A Knowledgebase of UN and Intergovernmental
Activities Addressing Global Climate Change Policy

6 October 2008: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

António Guterres told the opening session of his agency’s governing Executive

Committee, which met in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2-6 October 2006, that

climate change, extreme poverty and conflict are increasingly inter-related,

leading to a surge in forced displacement rising and demands on the UNHCR.

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October 2008: The International Food Policy Research

Institute (IFRPI) has published three essays addressing critical questions

regarding policy responses to the current food crisis. The essays by Joachim

von Braun, IFPRI Director General, Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the

UN World Food Programme (WFP), and Namanga Ngongi, President of the Alliance

for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), point to the dangers and pitfalls of

misguided policies, but also to the potential opportunities for responding in a

way that prevents future crises and ensures food security in the long term. In

addition to the most pressing questions of delivering immediate relief to

populations affected by hunger and the strategic issues of the long-term

stabilization of food production and food markets, the essays also address

impacts of current biofuel policies and climate change on agriculture.

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October 2008: The Third Global Congress of Women in Politics

and Governance will convene in Manila, Philippines, from 19-22 October 2008,

with a focus on gender in climate change and disaster risk reduction.

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29 September 2008: Addressing the Ministerial Meeting on

Reducing Disaster risks in a Changing Climate, which took place in New York,

US, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged enhanced efforts to reduce the

fall-out from natural disasters, noting that climate change leads to harsher

weather extremes.

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September 2008: The UN Department of Economic and Social

Affairs has prepared a policy brief on “An integrated approach needed for the

growing threat of climate-related insecurity.”

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23 September 2008: In his speech to the opening of the

General Debate of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly, UN Secretary-General

Ban Ki-moon recalled that the global food, energy and financial crises, as well

as the challenge of climate change, demand global solutions.

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23 September 2008: The President of the UN General Assembly

(UNGA), Miguel D’Escoto, opened its annual High-Level debate by stating that

the confluence of global interrelated crises, including climate change, high

food prices, disasters and financial troubles, highlight the need to overturn

the culture of selfishness and shift towards solidarity.

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September 2008: The 2008 International Day for Disaster

Reduction, celebrated on 8 October, will focus on making hospitals and health

facilities safe from disaster. The Day will be part of the UN International

Strategy for Disaster Reduction’s (UN/ISDR) new World Disaster Reduction

Campaign 2008-2009: Hospitals Safe from Disasters.

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15 September 2008: Noting that media interest in climate

change issues has been fading since the release of the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report in November 2008, UN

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed the importance of cooperation among

all sectors of society to tackle this challenge.

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10 September 2008: Presenting his latest report to the Human

Rights Council in Geneva, Olivier De Schutter, the Special Rapporteur on the

Right to Food, said rising food prices continue to jeopardize the right to

food, stressing that “any potential solution to the problem must be viewed

through the lens of human rights.”

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