New York, US (PANA) - The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) on Friday urged world leaders to take note of the profound implications of record-high carbon dioxide readings in September and appealed for their increased commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Full text...

Brussels, Belgium (PANA) - The European Council on Friday agreed to speed up the process of ratification of the Paris Agreement which sets the framework for global action on climate change. Full text...

Ebène, Mauritius (PANA) - The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), through its Biodiversity programme, trained about 30 participants from Seychelles, Mauritius, Kenya and Tanzania in Marine Protected Areas (MPA) laws in the Western Indian Ocean from 26 to 30 September 2016 in Mahé, Seychelles. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Senior United Nations officials on Thursday announced that the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change signed by world leaders this past April is closer to entering into force, as India – a country that produces more than four per cent of global emissions – plans to submit its ratification at the end of the week. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - With some 6.5 million people dying annually from air pollution and 92 per cent of the world’s population living in places where levels exceed recommended limits, the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday rolled out its most detailed profile of the scourge, in a bid to slash the deadly toll. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The world faces growing nuclear dangers and tensions, yet progress in multilateral nuclear disarmament has come to a standstill, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday, reiterating a call for complete global nuclear disarmament as the international community marks the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - Kenyan born Njeri Kabeberi has been named as the new Executive Director for Greenpeace Africa, the environmental campaign group revealed in a statement on Monday. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - A gold-mine collapse in Sudan’s northern Shamalia State killed three persons, left 15 others trapped underground, and 25 injured, PANA reports. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Partners of a new UN-led platform to mobilize and accelerate action on climate resilience on Friday in New York agreed to move ahead with plans that will help meet the needs of a growing global population that is being impacted by climate change. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - An earthquake measuring 4.8 hit the district of Rusizi in southwest Rwanda on Friday, causing injuries to persons and damage to property, according to local administrative officials. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), Lassina Zerbo, has called on governments to make concerted efforts in ensuring the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty enter in force as soon as possible. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) says 29 persons have been killed in 99 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 30 states of Nigeria already affected by flood. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - The embedded carbon emissions from the oil, gas, and coal in currently operating fields and mines, if they run to the end of their projected lifetimes, will take us just beyond the Paris Agreement’s 2˚C warming limit, and even further from the goal of 1.5˚C, a new study has found. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Swaziland has ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), becoming the 165th nation to do so, and its instrument of ratification was deposited at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The High Level Panel on Water, consisting of 11 sitting Heads of State and Government and one Special Adviser, on Wednesday in New York issued a Call to Action for a fundamental shift in the way the world looks at water. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - More than 55 countries have formally joined the Paris Agreement on climate change signed by world leaders in April, officially crossing one of the two thresholds required to bring into force the landmark pact for putting the world on a path towards low-carbon growth and a more sustainable future, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Wednesday. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – Zambian President Edgar Lungu has appended his signature to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change during the Treaty Event at the on-going High-Level Segment of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - After two years of negotiations, Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia finally on Tuesday signed on two French firms to carry out a study on the economic, social and environmental impact of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam GERD now under construction on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - International wildlife charities, Born Free Foundation and Born Free USA, on Monday issued a stark warning to governments around the world saying “there can be no trade in some of our most critically endangered wildlife – ahead of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).” Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) – Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt, have agreed to ask two French companies to conduct further studies on the impact of the huge Ethiopian water dam, the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), on the area since Ethiopia started the construction of the dam about two years ago. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Representatives of African meteorological agencies, gathered this week in Kigali, Rwanda, on Friday committed to major reforms in tuning in to signals emitted from a second generation weather satellite, known as "Meteosat 8", in a technological makeover aimed to improve the meteorological services at national and regional levels and improve other initiatives related to weather, climate and environmental monitoring. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on Friday called on countries to strengthen climate protection by reducing the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Full text...

Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Mauritius has launched a study on ecological risks of hull cleaning operations in its port waters in a bid to get rid of anti-fouling compounds that persist in water, killing sea life, harming the environment and possibly entering the food chain. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - International wildlife charity, Born Free Foundation, has welcomed a motion passed at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) World Conservation Congress encouraging governments globally to close their domestic markets for elephant ivory as a matter of urgency. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - Rwandan Foreign Affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo has sent a message of condolences to Tanzania following a deadly earthquake in the East African nation country, which has caused a huge loss of property and lives. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN is urging countries to accelerate efforts to join the Paris Agreement on Climate Change during a special high-level event to be hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on 21 September in New York. Full text...

Kisumu, Kenya (PANA) - An earthquake measuring 5.7 on Saturday hit Bukoba region in Tanzania killing at least 10 people and injuring about 200. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - A tsunami simulation exercise, named Indian Ocean Wave 2016 ‘IOWave16’, will on Thursday and Friday put Indian Ocean countries into a tsunami warning situation requiring prompt government decisions and interventions, PANA learned from official sources in Port-Louis. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - At the G20 summit in the southeastern city of Hangzhou in China, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday welcomed the conference's focus on sustainable development and climate change, urging all countries to take early action on them. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - US Special Envoy for Climate Change, Dr. Jonathan Pershing, on Sunday begins a five-day mission to Senegal, Nigeria, and South Africa, to hold talks with their leaders on climate change, says a statement from the US State Department. Full text...

Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) - Ratification of the Paris Climate Change Agreement by China and the United States – the world’s top two emitters of greenhouse gases – has brought its rapid entry into force a big step closer, the UN Climate Chief said Saturday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The US and China on Saturday demonstrated their continued, shared commitment to climate leadership when, on the margins of the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Hangzhou, China, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping, deposited each country’s official instrument to formally join the Paris Agreement reached last December in Paris, France. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday commended US President Barack Obama and China's President Xi Jinping for their countries formally joining the Paris Agreement on climate change. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - International wildlife charity, Born Free Foundation, has described the transcontinental figures released Thursday on savannah elephants as “profoundly sobering”. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday stressed the need for an early entry into force of the global treaty that bans nuclear explosions on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, underwater and underground, describing the treaty as a "low-hanging fruit". Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – The new head of the United Nations environment agency on Wednesday laid out key issues facing the international community on environmental issues, including pollution as well as the linkages among the environment, wars and conflicts, and migration. Full text...

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) – Botswana’s Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) has allayed fears that residents from the capital Gaborone are drinking unsafe water. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - As the World Water Week kicks off, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has highlighted that the opportunity cost from a lack of access to water disproportionately falls on women and girls who collectively spend as much as 200 million hours or more than 22,800 years every day collecting this vital resource. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has welcomed the establishment by US President Barack Obama of the largest nature reserve in the world, done through expanding a marine reserve in the state of Hawaii. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the illegal dumping of toxic waste in Cote d’Ivoire, a group of UN experts on Wednesday urged the Ivorian government, and the international community to use the opportunity to address the ongoing human rights impacts of the incident. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has warned that wildfires could become more frequent and more destructive as global temperatures rise and drought conditions plague many regions of the world. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday urged rich countries to take urgent steps toward saving Lake Chad from extinction due to the effects of climate change. Full text...

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Twelve days after six police officers survived a helicopter crash in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), international rights body has revealed the police mission on the incident. Full text...

Port-Louis, Mauritius (PANA) - Some 30 participants from the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) member states and Eastern African countries are attending a five-day regional training workshop on "Communicating Scientific Information to Policy Makers" in Mauritius whose objective is to improve decision making and the development of policies based on the scientific data, products and bulletins that are generated under the Monitoring for Environment and Security in Africa (MESA)-Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) project. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) on Monday issued an alert of possible flooding in 11 of the country's 36 States between August and November. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) - Following intense rainfall and rising water level of the River Niger in Burkina Faso and Niger Republic, the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Saturday advised communities along the river to evacuate immediately to safer ground over the likelihood of floods that may occur at any moment. Full text...

Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Sudan on Thursday said torrential rains and floods have killed over 70 people and left thousands without shelter, the worst hit states being North Darfur in the far West and Kasala, near the borders with Ethiopia and Eritrea. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) - A UN-backed report launched on Wednesday is exploring different ways the international treaty governing the inscription of world heritage sites may one day apply to sunken coral islands, floating rain forests, or giant undersea volcanoes, none of which can be considered for listing because they are in the seas outside of any national jurisdiction. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Scientists estimate that 25,000 elephants are killed each year for their ivory, The Nature Conservancy, an organization working with other stakeholders in stopping the killing of elephants says ahead of the World Elephant Day on 12 August. Full text...

Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - In response to the severe drought affecting nearly 23 million people in Southern Africa, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said Tuesday it intends to introduce cross-border warehousing systems under its newly established humanitarian assistance. Full text...