The U.N. Closes January 2014 With Ambitions on Climate Change

On January 30, 2014 the United Nations backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its complete Working Group 1 fifth assessment report, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon both invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the September Climate Summit in New York, and opened the inaugural meeting of the high level U.N. Scientific Advisory Board for sustainable development.

Geneva 2 Press Conferences Reveal Early Tensions and Ambitions

The initial Geneva 2 press conferences, which included Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, United States Secretary of State John Kerry, Syrian Permanent Representative to the U.N. Bashar Jaafari, chief mediator and head of the U.N. Special Envoy to Syria since 2012 Lakhdar Brahimi and Louay Safi of the Syrian Opposition, indicated dichotomies of opinion regarding the conflict and the peace talks, though there appears to be progress.

UN Indicates Importance of Establishing Facts In South Sudan

Ivan Šimonović, the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights stressed the importance of monitoring and public reporting to a sustainable peace in South Sudan, in a press briefing on January 20 following his trip to the country last week.