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The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) launched 'We're Accelerating Climate Action,' a global campaign to raise awareness of the steps being taken worldwide by companies, cities, and investors to curb GHG emissions. The UNFCCC launched this campaign to promote the actions of the more than 11,000 companies, cities, and investors that have submitted their GHG reduction initiatives on the NAZCA online portal

The UN released a report finding that a transformational change in global aviation's efforts to promote economic growth and combat climate change could deliver industry savings up to $70 trillion by 2050. Nancy Young, vice president of Airlines for America, said biofuels can help reduce carbon emissions over time by the commercial airline industry.

The US Green Building Council joined the Global Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform, a membership initiative with the goal to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030. The program was launched during the UN Climate Summit two months ago under UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

A draft report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the world will have to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 40% and 70% from 2010 levels by 2050 to limit global average temperature increases to 2° C above pre-industrial levels. The report summarizes the 3 major UN climate reports released over the past year.

This UN Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study report reveals that the UN climate summit (COP21) is critical to supporting private sector investment and that executives see climate change action as an opportunity for growth and innovation. Among the world's largest companies, those with annual revenues in excess of US$1 billion, 70 percent see opportunities for growth within the next 5 years and 69 percent see investment in climate solutions as essential to competitive advantage.

GRI, the UN Global Compact and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development have launched a new tool to help companies navigate and contribute to a new set of global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations last week. The SDG Compass is a guide that companies can use to align their strategies with the relevant SDGs, and measure and manage their impacts. It is supported by a live and constantly updated inventory of business indicators.

The UN Environment Program and other partners launched the Sustainable Public Procurement Program, a project to redirect public spending towards goods and services with environmental and social benefits. The initiative is part of the UN's 10-Year Framework of Programs on Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Tourism is one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world contributing 9 per cent to global GDP, accounting for one in 11 jobs worldwide and for 6 per cent of global exports, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported today as it launched a programme aiming to catalyze a shift to more sustainable tourism.

On Tuesday at COP21, the MIT Climate CoLab announced the launch of a series of online contests to help strengthen the resilience of vulnerable countries to respond to climate-related hazards. The suite of contests are part of the UN Secretary-General's Climate Resilience Initiative: Anticipate, Absorb, Reshape (A2R), a global, multi-stakeholder initiative aimed at accelerating action on the ground to enhance climate resilience of the most vulnerable countries and people by 2020. 

Despite all of the hubbub and calls to action from business leaders around Climate Week NYC and the release of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), corporate minds at large may not be drinking the Kool-Aid: Survey results released this week reveal that even in companies with sustainability commitments, about one-third of business leaders believe that a new agreement from COP21 in December will have little to no significance for their business, and only one-third believe their company will use the SDGs to set goals.

While national leaders spout optimistic platitudes celebrating the great achievement of the globally unifying Paris Agreement on climate, environmentalists note that there is little in the way of substantial action plans behind the many promises made last December. Meanwhile, the most intense El Niño in history is leaving in its wake a world gripped by 7 months of record high temperatures; drought, water shortages, and famine (especially in India and Africa); wildfires (Fort McMurray, Canada); record coral bleaching; and a fast shrinking Arctic ice cap that set stunning early melt records this winter and spring.

We've all heard of the troubling mass extinction of animal life, so it may come as a surprise to hear that seeds are in even deeper trouble. Since the turn of the century, 93% of US seed varieties have gone extinct and with them the diversity of our meals.  As clearly shown in the infographic (left) published by National Geographic's John Tomanio, nature's tastiest gifts have dramatically disappeared across the past century. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (the FAO), 75% of the world's food is now generated from only 12 plants and five animal species.

Bees, butterflies and other pollinators are increasingly under threat from human activities and countries must transform their agricultural practices to ensure global crop production can meet demand and avoid substantial economic losses, the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity heard today. According to the global assessment on pollinators produced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 75 per cent of our food crops and nearly 90 per cent of wild flowering plants depend to some extent on animal pollination, which is the transfer of pollen between the male and female parts of flowers to enable fertilization and reproduction. Without pollinators, crops such as coffee, cacao and apples would drastically suffer, and changes in global crop supplies could increase prices to consumers and reduce profits to producers, resulting in a potential annual net loss of economic welfare of $160 billion to $191 billion globally.

Now, almost an entire year since the UN made a call to action for global business leaders, who has been listening? We are just beginning to see the effect of the UN's goals, but what businesses are performing their due diligence to better the health and wellbeing of the humans and the world?

Companies including SABMiller, Dow, Novozymes, and many others have begun to align their corporate responsibility targets with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) since the United Nations (UN) launched them in September. Indeed, aligning corporate strategy with the SDGs demonstrates the relevancy of social and environmental efforts, and private sector contributions are essential if we hope to achieve the 17 ambitious targets by 2030.

Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee rejected an amendment on Tuesday that would allow the federal government to allocate funds toward the UN Green Climate Fund. "The Green Climate Fund is the only multilateral institution that supports clean, resilient development around the world," said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., adding that the US should be leading the initiative.

The Paris climate agreement will likely be ratified on Earth Day, when it will be signed by more than 130 nations, the UN said on Friday. Only 55 signatures are needed to ratify the document. If approved, the climate accord is expected to encourage countries to curb their greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately holding global warming to an increase of no more than 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, through the next two decades.

The United States, China, and around 130 other nations are expected to sign the Paris Agreement on April 22 at the UN headquarters in New York City.

Nestlé has introduced new 2020 sustainability and development targets, building on its first set of 2020 goals announced in 2013. The company also announced long-term ambitions in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including helping 50 million children lead healthier lives, helping to improve 30 million livelihoods in communities directly connected to its business activities, and striving for zero environmental impact in its operations

End-of-life electronics worldwide are expected to increase 33 percent in just five years, reaching 65.5 million metric tons annually by 2017, according to data from Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) Initiative, a UN-backed alliance