: keep the trees standing. The deal covered the Upper Guinean rainforest, of which Liberia holds roughly 43 percent. It marked Norway’s first country-level results-based forest agreement in Africa.