UN in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu & Vanuatu

The 2024 State of the World’s Mangroves is out! 🌳 Mangroves are among the world’s most misunderstood, fragile, and valuable ecosystems. Despite representing less than 1% of all tropical forests worldwide, mangroves support the lives of millions of people while protecting our planet. The 2024 State of the World’s Mangroves, published by Global Mangrove Alliance, highlights the tremendous advances that have been made on multiple fronts to safeguard these ecosystems. It showcases progress in: science and understanding; collaboration and information sharing; practical management interventions; and the many policy, legal, and financial tools that will help to secure a better future for these ecosystems. Key insights include: 🌱 Globally, 40% of the world’s remaining mangrove forests are in protected areas. 🌱 While mangrove losses in the past were considerable, rates of loss are declining and fell by 44% between 2000 and 2020. 🌱 However, half of the world’s mangrove provinces are considered threatened. 🌱 The global picture of mangrove extent is better than ever: the latest Global Mangrove Watch dataset offers a sixfold increase in mapping resolution and coverage of six additional regions with mangroves. For the first time, it is possible to separate out notable impacts, and the report found that conversion to aquaculture, oil palm plantations, and rice cultivation together explain 43% of mangrove losses between 2000 and 2020. As part of the #OceanDecade, scientists across the world are working together to enhance our understanding of mangroves, and to improve how they are valued and managed through initiatives like the Global Ocean Decade Programme for Blue Carbon (GO-BC), the Observatory of Mangroves and its maretories in Brazil, and more. 👉 Read the report: https://lnkd.in/gUrgR-6

Today’s report from the Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals is a how-to guide to help generate prosperity and equality alongside clean power. We established the Panel in response to calls from developing countries, amid signs that the energy transition could reproduce and amplify inequalities of the past – banishing developing countries to the bottom of value chains to watch others grow rich by exploiting their people and putting their environment in jeopardy. This report identifies ways to ground the renewables revolution in justice and equity, so that it spurs sustainable development, respects people, protects the environment, and powers prosperity in resource-rich developing countries. Together, let’s work to deliver renewable energy that powers a fairer and more just future for all.

Thursday is the International Day for South South Cooperation. Solidarity among countries of the South has offered concrete solutions to shared challenges, and can help achieve the #GlobalGoals. South-South partnerships are crucial for building a better future for all, said UN Secretary-General António Guterres, stressing that they do not reduce the responsibility of wealthier nations to help tackle global inequalities. "On the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation, we celebrate the transformative power of unity and solidarity among developing nations.” https://lnkd.in/eFZxUQwD

8 billion people – 1 planet 🌎 Protecting #OurCommonFuture depends on our ability to unite and take transformative action to tackle the biggest challenges facing humanity. #SummitoftheFuture

Final negotiations are underway in New York for this month’s #SummitoftheFuture, where Heads of State will agree on reforms to the building blocks of global cooperation. The United Nations has convened this unique Summit because of a stark fact: global problems are moving faster than the institutions designed to solve them. United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, discusses the upcoming #SummitoftheFuture in this Op-ed linked below. https://lnkd.in/gH8-BrwD

Yesterday, we started our 2024 UN Country Team Retreat in Palau. It is the first time that this retreat is being held in the North Pacific (Micronesia). As the host, I had the honour to open the retreat on behalf of the three UN Resident Coordinators in the Pacific (myself for UN MCO Micronesia, Dirk Wagener for UN MCO Fiji and Themba Kalua for UN MCO Samoa). I did so together with H.E. Surangel Whipps Jr., President of the Republic of Palau. We very much appreciated the contribution of President Whipps in setting the stage.

Most of us - 99% of humanity - breathe polluted air. Air pollution leads to an estimated 8 million premature deaths – including more than 700,000 children under five. Yet pollution is a silent killer that can be stopped. Investing in clean air saves lives, combats climate change, strengthens economies, builds fairer societies, and advances the #GlobalGoals. On International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, let’s invest now so we can breathe easy knowing we are securing a healthier planet for all. 📷: UN NY Headquarters, 2023 (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

#WorldCleanAirDay on 7 September calls upon everyone from governments and corporations to civil society and individuals to Invest in #CleanAirNow.

Malo 'Aupito Tonga! We are truly grateful! 🙏 United Nations Resident Coordinator in Fiji Dirk Wagener met with Tonga’s Minister for Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Climate Change and Communications (MEIDECC), Hon. Fekita Utoikamanu, to deeply thank her ministry and the Government of Tonga for their exemplary preparations in ensuring a successful Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting #PIFLM53 and for Tonga's invaluable collaboration with the United Nations and facilitation of the visit by UN Secretary-General, António Guterres and his delegation.

In the Kingdom of #Tonga last Friday, UN Resident Coordinator Fiji Dirk Wagener was deeply honored to take part in a joint UN Department of Peace Operations (UNDPO) and Republic of Fiji event on enhancing a #Pacific Regional #Peacekeeping Cooperation Network. The event was organized on the margins of the Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting #PIFLM53 with key regional actors and former peacekeepers, including Fiji's Minister for Home Affairs, Hon. Pio Tikoduadua, Fiji's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Filipo Taraikinikini, and Albert Loret, Military Affairs Officer/Team Leader of the Light Coordination Mechanism, UNDPO. Mr Wagener acknowledged with deep gratitude, Fiji's role in the UN's peacekeeping operations around the globe. He paid tribute to Fijian peacekeepers who had lost their lives in the line of duty and highlighted the important linkages between peacekeeping, #development, #gender, and the #humanitarian nexus.